with customers and co-workers there's a lot of talking involved but there's also

another form of nonverbal communication that's being used just as often body

language body language is the process of communicating through nonverbal signals

it includes things like our posture facial expressions gestures and more the

meanings of these all vary from culture to culture but we instinctively read

body language and interpret it as some expression of moods feelings or

intentions so in Alice's case even before she speaks she may be

communicating all kinds of things to customers for example if her arms are

crossed and she's avoiding eye contact customers may not find her to be very

approachable however Alice could be in a friendly

mood even though her body language suggests otherwise

and this isn't necessarily a conscious choice that she's made this could just

be how she habitually presents herself but if Alice is aware of these habits

she can work on improving her body language changing your habits can be

difficult but if you take time to pause and check in with yourself you can start

to notice them and adjust things to become a better nonverbal communicator

this awareness can also be applied to reading others body language let's say

Alice notices that her coworker is unusually quiet as his body turned away

from her and is slouched over she may pick up that he's upset or that there's

an unspoken issue at hand depending on Alice's relationship with him she may

want to give him some space or ask if anything's wrong being aware of the

various aspects of body language can make all the difference in how people

perceive you and how you perceive them be aware of how you present yourself and

you can say a lot without speaking

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