Did you know that almost 90 percent of our communication contains nonverbal elements? If so, I am sure you wonder why the spoken language was invented as long as we use more the nonverbal communication, whether it is about business life or everyday life.



How does nonverbal communication help us? Body language helps us to make a good first impression during a job interview, to run our business successfully , to keep a successful presentation through the captivation of the audience’s attention using nonverbal messages, etc. How? Maybe because we have nonverbally emanated exactly that self-confidence that the potential business partners were searching on us; but the body signal that we can send, can be multiple. You know for sure that body language is the reason for what a face to face selling is more advantageous than selling something through telephone, where we use only 40% of the full communication potential that we have.



Whenever we communicate with others, we react to what is said, heard or to what is seen, but in fact, beside these, there is something else which is important, something that does not have our attention: the language of our body which can communicate as much as 1000 words can.

Along to the well-known aspects of the nonverbal language, I noted few extra below.

The language of silence

Knowing when to shut up should be a human quality, valued from ancient times. Even through silence, people communicate something: approval, disapproval, discretion, reason, keep a mystery, admiration, etc.

A manager appeals to silence as a means of nonverbal communication because:

- disapprove certain views and does not want to argue;
- he thinks that there are some facts, situations, on which is better to let silence fall;
- he does not want to disclose a secret service, a mystery;
- he does not want to harm anyone;
- he appreciate that time can solve a delicate situation;
- he thinks that if he will speak, he will have enemies.

On the other hand, using carefully the silence on key moments (in other words preparing us for listening) we can encourage the speaker to continue or to express his feelings and attitudes that, undoubtedly, he would not have otherwise. Silence is, thus, a powerful tool of communication but it has to be used with skill.

The language of colors

Colors influence the communication. It highlights human attitude towards life and towards others. The color of the clothes used by the manager is telling us few things about him.



Colors and their significance:
Red – sentimental man
Pink – he likes to love, to be loved and to take care of others
Orange – he is good organized and determined to realize the plan that he has
Yellow – he wants to discuss
Green – he likes the change
Blue – he is inventive
Navy – he likes to be the boss and to give orders
Black – he knows what he has to do

The significance of the colors may be different in other cultures. For example: while the black is the color of sorrow in Europe, in China and Japan, white means sadness.

Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) favors communication and the cold ones (gray, green, blue) inhibits the communication. Communication is taking place hardly in case of monotony or a variety of colors.

Finally, everyone is adapting their nonverbal language to his lifestyle.