Non-verbal communication skills allow the successful sending and receiving of information via body movement, posture, facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact.
Communication is usually through words that are written or spoken but non-verbal communication, is considered to carry much more meaning than words alone.
A person’s mood, attitude, and feelings affect their body movement and facial expressions. When non-verbal communication skills are used to effectively by a communicator, they can present a trustworthy, confident, and capable demeanor.
Non-verbal communication awareness can also provide the communicator with the opportunity to address the feelings of others that are not expressed verbally.
Just watching the gestures or expressions of the message recipient cannot provide a complete understanding of the issues that is non-verbal cues are expressing.
These cues are only an indicator of the feelings and intent of the message recipient.
For example, when a stakeholder’s non-verbal communication does not agree with their verbal message, the business analyst may want to follow up with that stakeholder to discover the source of this disagreement.
There are some measures of effective non-verbal communication which include:
- An awareness of other people’s body language, but not assuming a complete understanding through non-verbal communication.
- Increased trust and communication with the stakeholders as a result of effective non-verbal communication.
- Effectively discussing and resolving situations that may arise when a stakeholder’s nonverbal communication does not agree with their verbal message.