week 3
jerrysorr00
Non_Verbal_Article.pdf
The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Author(s): Mehdi Mokhtari
Leadership and Management in
International Context
Tutor: Dr. Prof. Mikael Lundgren
Examiner:
Dr. Prof. Philippe Daudi
Subject:
Business Administration
Level and semester: Master thesis – Spring 2013
1 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
To those who have good eyesight but who cannot see the whole puzzle…
2 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement ............................................................................ 5
Notifications ..................................................................................... 6
Abstract ............................................................................................. 7
1. Introduction ................................................................................. 8
Introduction to non verbal communication and leadership
Why non verbal communication?
Non verbal … cultural or universal?
Non verbal and leadership: an innovative link
Research question and aim of the thesis
The puzzle of communication
2. Methodology ............................................................................... 15
Choice of the topic and sources of information
Introduction to the methodology related to the structure
Methodological views
Quantitative or qualitative?
3. Literature review ....................................................................... 23
3.1. Emotions and emotional intelligence ........................................... 23
What is an emotion?
Emotions and emotional Intelligence
Reading emotions
Emotions, non verbal communication and leadership
3.2. 93% of the puzzle: The five dimensions of the non verbal
communication ..................................................................................... 28
Presentation
What is the puzzle of non verbal communication made of?
Construction of the model of analysis: step 1
3.3. The peri-verbal dimension: The distance ..................................... 34
Territory
Personal space and contingency
Spatial zones
Territory and ownership
Use of territory to intimidate
Construction of the model of analysis: step 2
3.4. The para-verbal dimension: The tone of the voice ....................... 40
Close your eyes and imagine
I love my company
The leakage hierarchy
The tone of voice within leadership
Construction of the model of analysis: step 3
3 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.5. The infra-verbal dimension: Subliminal information ................... 44
Presentation
Construction of the model of analysis: step 4
3.6. The supra-verbal dimension: Distinctive signals ......................... 46
The cigarette
The glasses
The power of make-up and of glasses for a women
How to choose the briefcase?
Supra-verbal and leadership
Construction of the model of analysis: step 5
3.7. The pre-verbal dimension: The body Language ............................ 50
3.7.1. The hands ............................................................................................................................................ 50
Hands and arm gestures
Handshake
The use of palms, hands and arms
3.7.2. The legs ................................................................................................................................................. 57
The attention stance
Legs apart
Foot-forward
Legs crossed
Arms and legs crossed
The figure four
Figure four leg clamp
When the mind closes, so does the body
3.7.3. The face: the smile ...................................................................................................................... 63
How does it work?
Smiling is contagious
Faking a smile
Three types of fake smiles
Why should you laugh?
Be smiling and not … morose
3.7.4. The posture........................................................................................................................................ 70
Body type
Highness and power
How to look taller?
Taller not always better
Construction of the model of analysis: step 6
3.8. Cultural or universal? ................................................................... 74
The context
Universality of the emotions and display rules
Sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness
Gestures culturally defined
Universal or cultural? Why does it matter for a leadership perspective?
4 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.9. Deceit Signals ................................................................................ 81
Three wise monkeys
The mouth cover
The eye rub
The ear grab
The nose touch
Nudging the arm
Deceit and leadership
Construction of the model of analysis: step 7
3.10. Model of analysis: putting the pieces of the puzzle together .... 86
4. Empirical illustrations and analysis ....................................... 88
4.1. Illustration 1: Clinton and the Lewinsky scandal ........................ 89
4.2. Illustration 2: Bill Gates and the iPad .......................................... 93
4.3. Illustration 3: Ms. Cliton and Mr.Miliband – Press conference .... 96
4.4. Illustration 4: Marissa Mayer – Opening speech ........................ 102
4.5. Illustration 5: Ray Lewis – Inspirational speech ........................ 106
4.6. Illustration 6: The pope Francis – His first speech .................... 110
4.7. Illustrations: Summary ............................................................... 113
5. Conclusion ................................................................................ 114
6. References ................................................................................. 117
7. Illustration Credits .................................................................. 121
7.1. Images (Literature review) .......................................................... 121
7.2. Videos (Empirical illustrations and analysis) ............................. 124
5 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis has been composed with the great help of our dear professors.
