I am confident that most of you have worked on honing your verbal and written communication skills extensively throughout your leadership journey. What I want you to consider is how much time you have spent considering the impact your body language has on your performance and outcomes.

To me, communication means more than just speaking and listening. It means knowing when to speak and listen, and it also means understanding the messages you send through nonverbal communication. Body language is just as critical to your communication as speaking, writing, or listening, and leaders who use their body language wisely can reap the benefits of a much more engaged and productive relationships and workforce.

Some Facts About Body Language and Leadership:

• Research has shown that 80-90 percent of a message’s meaning comes from the nonverbal aspect. More conservative estimates say body language accounts for 60% of a message’s meaning. Regardless, your body language is probably saying more than your words!
• Body language includes your facial expressions as well as your gestures and postures.
• Most cultures use similar facial expressions, but each culture seems to have its own set of body-language cues and gestures. This is important to understand if you work with a diverse group of individuals.
• Body language and emotional intelligence are closely related. Those who are more emotionally intelligent read nonverbal cues better and they show more awareness of their own body language tendencies.
• Most body language is conveyed unconsciously — if you aren’t sure what your body language is saying, you are not alone. But you can always leverage self-awareness to improve your ability to communicate through body language.
• Effective leaders align their body language with their other communications abilities. The things they say are reinforced — not contradicted — by the things they convey through body language.

Are You Aware of What Your Body Language Is Saying?

If you want to refine your body language to become a more effective communicator and leader, it starts with your level of self-awareness. Take time to pay attention to the way you stand and the gestures you make with your hands and arms. Try to notice how you treat the personal space of others. Are you making them uncomfortable by occupying their zone, or are you allowing them the space they need to perform and communicate well?

I would also recommend paying attention to what your face and body do while you’re speaking or listening to others. Are you showing engagement by nodding, smiling, and using more open gestures? Or are you confusing others with a lack of expression or gestures that convey an uninterested or an unpresent mind?

With increased self-awareness and asking for feedback you can curb bad habits and incorporate more productive ones that will make you a better communicator and leader.

Posturing, Intimidation, and Bad Body Language

Some leaders are so magnetic and charismatic with their body language that they draw attention and command respect regardless of their actual leadership abilities.

We all know someone who can command a room and draw in everyone’s attention. They exude authority and they have a way of making people stop to listen whenever they are present – even if what they say may not resonate with others.

These types of leaders (or lack thereof) rely heavily on body language, although many of them may not even realize it. They tend to smile less often than others, interrupt people, stalk around the room in an aggressive manner, and use confident gestures like “steepling” their fingers, crossing their arms, or putting their hands on their hips in a wide stance making themselves seem “bigger”.

Or they show a complete lack of respect for others by failing to make eye contact when people are speaking to them. They use handshakes as opportunities to display one-upmanship. Sometimes they use a lack of any discernible body language as a weapon — I’m sure you’ve been around leaders whose stillness and complete lack of nonverbal communication skills has made you feel uncomfortable as well as unheard.

A leader’s body language should never be used to intimidate or to make others feel small. Unfortunately, for some, becoming more effective with body language means treating communication as a game where an arsenal of power poses is preferred over the ability to truly connect with others. I caution you to avoid approaching body language in this way. You can find numerous guides online that will show you the “right” poses and gestures to use if you want to boost your leadership ability. But all these guides will do is make you an expert at power posturing — and that is not leadership. Not even close.

Leadership requires connection with others and an ability to use your communication skills for the betterment of your team, your organization and — hopefully — your community and the world around you.

Balanced Communication for Effective Leadership

As a leader, one of your primary goals should be to practice effective, balanced, and aligned communication. You need to say what you mean and mean what you say. But you should also ensure that the messages you send through verbal (spoken and written) and nonverbal communication are consistent and in alignment with each other. Additionally, you should put just as much effort into listening as you do conveying the right messages.

Through the practice of self-awareness and time spent developing your emotional intelligence, you can improve your communication skills — including body language — tremendously.

What Do You Think?

What are your thoughts about the importance of body language for effective leadership? Have you had to change the ways in which you engage in nonverbal communication as a leader? Have you noticed leaders using body language effectively (or ineffectively)? What did that look like?

I would love to hear from you and continue the conversation on this important topic, so please send me an email!

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