Month: February 2022

Even a normal common place conversation has an agenda, often without our consciously knowing it. Thus when you talk and share ideas with others, you may want to persuade them or influence them to your own personal way of thinking. It is possible that you want them to join any of your society or any group or it may be that you want them to change their own view point on any particular topic.

Whether we realize or not, everyone is engaged in persuading other people. The entire advertising industry depends on the single objective of persuasion. Often times it is done in a very subtle way while at certain other times, there, might be a logical reason and a direct talk.

There was a very popular book, a few decades ago named, ‘The Hidden Pervades.’ Now let us examine an advertisement on a television screen. You may find a celebrity, a hero, or a heroine using a particular product of daily use. Thus if a person of your liking uses a particular brand of soap, you may feel a good reason for trying it yourself. Likewise, such examples are found in abundance in any category of advertising. The social media today, breeds a set of a lot of influencers. These influencers try to influence their own community with various posts where they project their own opinion. Persuasion may be seen sometimes as unethical or sometimes may be felt to be sometimes manipulative. Sometimes it is so felt, as a result of this unethical action to persuade, managers may cross the course of ethical business.

There are four fundamental principles that are identified by experts in this particular aspect of communication. These are listed below:

1. You need to recognize that persuasion is an act of communication. It is an exchange of ideas and thus it is a two way process.
2. Unless coercion or manipulation, it is to be recognized as a conscious act which respects the autonomy of everyone.
3. You need to recognize and acknowledge that besides a particular outcome of persuasion, there is a certain change in attitude, particularly of the persuade.
4. You need to be conscious of the fact that the roles of the persuader and the persuade are not mutually exclusive. The conversion or the discussion might lead to a change of attitude of all the participants involved in the particular discussion.

Body Language is a strong means of communication. So therefore we need to spend time to learn it. But we do not have to stop there. In fact later learning the nitty gritties of body language, we must know how to use to develop our influence and achieve our success.  There are a number of important steps that we must for improving our body language.

1. We need to be body conscious. It does not mean that we become self conscious, but it does not mean that we all the time remain self aware about how you are using body language to enhance your body personality and augment your own self esteem.

•  Using a mirror in the privacy of your own homes, may be the starting point to understand how you look when you are both angry or happy. Your body will also help you to understand how you feel at a particular moment, when you start listen to what your body language is saying. Therefore it will be worth in spending some time to practice the various facets and moods of your body  language. You must also realize that positive body language brings certain positivity in your mind. Therefore also we should practice to maintain a growth oriented , enthusiastic and optimistic body language.

• We need to have the pursuit of knowledge. We all understand that books are our best teachers.  These are our best friends because we can refer to them as and when necessary. Mastering and using all the beneficial information, that you darw form the books should not be considered your task, it should be your recreation and one of the habits that you love to do. Try to remain relaxed, instead of developing any self-consciousness, but the elegance must come out form your relaxed and calmed demeanor. You must practice poise for it is your best friend when you stay in a society. You must ensure that your body language is always in sync with your words. In this manner, your words will become even more powerful, influential as well as positive.

Along with the above points, you must keep in mind the following:

1. Stop touching your face persistently as that shows that you are anxious.
2. Sit up and stand with a straight back but you must have an open posture.  This will tell people that you are relaxed as well as confident.
3. When you are talking to somebody you must direct the most positive gestures towards the listeners.
4. Whatever may happen, you must stay calm, free and open.
5. You must have practiced, because if we have to improve to many things at one time,  nothing will change at all. A protocol of one step at a time, but with all seriousness will be far more  useful will make changes that will improve your body, rather than by taking some big steps.

When you convert your personal views into a gaze, it is worth remembering that sometimes, making a small difference in any one’s life in any aspect can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of its use.  

Blog is curated by Vikram Kakri.

Facial expressions are critical in meetings whether it is one to one or in a group. After the pandemic because personal meetings have substantially reduced, the amount of virtual meetings have become even more important. While using the virtual conferencing platforms, like Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Meets, etc , we can see each other. If we are addressing an audience, we can still have a really fair idea of the body language of people. In such a case it is hard to understand the facial expressions, but the applications are such that when two persons are talking to each other, both come to the center of the virtual meetings hall where they can see each other and understand each other’s facial expressions. In such case the audience can also see the speakers and judge the person’ s facial expressions.