Each of them contributed highly to the elaboration of this paper and deserves
my deepest gratitude. My greatest recognition goes to Professor Philippe Daudi
– my examiner and the headmaster of my program “Leadership and
Management in International Context” – for his continuous guidance, advice
and for inspiring me so well.
Additionally, I want to express my appreciation to Professor Mikael Lundgren,
for his great ideas and for his continuous support during the whole elaboration
of this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Björn Bjerke and
Professor MaxMikael Björling for their lectures and constructive feedback
received during the thesis meetings. I also would like to thank – for her
assistance during the year – Therese Johanson.
Besides, I would like to thank my home Unversity: L’université de Mons
Hainaut for allowing me to spend a year abroad. Moreover, I also would like to
thank the university that welcomed me so well and made me feel at home: The
Linnaeus University. Thanks to this opportunity, I have had an incredible
experience which brought me a lot – academically and personally. And last but
not least, I would like to thank my classmates for having such a good time,
inside and outside the classroom.
My last appreciation goes to my family and my friends for their support and
encouragement. Thank you all.
6 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
NOTIFICATIONS
This thesis includes several images. All the references are available in the
end of the thesis, in the section: illustration credit. Moreover, there are some
schemes and some models that were made by myself. Therefore they do not
have references in the text.
7 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
ABSTRACT
Communication is surrounding us. Leaders and followers are not an
exception to that rule. Indeed, leadership actors are communicating with
their co-workers, their boss, their employees, the media, and so forth.
However, in the course of this paper and because of its importance, the focus
on non verbal communication will be adopted. Basically, this form of
communication is everything except the actual words that people pronounce.
Body language, tone of the voice, cultural differences, deceit signals, all
these components of non verbal communication and many others will be
developed. The core of this work will be understanding the main concepts of
non verbal communication and then applying them to leaders’ real life
situations.
This thesis will also, among other things, aim to answer the following
questions: What is the importance of non verbal communication in everyday
life? How are leaders using non verbal communication to give sense? Do they
use deceit signals? What influences the non verbal communication? What is
the emotional intelligence concept? Can the non verbal communication be
extrapolated and be seen as being inter-cultural?
Key words: Communication, non verbal communication, leadership, body
language, deceit signals, culture, tone of the voice, emotional intelligence
8 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction to non verbal communication and leadership
In our modern society, communication is everywhere. When you are at work
or at school, don't you interact with people? On your way there, don't you
see commercials, that can exhibit someone with a special expression and /
or posture? If you are not talking to your spouse because of a fight, do you
think that you still don't communicate, despite the non use of words? All
those small examples are illustrating that communication – in any form – is
surrounding us every day.
In the case of this paper though, the use of the communication – or a
specific part of it – will be connected with leadership. As a matter of fact
communication is essential within the leadership area. It is used both by
leaders and followers to interact and to convey tacit and / or explicit
messages. Furthermore and as it will be discussed all along this thesis,
leadership is a multi communicative activity. Which basically means that
several means of communication will be used in order to convey sense,
meaning. Let me take for example the following image of the well known
leader and president of the United States of America, Barak Obama (2010,
announcement of the end of the Iraq War).
9 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
In this image, one could tell that the leader is not only using words. The
president Obama is actually using his facial expression and his hands and is
also using an object since he is wearing a pin. Moreover behind him, there is
a wide window with no specific visual enforcement. There are also the
presidential flag, the flag of the United States of America and pictures of his
family. Do you think that all these items were placed randomly? I personally
hardly think so. In my opinion, all of what you see in the image conveys a
specific meaning, has a specific aim. Some of these meaning will be
developed in the following chapters.
Why non verbal communication?
I could have written my thesis about communication and leadership.
