You’ve probably heard before that something like 90 plus percent of communication is nonverbal. Over 50 percent is body language and nearly 40 percent is tone of voice. I don’t know if this is true; or the science behind how they figured it out, but I believe it.
I recently heard author Robert Greene talking about nonverbal communication. He says it goes back hundreds of thousands of years in our evolutionary history. Back to a time before language was invented. Our ancestors relied on nonverbal communication to cooperate. If a fellow citizen had fear in their eyes, then we knew to be afraid. Perhaps there was a leopard hiding in the bushes about to pounce? Reading body language was paramount to our survival as a species.
That’s all good you say. Just cut to the chase and tell me how I can master nonverbal communication!
Watch TV on mute. That’s it.
I realized the power of this concept while watching my favorite foreign television shows: Detective Montalbano (Italian) and Tatort: Scene of the Crime (German). Not speaking Italian or German, I was forced to keep up with the shows by watching the actors body language. Yes, there are subtitles, but they lack the context and emotion portrayed by the actors body language.
I was in effect, learning how to read nonverbal communication without even realizing it. Try it. You’ll be surprised by how much you can pick up.