Mistake Monday - Body Language

by Jean Mercedes on December 3rd, 2007

Studies indicate that 60% of communication is nonverbal. To put it another way, body language communicates more (and often subconsciously) than our words. Unfortunately, we often forget that very little body language is universal.

The following gaffe is a classic body language disconnect: A manager from the US is visiting the offshore development team in Bulgaria. During a review of the specification, the manager asks one of the highly skilled developers if the requirements are clear. The Bulgarian answers “yes” while shaking his head. The manager repeats the explanation of the requirement and asks “do you understand?”. Once again, the answer is affirmative but is accompanied with head shaking. The meeting progresses until all points have been covered, but the manager ends the day wondering if she has been understood.

Nodding the head to mean “yes” is not a universal gesture. Besides Bulgaria, parts of Greece, ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran and Bengal have opposite meanings for nodding and shaking the head. If someone is verbally telling you “yes” but at the same time their body language is telling you “no”, it is very difficult to overcome these contradictory signals and understand the message.

Here are a few links for some country-specific body language interpretations:

Brazilian Body Language

French Gestures

Chinese Nonverbal Communication

Italian Hand Gestures