However, I always have been more fascinated by the non verbal component
in comparison with the verbal one. The gestures, the postures, the
importance of clothing and accessories, the tone of the voice, etc. are indeed
variables that I always wanted to understand better. This desire increased
when I began my first readings about the subject. I actually read astonishing
scientific numbers. In a face-to-face conversation, the communication is
impacted by the tone of the voice (38%), by the body language (55%) and by
the words (7%). The conclusion of this research is that communication is
impacted by the non verbal (93%) way more than the verbal communication
(7%). This study was done by Mehrabian (1972), but more recent studies
seem to agree with this report and uses those numbers as well (Olah, 2011;
James, 2008; Pease and Pease 2006). If you have never considered non
verbal communication, are you still thinking in the same way? I personally
believe that those numbers and the whole thesis could actually bring you a
lot, or at least the envy and the curiosity of understanding better the concept
of non verbal communication. Moreover, if you aim to have a role as a leader,
don't you think that you should have the more impact as possible on your
team or your audience? If you do, I firmly believe that a better understanding
of the non verbal communication would be beneficial, since it represents that
much impact on your interlocutor. That is actually a reason why I am
10 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
writing this thesis and aiming to provide my work which could give a deeper
understanding of some of non verbal communication concept to the reader.
Nevertheless, something bothered me when I did further researches about
the verbal and the non verbal. I looked up for more precise definitions of
“verbal” and I was surprised. Verbal was defined as “spoken rather than
written”. I tried to find some antonym of verbal because I could not believe
that the opposite of verbal was written and I found results even more
stunning. Words such as “written”, “printed” and even “uncommunicative”
came out. Yes, “uncommunicative”! My whole thesis will be based on the
exact opposite of this statement: the opposite of verbal is the most important
regarding communication and is everything except uncommunicative.
In each step of life, non verbal communication is vital. When for instance a
baby is born, the doctor is seeking for non verbal signs such as the color of
the skin and the air breathing process. When people have an important
interview or a master thesis defense, don't they shave and dress properly?
Despite the huge importance of non verbal, and as it is stated in the
paragraph above, I could not find this terminology as being the opposite of
verbal. Moreover, some dictionaries don't even have a definition for non
verbal and when they do, they usually define it as “not using words” or
“communication by using gestures”. I will develop later on what is, according
to scientists, non verbal communication but I can already tell you one thing:
it is not only about gestures. The point I want to share is that there is no
clear consensus on what is verbal and non verbal communication.
Besides, non verbal communication does what words just fail to do:
transmitting meaning and attitude. Imagine if your interlocutor is speaking
to you using the same tone of voice, and without any body movement, would
not it be boring? Furthermore, if someone is telling you by using a monotone
voice and without external signals that the whole building in which you are
is on fire, would you trust him? Even if you choose to deny or ignore the non
verbal communication, you will rely on it when it concerns important
11 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
messages; because when it comes to the words alone, people find it hard to
understand, remember or believe (James, 2008). This statement has actually
a huge impact since it proves somehow that words are not strong enough.
Isn’t it important to keep in mind in a leadership perspective? If you want to
have an impact on your audience, you know now that simple words alone
will not be enough.
Non verbal … cultural or universal?
One central assumption will be done and applied to the whole work: non
verbal communication is partly universal. By using this statement I don't
imply that our personality, psychology, culture, etc. don't affect our own non
verbal communication. The reflection of this thesis is simply located in
another level. The aim is not to prove that a mother in Manhattan will use
the same gestures and body language than a mother in Dubai when they are
talking to their children. If both of them are human beings which are sharing
the same genetic capital and if they meet, they will be able to recognize and
to understand each other. As a matter of fact, the human is the only animal
who is able to communicate by using words. Nevertheless, between the
apparition of the two-legs walking (about 7 million years ago) and the spoken
language (about 35 thousand years ago), the genetic capital of the non verbal
communication had been developed. Which means that some parts of the
non verbal are inborn. The debates still exists concerning whether the
gestures are inborn / genetic, or culturally learned. However, many studies
showed that despite different cultures, there is a common use of same facial
expressions, same body language, etc. to show emotions.
