Page 15 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

4 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Nonverbal Matters

For decades, people in popular culture have repeated the belief that non-
verbal communication is 12.5 times more powerful than verbal communi-
cation. This belief rests in the psychological research of Albert Mehrabian.
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Without getting into a complicated debate over research methods, let’s
just say that popular culture may have applied Mehrabian’s research a bit
too broadly. However, we agree with the conventional wisdom that non-
verbal communication is important. The best business communicators
understand that reading and sending nonverbal communication is an art
that can be practiced to advantage in dealing with others.
Let’s return to Starbucks and our barista example from before. We
established previously that part of the barista’s “good morning” greeting
was sending you relational message information. Much of that informa-
tion being communicated by our barista is nonverbal (see rule 4). Exam-
ples of this nonverbal communication include his smile, the warmth of
the expression in his eyes, the openness in his body language, or perhaps
the slight inclination of his head toward you.
We’re spending time refreshing your memory about nonverbal com-
munication because too frequently in business communication we forget
that business is not entirely rational. Our organizations are filled with
people, people who have emotions. For example, one of us once had a
friend who complained that although he and his supervisor shared a cubi-
cle, the supervisor would communicate even simple messages by email.
In this case, the supervisor’s content was reaching its intended recipient.
To the friend, however, the message really being sent was “I don’t like
you enough to turn around and speak to you.” Was that the supervisor’s
intent? Maybe not, but when we don’t pay attention to both the content
and relational meanings of our messages, our communication effective-
ness declines. Great communicators do the hard work of making sure that
they attend to both meanings.

Nonverbal Communication Complements
Verbal Messages

Your nonverbal communication should complement or reinforce your ver-
bal messages. Effective business communicators understand this principle