It is important to note that your facial expressions communicate ypur feelings and emotions. Thus you are in a position  to understand what is not said, but what is going inside the mind of the speaker. The muscles around the eyes, forehead, eyebrows, cheeks, jaws and lips make such movements which can easily be identified when you are very careful.

Gaze is another important aspect of body language. The gazing can be done intermittently for a very short duration or it can be for a longer times. People use the gaze technique in a wide variety of ways. Lovers gazes into each other eyes  to express their love. Men express their  dominance with extended gaze. In most cases however your gazing, will be limited by the cultural and social norms of the place that you inhabit.

Using gaze to communicate with those around you in a properly  used pattern of behavior. Even speakers addressing form the stage can use gaze to reassure people that he / she is talking to everybody in the hall. Of course it requires a lot of experience. But it is seen easy way to connect with the audience.

The experience                of touc, much of the warmth and affections that the child receives from the elders is based on expressions of touch. The older people would caress, pat,etc to express there fondmness towards the children. However touch is not limited to that, even the world leaders when they meet each other they express their friendliness and warmth with handshakes, embraces and patting on the shoulders. This can happen when you first meet somebody. But this can also take place during your conversation.

Space is another aspect of communication, which one has to understand clearly. The way you position yourself in the space, when you are meeting important people expresses you desire to meet. Often other times it refers to the confidence to reach out to people.

Posture si not to be undermined. In  fact the elegance that you can portrays, depends largely on your posture. The way you sit, the way you stand, the way you walk, theposture when you  are having a close communication,  or the posture when you are having a formal communication, your posture must be proper. Appearance is the first noticeable thing when you first meet and greet somebody. It states about your personality, your self personality respect or your self esteem and the way you respect others. It talso tells other how careful you are about your clothes, your dress about grooming in general which includes how you smile.   

Blog is written by Vikram.                                  

Most of what we communicate is not limited to speech but body language gives a lot of meaning. Some surveys reveal that as much as  seventy per cent of communication emits from the body language.

Language as we know is an important means of communication, at the cost of repetition we can say that spoken words provide less than thirty per cent of the meaning to the listener. The way the words are spoken provide around fifty per cent of meaning when we include facial expressions, postures, gestures, eye contact, etc. One should focus on body language as well as on the words that one speaks. Understand and communicate with body language is found to be very effective.

Both  body language or non – verbal communication provide the majority of content in many situations. In the current scenario, when virtual conferences and virtual communications are pervading in all lives, we need to focus on our voice, particularly on our emotions which happen to come out much more when we are speaking in person. Of course there are applications where the speaker is able to see the person in which case the facial expressions become extremely important. The technology also provides for some virtual discussions among many people.

However this technology needs to developed further when you use non – verbal communication, you need to overcome the limitations as for example when explaining the shapes or indicating directions. You can definitely however overcome these shortcomings with practice.

Now let us look at the components of Body  Language:

1. Gestures: Now we talk about gestures. When you send a visual signal to someone, the gesture is deliberate as in a wave of recognition. When you scratch your head it shows that you are thinking something. Though at present these gestures can be put to limited use, the time is not for when we will overcome the discussions.

• Emblems: Emblems are deliberate gestures that can have a direct verbal equivalence. Used in a wide range of situations, the emblems will replace gestures for crane drivers, fire fighters and televisions floor managers.

• Illustrators: Next what we can use deliberately as illustrators, these purposes are to illustrate, repeat, complement or underline what has been said. The examples are:

1. Guidelines like pointing, beaconing.
2. Facial Signs like movement up and around.
3. Form or Shape gesture which describe the shape and a space of things.
4. Body actions signs which mimics or replicates body actions.

• Regulators:  Now we talk about regulators that are used in communications. They are used in communication. They are used to show interest in what is being said and also to signal that you you want to say something. Unconscious  gestures are just as important as the conscious counterparts. They are termed as, ‘Leakage Gestures’. As they display or hint at your inner and often hidden feelings, thoughts and emotions. These might occur in-spite of your best efforts to control these emotions.