If you are still dubitative, let me try to convince you by using the research of
the German scientist Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1971). He actually discovered that deaf
and blind babies were able to smile, which could not have been learned
through a copying process. This is the reason why people from different
origins, and who speak different verbal language can somehow
communicate. The meaning of their non verbal communication will be
assimilated in the same way. However, the cultural component (which is not
12 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
universal) has a huge impact on the non verbal, therefore I will discuss that
particular influence within a proper chapter. As Pease and Pease (2006, p.
18) stipulated “cultural differences are many but the basic body language is
the same everywhere”. A whole part of the thesis will be dedicated to this
discussion: is the non verbal communication universal or cultural? This
discussion has all its importance since it will provide insights on whether
non verbal communication can be extrapolated and be inter-cultural or not.
Non verbal and leadership: an innovative link
A major reason that gave me the incentive to write regarding non verbal
communication and leadership is because of the innovation that both
associated terms imply. During the composition of my work, I could not find
scientific articles and/or books which are linking leadership on the one
hand, and non verbal communication on the other hand. I found at best 14
results when I tried to search for “non verbal communication leadership” in
Scholar Google and only 60 results in the e-library of the Linnaeus
University. However, the worst of it is that within those results none of them
connected those two concepts. Nevertheless, there were plenty of works or
studies regarding leadership and communication and some of them
dedicated some pages about non verbal communication. However, there were
no particular focus on the leadership aspect concerning the non verbal.
Furthermore, plenty of articles and book are dedicated to the non verbal. It
is not something new and would rather be the opposite actually. People were
studying non verbal communication without naming it. For instance this
field has been deeply studied in the theatre field, in anthropology, in
psychology, ect. but not enough with the scope of leadership.
By writing this work, I want to provide the reader something new; I want to
contribute to existing science by using my own lenses and filling the current
scientific gap. Hence I have the motivation of writing my thesis about this
uncommon theme in order to use existing knowledge (through the literature
review) and new point of view (through the empirical illustration) to better
understand the leadership area.
13 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
As it has been said above, communication is crucial concerning the
leadership aspect. Sense making or giving, transmission of explicit or
implicit message, interaction with other human beings, … all of it would not
be possible without communication. Plenty of research are focussing on
communication within the leadership field and claim that it has a major role,
for leaders and for followers. Scientists are aware of the importance of
communication, but why are there no – or a few – articles and books about
the non verbal communication and leadership? It is stated above that the
non verbal communication is way more important than the verbal one –
which are the two forms of communication. So why this deny of such an
important dimension? This work is significant since we know that
communication is important in the leadership field and since the non verbal
communication is a major part of communication.
However, let us keep in mind that the subject is related to human science.
All the reviews, studies and conclusions cannot be extrapolated to everybody
with a high rate of success. The art of observing and understanding feelings
and emotions is not a predictable science. It is not because somebody has
his or her arms crossed that it will mean that he or she has a defensive
attitude, it can simply mean he or she is cold. More will be developed about
this problematic in the coming chapters.
Research question and aim of the thesis
This research is about communication but with a particular focus: the non
verbal part of it. The aim of the thesis is to gain a deep understanding of the
non verbal communication which is reaching each of us, during our whole
life, and every day. By reaching this deep understanding, my objective is to
explain and make links with leadership in order to improve the
understanding of relatively unknown facets of non verbal communication
concerning leaders, followers and the link between them. It has also been
stated that there is a scientific gap regarding the link between leadership
and non verbal communication. My purpose is to offer my work as one of the
pieces to bridge the gap.
14 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The puzzle of communication
In this thesis, I chose the metaphor of a puzzle to illustrate communication.
However, only 7% of the puzzle is representing verbal communication.
Indeed, communication is like a puzzle that the counterpart will interpret
and make sense of. Nevertheless, as it is stated above, 93% of the
communication is actually made of non verbal communication, which is the
center of attention of this thesis. Components of this puzzle will be developed
below (3.2. 93% of the puzzle: the five dimensions of the non verbal
communication) and will give a better insight of what the puzzle of non
verbal communication is made of.
