Business Nonverbal Communication
Published by communicationtype, on May 10 2010, in the categories: business communication
These distances are not fixed and may vary due to cultural norms or other causes. Cultural differences play an important role regarding the personal distance. Japanese people, for example, feel comfortable keeping a short distance from the person speaking to them, while cloud-Europeans and North Americans need some more space. Latin Americans and southern Europeans are also quite close to people who maintain a conversation.
Interlocutors' status is one of the variables that may increase or decrease in personal distances. It was noted that people who have social power tend to set their own level of distance that allows them to interact with others. Those who have equal status usually keep a smaller distance between them than people who own mixed status. And when status is unequal, people who have a higher status can more closely approach to those of lower status than would otherwise happen in the reverse situation. As the physical space where we are is larger, the more we tend to decrease the interpersonal distance. In addition, the topic around which interaction takes place may generate variations in the space of interaction: we can talk about personal problems or we can share secrets, keep a distance lower than when we talk about general issues or when we have formal discussions. So pay attention to space around you, because it can communicate something about you and your personality along with other nonverbal elements!
Did you know that people can produce about 700,000 different physical signals? But the human face is capable of producing 250,000 of expression? But the facial muscles produce about 20,000 facial expressions? As we discuss in the preceding article, facial expressions are some of the components of body language and now it’s time to find out more about them because the gestures are very important in business nonverbal communication.
There are many specialists who have dedicated a good part of their life in studying human physiognomy, convinced that facial features speaks volumes about the character of each person. Aristotle said that "man has the richest mimic from area of all beings" and nothing can not be truer since the human face is composed of 80 large and small muscles in various combination types fail to express an unlimited number of expressions. Ruck Horst describes very thoroughly the mimics in his book "Body language for managers" (Published by Engineering, 1999, an manuscript which should not miss from any library of managers) and teaches that each half of the face, that body is controlled by the opposite cerebral hemisphere. Thus, the left hemisphere controls the right half of the body and face, specializing in logic, while right hemisphere turns left face and body and is responsible for establishing contacts with the environment around us.
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