The whole and its parts

The whole & its parts

The Five Personality Faces of an Effective Communicator

In order to enhance communication, try to observe the following faces of personality, putting them all together you’ll have important clues as to how the person thinks, feels and acts.

  1. The facial expressions used or presented. Often you will use a smile to welcome somebody, this will be a volontary expression. In other cases you will see involuntary expressions which are closely tied to emotions. They will tell you more about the emotional state of the person you observe. Are there a lot of expressions or not?
  2. Gestures are another form of non-verbal communication in which movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body communicate particular messages. These gestures will also communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts if you pay attention to them.
  3. The posture taken refers to a position of the human body and also to a human position. Taken in the context of the person you observe you’ll discover further details. Is it erect, steady, relaxed?
  4. What is being said, meaning the words or language a person is using. The importance is also in the way it is being said as this will tell you more about the preferred perception of the person you are communicating with. Do the words reflect actions, feelings or opinions?
  5. The tone used when saying something. Scientifically said, tone means the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. Beyond this explanation, just try to pay attention to the variation in tone you can notice, depending on the situation and emotions they will vary. Is the tone soft or caring?

Using language, tone, facial expression, gesture and posture you have great tools to a better understanding of the communication you are receiving. With this understanding you’ll also get an insight as to how others do see yourself.

 

[Original publication via frogstalk.com, April 10, 2010]

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