People usually have a good interpretation of the whole puzzle because they
don’t need the whole picture to figure out what the image is about. Even if
there are few pieces missing, sense can be made of the big picture.
Nevertheless, the thesis will aim to provide the reader a better understanding
of the puzzle, in order to make even more sense of what the puzzle is about
by filling the gaps and assembling the missing pieces.
In other words, the better understanding of non verbal communication will
focus on a deeper understanding of the pieces of the puzzle that people are
less aware of. First, this thesis will provide the reader a better understanding
of the non verbal communication’s puzzle: the parts of this puzzle will be one
by one explained (literature review). Then, this puzzle will be assembled
(model of analysis) and used to make links with leadership by using
leadership illustrations (empirical illustrations and analysis).
15 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
2. METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, I will develop my way of thinking during the elaboration of
the thesis. This part will give the reader information about how the thesis
was constructed. Indeed, choices had to be made, and I will explain why I
chose a particular way instead of another one. I will also argue about the
methodological perspective that I think fits the best the thesis. This part is
actually an important milestone of the whole paper. Indeed, the methodology
part gives somehow the author some credibility since I will explain all my
choices and decisions.
Choice of the topic and sources of information
Finally, this is the major work and achievement that I – as a knowledge
creator – have to compose. This is the work that teachers, students and my
whole academic entourage were talking about during my years in university.
This is it: my master thesis. The one that I will only have one shot to
compose properly. The one that will stay for a lifetime in my library. How to
choose the subject? Should I write about something I like? Something I will
use in a future career? Will I be able to write something that I will be proud
of at the end? I asked myself all those questions again and again for a while
before having an idea of what my thesis will be about. However, something
was sure: I really had the motivation to do something creative.
Furthermore, I was aware that I would spend a considerable amount of time
on this project and that I will have to manage it correctly. Therefore, this
thesis is more than a scientific work for me, it is also a good preparation for
a future career since it is a project. Thus I am considering the project’s
variables – time, pressure, reflection, action – and their management really
seriously since they are somehow a good training for the future. For all those
reasons, I had to do the good choice concerning the subject.
16 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
After a deep reflection, I came to the conclusion that I should combine two
aspects: on the one hand, my personal interest and pleasure; on the other
hand, the utility of it for a professional career. That is why I ended up with
non verbal communication and leadership areas. Indeed, I always have been
fascinated by non verbal. Moreover, through this program and this thesis, I
had the opportunity of combining this aspect with leadership. In fact, since I
am aiming to become manager and hopefully a leader in a future career, I
really took the opportunity of trying to better understand leadership and non
verbal communication with this thesis so I could become a plausible better
leader.
Finally, I have my subject: leadership and non verbal communication. But
the difficulties came quite quickly: non verbal communication is a broad
subject and the first obstacle was to chose the scope of my research. I had
basically two possibilities: either going into details of some specific parts of
the non verbal, or having an overview of all the parts of the non verbal
communication. I chose the second option since I really wanted to treat non
verbal communication as a whole. Indeed, I do not want to treat only some
part of it since I want to illustrate that all the non verbal communication is
important, not only a certain part of it. After the decision, I began my work
by doing a draft of what the final version should look like: I did a draft of the
table of content. The rest of the elaboration of the work will be explained in
the following paragraph: the structure of the thesis.
Introduction to the methodology related to the structure
In order to make links with theoretical parts and with methodological
perspective, I will develop how I conceptualized the structure, the general
layout of the thesis. Indeed, I think that explanations concerning my thesis
are needed before analyzing concretely the methodological part. But before
that, I will explain which sources I used to gather information that I will use.
I focused my researches on non verbal communication. I indeed searched
books and articles related to that area only. Since I have to make links by
17 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
myself with leadership, my references collection process was not focused on
existing links with leadership. And as it is explained in the introduction,
even though I would have wanted such references, it would have been really
tough for me to find some. Regarding the approach of leaders, followers and
the association of those two concepts, I used the literature, my experience
gained thanks to my whole year studying leadership, my own personality
and lenses, and some common sense to build some links between the
approaches quoted above and non verbal communication. Images and videos
will also be used to illustrate the theory, but this part will be more deeply
analyzed below (4. empirical illustrations and analysis).
