The much quoted and much misrepresented findings of Albert Mehrabian - that communication is made up of 55% Body Language, 38% Voice Tone, and as little as 7% content - has been bubbling around my consciousness for over 20 years now.
When I first came across it I was astonished by the assertion (never actually made by Prof Mehrabian himself) that the content – the actual words that you use – only made up about 7% of your message when speaking. Of course, this is not true. I often make the point that, in actual fact, it is to do with the congruency of your words, body language and voice tone to each other. It is the lyrics, music and dance - if you will - all working in concert to make up your (hopefully impactful) message.
I work a great deal with clients on personal impact and presence. We work together on things like confident and effective hand gestures, vocal projection, and standing like a person who “deserves to breathe the air”.I am more and more struck that if your body language and voice tone is congruent with your words it becomes ’invisible’ to your audience. They won’t even be thinking about it. So we need to work on our technical body language and vocal tone to make it invisible.
All we need to do is get out of the way of ourselves!
When I think about great communicators I often hear myself saying “Ah yes! But they are the exception that proves the rule”. In other words, someone like Steve Jobs contradicts quite a lot of the received wisdom around presentation skills, his body language rarely settles into a grounded stance, for instance – and yet he is remembered as one of the all time great presenters (he also did some techy stuff I believe).So what is going on? The truth is that his body language, voice tone and content are all congruently reinforcing the message that he is a credible, passionate, off-the-wall, sometimes quirky - and definitely innovative - thinker. As a casual viewer I am carried away on the waves of the impression he makes.I am making positive judgements and assumptions about him – without analysing how he is technically communicating. Because the technical skill is congruent with the message it has become ‘invisible’.
If your body and voice are congruent with your message – they become invisible.So great verbal communication is not just about standing tall and speaking loudly. It is about all elements being congruent to support your message.
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