Verbal and non-verbal communication

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From the course by University of London

Professional Skills for International Business

360 ratings

University of London

Professional Skills for International Business

360 ratings

Course 1 of 6 in the Specialization International Business Essentials

This course provides insight into the key professional skills needed by managers at all levels of an organisation. You’ll learn key skills such as how to make a positive first impression; how to become a role model at work; effective time and resource management; and networking. This course forms part of a specialisation from the University of London designed to help you develop and build the essential business, academic, and cultural skills necessary to succeed in international business, or in further study. If completed successfully, your certificate from this specialisation can also be used as part of the application process for the University of London Global MBA programme, particularly for early career applicants. If you would like more information about the Global MBA, please visit https://mba.london.ac.uk/. This course is endorsed by CMI

From the lesson

Creating A Positive First Impression

In week one we will look at workplace relationships and communication, including making a positive first impression, collaborative stakeholder relationships, verbal and non-verbal communication, and how technology can impact on these areas.

Verbal and non-verbal communication6:08

Meet the Instructors

David James
Founder and Director, DJ Learning Ltd
University of London

[MUSIC]

In this video we're going to talk a little bit about verbal and

non-verbal communication.

We've got verbal communication, how we speak, and

non-verbal communication, how we communicate in a different way.

This, of course, will include body language, the gestures that we make,

how we dress, or how we act or even how we smell, our scent.

There's all sorts of different dimensions that come into play

when we talk about verbal and non-verbal communication.

A lot of work has been done around this area as well, because we

have this appetite to understand how we interact with each other,

how we create impressions amongst each other.

And Dr. Mehrabian, who authored Silent Messages,

had done a number of pieces of research about just this type of area.

And with his research he discovered that the way in which we communicate

is broken down into several key component parts.

His findings indicated that 7% of the way in which we communicate is done verbally.

Which means 93% of the way in which we communicate is done non-verbally.

So what does that tell us?

The importance of non-verbal communication when we are communicating with each other.

And of that 93%, 55%, according to this research,

was made up of body language and the rest, so 38%, was made up by tone of voice.

Now, we need to be quite practical when we look at figures like this because

are those percentages linear?

Of course they're not.

They're based on two pieces of research that were carried out, and

they were the results that were drawn from them.

Thematically, however, we can learn something from that research.

And we can learn the proportion of verbal to non-verbal communication.

Now, what does that tell us?

That tells us in terms of the way that we communicate,

our levels of self-awareness really need to be developed.

We need to be very conscious about the way in which we come across.

Verbally, we can have a lot of influence over,

because we're controlling what we say, most of the time at any rate.

And non-verbally, we do have quite a lot of personal influence and

control over what we do.

Because, for example, tone of voice, we are responsible for that.

So we can influence whether we want to sound excitable,

whether we want to sound really bored, whether we want to sound enthusiastic or

whether we just don't want to say anything.

We control that.

Where it can become a little bit more challenging is when we look at our

body language.

This is something that we all, so all of us,

the whole human race are constantly learning about.

Because a non-verbal communication can be, at a fairly simplistic level,

the sorts of things you may well have come across.

The way you shake somebody's hand.

The way you sit.

The way you look.

The way you fold your arms.

The way you move your arms about.

There's all sorts of fundamentals that have been well available for

a long, long time.

We need to, each of us, stop and think about how we come across.

Really good way of doing that, for example, is if you've attended a meeting.

If you've attended a social event, if you've just had a one to one

with your boss, Whatever the circumstances we can all seek to learn.

So pause and reflect about how you felt you came across verbally and non-verbally.

Really stop to think of it and you know what, perhaps I shouldn't have sounded so

angry when I wanted to make my point across to demonstrate my frustration.

Or you might say, you know, perhaps not everybody is quite as enthusiastic

as I am, see, get on to their level.

Really think about how you communicated verbally and

non-verbally but another way is to invite feedback.

Reason why that is so important is how you think you came across, might be one thing,

but actually how you've been received, may well have some consistencies,

but it might be completely different to what you anticipated.

So if you've been in that meeting, if you've had that one to one.

If you've been in a group gathering or a discussion,

pick your moment and ask for feedback and just to see how you came across.

Make sure that you ask people who will give you honest, really focused,

and example based feedback, because that can be really helpful.

And then what you do then, you compare with what these third parties have

said to you, against what your own reflections are.

And we can consistently learn, we can consistently become more

aware about the way that we communicate with each other.

[MUSIC]

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