Let's talk about body language. Body language is definitely part of your message. If you remember, earlier in the course, we talked about the fact that only 7% of the message actually comes from the words. Body language plays a part in your message delivery as well. And while a lot of times you may be on conference calls and things delivering communication, you will also be delivering communication person. Nobody truly operates only via conference calls, right?

Even if the business partners and people that you're working with or in other locations, you're going to have team members, you're going to have executives, managers, different people that you are dealing with in person. So body language applies to all situations where you're having in person communication. Body language is really a very subjective area of communication because different people will take things different ways, right? And it's a little bit more difficult to say, hey, you should always do this or you should always do that because sometimes certain types of body language mean one thing in one culture and something else in another culture. So you've got to be able to read other people, and how they're receiving the message that you're sending as well. However, there are some common interpretations of body language and we're going to go ahead and take a look at those.

So some positive gestures are things like nodding head, stroking chin, counting things off on your fingers, leaning forward, your arms being in an open position and smiling. So when you're nodding your head, it says to the person I see or I understand, stroking your chin can mean that you are seriously considering what the other person is saying, counting things off on your fingers can show confidence and that you're being logical. Leaning forward can show intensity and interest. However, I also want to say don't lean forward too far, you don't want to get in the other person's personal space, you just want to slightly lean in to show that you are interested in what the person is saying. Having your arms in an open position kind of suggests that you are open to ideas. So you're not being closed minded.

You're listening to what the person is saying. And smiling can sometimes indicate agreement or approval. So one of the things you actually have to be careful about is when you're trying to use positive gestures. If somebody is asking for approval or asking for permission or something along those lines, smiling may not necessarily be the right thing to do at that moment, because you don't want to give the impression that you're giving up approval for something. So that's just something else to keep in mind about the positive gestures. Now let's look at some negative gestures, rolling eyes, that can send a message to the person that you think that what they said was stupid.

Rubbing your eyes, your forehead, your eyebrows can make someone think that you're rejecting what they're saying, or you're suspicious of what they're saying. clearing your throat can indicate nervousness, open palms below the chest level can sometimes indicate hopelessness or a plea to be understood. wagging your finger back and forth is never good, and it usually indicates that you think the other person is wrong. Pointing can show aggressiveness. chewing on your pencil, your pen or some other object can show that you're nervous or that you're uncertain. crossing your arms over your chest can say to the person that you don't agree Or that you're resisting the message that they're sending deep sighing can mean impatience or boredom, or that you're just not happy, quite frankly, what the person is saying, When somebody says something to you and you go, then it really does send a negative message.

So you want to make sure that you're not doing that. And then smirking can indicate that you feel like you are superior to the person. So you want to make sure that you're paying attention to your facial features as well. The body language thing is really, you know, the last point I want to make on that is it really is very subjective and you've got to look at the other person's body language too. And try to make sure that they're not reading your language incorrectly. So be really careful about the gestures that you're using when you are in a in person communication type of setting.