Nonverbal Communication

1423 Words3 Pages

We all communicate at work; it is done for many reasons: sales, colleague to colleague, to build friendships, to persuade someone, to lead or teach, and more. Edward G. Wertheim, Ph.D. says “People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in interpersonal situations” (Wertheim P. 1). Communication in the workplace is essential and occurs every day; everyone is capable of communicating and we all do, but that doesn’t mean we are effective communicators. I am going to focus on the importance of becoming a more effective communicator in the workplace through nonverbal communication. Kory Floyd suggests that we often relay more information through nonverbal communication, than we do by using words alone (Floyd p. 211). With evidence from Floyd suggesting that our nonverbal communication is going to convey the majority of our intended message, it is important that we understand what our nonverbal behavior is saying to others and learn how it can be used to our advantage. I am excited to explore how we can use nonverbal behavior to our advantage in the workplace.

Although many probably think of hand gestures and facial expressions when they hear the word nonverbal, there is much more to it than that. Edward G. Wertheim, Ph.D., explains that nonverbal communication consists of 4 parts: visual, tactile, vocal and use of time, space and image (p. 2). I am going to focus on the visual part of nonverbal communication. The clothing that we wear, our hair style, and the way we present ourselves in the workplace can have great influence over others’ perception of us. Depending on the nature of your business or line of work this can all vary in importance, for example: if you work in a call center it is probably not important to...

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