Basically, my thesis structure is divided in two parts. The first one – the
literature review – is aiming to provide the reader a better understanding of
non verbal communication. In addition to that, some links with leadership
perspective will also be made. At the end of the literature review, all the parts
will be put together and form the model of analysis. This model will be a
summary of the review but will also include the structure that I will follow
while I will examine and interpret the illustrations of the second part. The
model of analysis is part somehow a reminder for me to follow for the
illustrations analysis. That part is aiming to present concrete examples of
what have been discussed during the literature review. The scheme
presented below is – among other things – a summary of the thesis’
structure.
18 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Model of analysis
Leadership illustrations
Used to analyze
Understanding the pieces
of the puzzle of non verbal
communication
Assembling the pieces of
the puzzle of non verbal
communication
Applying the puzzle of non
verbal communication to
illustrate leadership
situations
Methodological views
“Choosing a research methodology means developing a research question
and the tool to generate evidence for its answer; both of these should be
consistent with a theoretical framework” – Rose (2007, p.1). Nevertheless, I
would like to put things into perspective. I believe that I would add on what
Rose (2007) is saying, that the “choice” must somehow be compatible with
the nature of the work and with his subject. In other words, I think that the
methodology applied to a work is not really chosen but is instead implied.
19 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
In my opinion and as it will be discussed below, the tools that I will use to
generate evidence are coming from different areas, from different
methodological views.
After considering the approach of Bjerke and Arnor (2009) and their three
methodological view – analytical view, systems view, and actors view – I came
to the conclusion that this thesis is not fitting completely one of those
“boxes”. Instead, I believe that this work has some resemblance with the
three following methodological approach: the analytical view, the visual
methodology, and the grounded theory. Indeed, I will explain why I think
that this paper actually has some points of those three different views and
do not belong totally to any of them.
First, the aim of the literature review is to provide the reader with a better
understanding of the non verbal communication concept but also to be the
basis of the model of analysis. Indeed, the model of analysis will be
constructed by taking into consideration the information stated in the
literature review. Therefore I believe that the thesis has a resemblance with
the analytical view since I am trying to come up with a model in order to
explain the reality. This model will be applied afterwards for the second part:
the analysis and the explanation of the reality through videos which will be
presented in the illustration part. The model of analysis will be applied to
videos that I found on the internet. I will have no interaction with the
leaders, with the interviewers and with the situations. This is a statement
that will actually reinforce the analytical view since people that I will observe
will not learn from me or my conclusions.
Then, the illustration part will be analyzed through my interpretation. In
other words, I will try to come up with my personal interpretation even
though the analysis will be based on the model of analysis. Indeed, videos
will be seen, explained and analyzed by me, my personality, my frames of
references. Thus, conclusions that will come up will also be influenced by
the interpretation that I am making of the reality. In other words, I will
20 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
analyze the reality (common to everybody) but interpretation that I will make
will be – by definition – not reflecting the reality but instead reflecting the
reality that I perceive. I am not claiming here that this thesis fits with the
actors view, since the analytical view and the actors one are incompatible.
However, I do believe that I am an actor who is observing other actors in
special situations.
Moreover, I also think that this paper has some resemblances with the
grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), Corbin and
Strauss (1997), and by Corbin and Strauss (2008). Indeed the grounded
theory is significant and is applied in a lot of cases implying qualitative
approach. As it will be discussed in the following section, I believe that this
paper belongs to that approach. Besides, the grounded theory allows the
knowledge creator to enable new theories through the description and
analysis of existing data. And finally, this theory is focusing on the empirical
experience. Therefore, I am stating that this paper has some connections
with this theory. As a matter of fact, the concept of this thesis is anchored in
the human empirical experience. The focus is indeed a part of the everyday
human experience. The variables that are interesting me are indeed
empirical. Nevertheless, a deeper understanding of the theory is needed in
order to apply and understand it to daily empirical experiences. Through the
illustration part, I will elevate the observation of a specific situation to the
level of interpretation. This interpretation will be based on the one hand on
the empirical experience and on the other hand on the theoretical
framework. Thus, the interpretation is doubled anchored: in the empirical
experience and in the theoretical framework.
