Nonverbal Communication in Leadership: The Power of Silent Signals
Nonverbal Communication in Leadership: The Power of Silent Signals
8 MIN READ
Much of a leader’s success depends on their communication skills. Effective correspondence motivates teams, helps overcome obstacles and is essential for achieving positive results. However, quality communication relies on nonverbal cues to interpret meaning and shape impressions.
Nonverbal communication includes any signals between people other than words, such as body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. This guide will help you improve your understanding of nonverbal communication signals for effective leadership.
Nonverbal Communication Body Language for Leaders
Many of the most impactful nonverbal cues are body postures and gestures. Most of us know how to read body language better than we realize, even if we’re doing so subconsciously, and we do it all the time. As a leader, your body language is always sending signals to your team.
Learning about body language in communication helps you take ownership of these cues to convey confidence and inspire those around you. Important body language cues for leaders to know include:
Sitting and standing: While standing is appropriate for in-person introductions and passing encounters, sitting down for a conversation with a team member conveys attentiveness and may enhance their satisfaction and impression of your willingness to spend time with them.
Open gestures: Keeping your palms and arms open as you move, combined with a slight forward lean, signals that you are confident and powerful but also likable and warm. Pull your shoulders back and lift your head high to complement these open nonverbal cues. On the other hand, closed postures can signal anxiety or coldness.
Handshakes: As a leader, it’s appropriate for you to initiate handshakes with your team in most interactions. When you do so, keep your hand perpendicular to the floor and give a firm shake. Avoid overly dominating gestures like turning your palm to face downward or squeezing your hand to the point of discomfort. Make eye contact, smile and keep your body posture open while shaking.
If you’re in a virtual setting, body language etiquette applies to the following:
Cameras: Always have your camera on when you’re presenting in group sessions. Some companies encourage a camera-on culture for everyone in virtual meetings, as this shows engagement. In one-on-one calls, having your camera on throughout is more personable.
Eye contact: When your camera is on, make eye contact with it as if it were your conversation partner. That will keep your eyes looking forward on-screen, creating the impression that you’re looking at the other participants’ faces. Briefly break eye contact with the camera at natural intervals, but avoid appearing nervous or bored by looking around too much.
Engagement: In virtual sessions, present yourself as focused and attentive. Avoid multitasking during meetings. If you need to get up when someone else is speaking in a large group call, it’s best to turn your camera off briefly rather than moving around on camera and distracting others.
Remember that eye contact, use of space and gestures have different implications across cultures. When interacting with team members from cultures other than yours, aim to be sensitive to these differences in nonverbal communication and body language.
Facial Expressions in Nonverbal Leadership Communication
One of the reasons we naturally focus on each other’s faces in a conversation is that facial expressions play a major role in conveying emotion. For leaders, it’s important for your facial expressions to reinforce the verbal messages you are sending your team. If these aspects of your communication seem to contradict each other, team members may doubt your sincerity or struggle to feel the motivational weight of your statements.
Whether you want to communicate your own emotions to your team or understand what they are feeling, these guidelines apply in most cases:
Eyes: Maintain eye contact around 50% of the time when speaking and 70% of the time when listening. Briefly break eye contact every four to five seconds to avoid staring.
Mouth: Throughout most conversations, maintain a relaxed smile to convey warmth and enjoyment of the interaction. Avoid pursed lips, which convey disapproval or distrust.
Emotions: Worldwide, most people use similar expressions to convey happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Practice reading these emotions on other people and be aware of whether your own expressions support the emotions your words are conveying. For example, if you are discussing positive takeaways from a recent challenge, ensure you aren’t furrowing your eyebrows. This could signal anger or distaste rather than optimism.
Tone of Voice Considerations for Leaders
In developing your non-verbal communication, pay attention to tone of voice. An appropriate tone supports understanding and agreement, while an inappropriate tone can make your words imply the opposite of your intended meaning. Like your gestures and facial expressions, your tone should reinforce the message you want your words to convey.
It’s almost always best to avoid sarcasm in business contexts, as it can easily lead to offense or misunderstanding. It’s helpful to use upward and downward inflections to clarify meaning and convey enthusiasm, curiosity or confidence. But be cautious of exaggerating inflections, which can create the impression that you mean the opposite of what you’re saying.
In general, aim for a clear and confident tone and volume without resorting to shouting. Being too quiet makes understanding difficult and conveys a lack of self-assurance while being too loud suggests an arrogant or aggressive presence. Modulate your pitch and volume to maintain interest and emphasize key points.
As a leader, you want to practice creating two impressions with your tone. First, you want to sound approachable and empathetic. Second, you want to sound strong and assertive. In most work situations, you’ll need to strike a balance between both these effects. But depending on the situation, you may need to shift further toward one end of this spectrum or the other. For example, your tone in a disciplinary hearing will be much firmer, while you want to sound much more approachable when welcoming a new hire.
Benefits of Effective Nonverbal Communication in Leadership
Even with a solid understanding of nonverbal communication in leadership, becoming a more effective communicator takes intentional practice. Consider this practice a worthwhile investment, as it can yield improvements in:
Trust and credibility: When your nonverbal cues align with your verbal message, your team will likely trust your sincerity and take you seriously.
Understanding: Being intentional with your nonverbal communication helps others get your message the first time and reduces the risk of misinterpretation.
Leading by example: As you model effective nonverbal communication, team members may learn from your modeling, improving their interactions with each other.
Engagement and motivation: Effective use of tone and gesture can inspire and motivate your team to act on your message.
Morale and satisfaction: Attentive nonverbal communication helps improve everyone’s mood, letting them know they work in a positive environment.
Productivity: Miscommunications lead to wasted time and effort, translating to wasted money. The costs of inefficient communication for U.S. businesses amount to around $1.2 trillion annually. Improving nonverbal communication improves first-time comprehension, leading to faster action that saves time and money.
Approachability: As your nonverbal communication conveys empathy with your team, they’ll feel more comfortable opening up to you about their ideas, hopes and concerns. These insights can help you improve retention and productivity.
Inclusivity: Warm nonverbal communication can make people from diverse backgrounds feel welcome in your team, especially if you learn about their distinct communication styles and approach differences with sensitivity.
Respect for authority: Projecting confidence through nonverbal communication can reinforce your position of authority. This helps maintain the respect for leadership necessary in a functional team dynamic.
Conflict resolution and negotiation: Intentional nonverbal communication helps manage situations where you must balance different parties’ interests, such as conflict resolutions and negotiations. Nonverbal cues are vital for striking the right balance between empathy and assertiveness in these circumstances.
Enhance Your Communication With The Center for Leadership Studies
Effective verbal and nonverbal communication strategies help leaders bring the best out of themselves and their teams. At The Center for Leadership Studies (CLS), we provide communication training for leaders looking to build trust, increase productivity and enhance engagement.
To develop communication skills that inspire team success, explore our Communicating Effectively course. This course will give you a three-phase strategy to enhance collaboration, support understanding and optimize performance.
