ArticleBlog | Stand and deliver: skills for effective communication body language
Stand and deliver: skills for effective communication body language
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 03.12.14
In your mind there is a brilliant message, ready and waiting to transform the world. It is profound, insightful and cleverly structured. You might even go as far as to say you felt a touch of divine inspiration as you worked on it.
S unday arrives. You walk to the front, grip the podium like a lifebuoy and try to remember not to do that thing where you jab your finger like the war recruitment poster. It seems to be going well. But at the door at the end of the service, you wonder why people are trying to sidle past you without shaking your hand. One lady seems to flinch when you catch her eye. There is a muscle complaining in your right shoulder.
The truth is, while your words conveyed grace and compassion, your body was shouting judgement. You looked angry, and your congregation now feels jumpy around you.
Research indicates that body language accounts for 50–70% of communication. Robert Phipps, one of the UK’s best known body language experts, says ‘Whether we like it or not, we all respond to non-verbal messages