In addition to those two approaches mentioned above, I also think that this
paper is somehow linked to an interesting concept developed by Rose (2007)
and Pink (2012): the visual methodology. Pink (2012, p.3) is qualifying the
raising of the use of this method as followed: “this marked a moment in the
social sciences and humanities where for a number of reasons the visual was
becoming more acceptable, more viable and more central to qualitative
21 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
research practice”. This methodology is actually based on representation
that the author has of reality. This representation could be explicit or
implicit, conscious or unconscious, and it could be conveyed in everyday life
through television, rhetoric, speeches, art, culture, etc.
Indeed, in the course of this paper, it makes sense to me to consider this
view as being part of the presented methodology. On the one hand, I am
using a lot of images within the theoretical framework. On the other hand,
the part dedicated to illustrations is mainly constructed around visuals.
Instead of focusing on images, I chose to study videos. In fact, videos make
more sense to analyze since it will allow me to observe movements, which
would be impossible with images. A significant part of non verbal
communication is actually about movements and about comparison between
two moments. Besides, I chose videos where there is a clear leadership
situation in order to illustrate in the best way possible the link between
leadership and non verbal. The aim of this procedure is to look at leadership
with the lenses of non verbal communication. To do so, it was quite clear for
me that the videos have to emphasize a leadership situation that will
illustrate what has been said in the literature review. In other words, videos
will be chosen in order to analyze (through the model of analysis) leadership
actor’s non verbal communication The leadership situation was picked up
based on my own definition of leadership but to make it simpler, I tried to
choose well known leaders, belonging to several fields (business, politics,
sport, religion).
Quantitative or qualitative?
There are many and many types of approaches which can be used to
conduct a scientific work. However, in the context of this paper, I will
consider the two well known following ones: the qualitative and the
quantitative approach. Qualitative and quantitative analysis are the two
approaches, that are – according to Corbin and Strauss (2008, p.1) –
“techniques and procedures for gathering and analyzing data”.
22 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
According to Quinn (2002) and to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009), the
quantitative method is verifying existing statements by transforming data
into numbers which will be taken into consideration for the analysis. Those
numbers will be statistically and econometrically used in order to extract
meaning from them. Since numbers are universal, the kind of information
that will be extracted from them has an objective basis somehow. Therefore
this approach is result-oriented.
On the other hand, the qualitative analysis is described by Corbin as Strauss
(2008, p.1) as followed: “a process of examining and interpreting data in
order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical
knowledge”. Moreover, this approach would emphasize situational concepts
instead of statistical methods (Strauss,1987).
I firmly believe that this paper’s approach belongs to the second category.
Since its nature of human science, and since the nature of the collected
data, it does make sense to assume that the approach which would fits the
thesis is the qualitative one. Besides, nearly no numbers or statistical data
are used in the context of this paper. As it is stated by Bjerke and Arnor
(2009), a qualitative approach allows me – the author – more freedom in the
data collection’s process.
Several forms of qualitative data are appearing in this paper. The
illustrations, images, schemes, videos are indeed qualitative. Besides, all the
data which were gathered and put together in the literature review also have
the characteristic of qualitative data. Furthermore, any form of numbers
studies (statistics, comparative study, ect.) is nearly inexistent in the course
of this paper. For all those reasons, I qualify this thesis as being a qualitative
approach.
23 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1. EMOTIONS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Rationality, logic, methods, common sense, etc. do you think that those
concepts are driving our everyday’s behavior, decisions and life? Many
authors, in several fields (psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, etc.)
claim that the answer to this question is “no”. The emotions also have a huge
part in our decisional process. What is an emotion? How are emotions linked
to the non verbal communication? How are emotions taken into account
while people take decisions? This chapter will give some deep insight
concerning theses problematic and is highly inspired by Turchet (2009) and
several other authors named below.
What is an emotion?
Emotion is a word coming from the Latin “emovere” and means “to move”. In
other words, if you feel an emotion, it will make something move on you, on
your face, on your body. There is always a movement after an emotion.
Therefore, emotions are readable thanks to the focus that one could have on
movements. As a matter of fact, the movement could even happen before one
realizes the emotion. LeDoux (1996), is convinced that this statement is true
since he reached the same conclusions in his research. The example of the
bear is given to make his point. If you are hiking alone and if you see a bear
3 meters away from you, would you realize that you are scared and then
run? Or would you run and then realizing that you are scared? Well
according to Ledoux (1996) and James (1884), people run away before
realizing that they are scared and they will be conscious that they are afraid
while they are running.
24 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The fact that emotion is followed by a movement is crucial to know in the
context of this work. As a matter of fact, you know now that if you want to be
aware of which emotion is coming from your counterpart, you have to pay
attention to his or her movements since they are reflecting emotions. This
point has also a huge importance for the leadership perspective. You, as a
potential or confirmed leader, know now that the movements that you make
are somehow reflecting what you feel. Emotions are impacting your non
verbal communication since it will affect your body language, your face, your
position, etc. Emotions are somehow the underlying cause to the non verbal
communication.
Emotions and emotional Intelligence
Until the nineties, emotion theories were not taken seriously and only few
works were treating the subject. Goleman (1995) was a pioneer to focus on
the subject and he was the first to develop the emotional intelligence
concept. Is the emotional intelligence, that Goleman (1995) is describing,
important? As a matter of fact, this new concept is really crucial for
everybody in the everyday life. The emotional intelligence is indeed directly
linked to the decisional process.
As it is discussed above, until the nineties, most of the scientists think that
the neocortex is essential within the decisional process. The neocortex, is the
part of the brain that people would use consciously, with rationality.
However, scientific discoveries will be made (McLeland, 2002; LeDoux, 1996;
Damasio et al., 1997; etc.) and will confront this previous statement. As a
matter of fact emotions are unconsciously used in order to rank important
information. Damasio et al. (1997) are indeed reaching this conclusion based
on their experiment. They found out that some people who have several part
of their brain (linked to emotions) damaged are not able to take good
decisions. The reason would be that they are not anymore able to rank what
is important or not.
25 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Emotional intelligence is therefore framing, selecting and ranking the
information that people get. Let me illustrate the importance and the
mechanics of the emotional intelligence through a concrete example that
could happen to you. Imagine this situation: you are married and your
spouse is leaving you a vocal message on your phone: “Hello, I am calling
you because I was supposed to take the children at their school but I have
something important to finish at work, and I can’t get out of here. Could you
please go and get them? They are waiting for you on the sidewalk outside the
school… Ah and yes, I almost forgot, did you see the fridge? We are running
out of milk, could you go to the shop and get some please? Thank you!”.
Well, after hearing this message, you will have basically two missions: bring
the children back home and get some milk. Which one are you doing first?
The children on the sidewalk or the milk? Well, when this question is asked,
people usually say without hesitation: the children on the sidewalk. Nobody
asks “can you tell me which one is the most efficient?”, “which one is the
fastest?”, “how old the children are?” or “when the shops are closing?”.
People are systematically answering the children without questioning it, as if
it was natural. The emotions that emerges from “children on the sidewalk”
are conditioning people to answer “the children”.
This is emotional intelligence: feeling and sensing what is important without
the need of analyzing the situation. We trust our brain and make the
decision without a rational and deep analysis: we rank the decisions based
on emotions. While you were reading the words “children on the sidewalk”, it
triggered a certain emotion which ranked the mission of getting the children
home as being the top priority. In other words, the final decision was based
thanks to the felt emotion. If you are driving in a car, it might have occurred
to you that you suddenly had to break before analyzing the nature of the
danger. This reflex appear before the neocortex – the conscious brain –
analyzes the situation, otherwise, it would have been too late. The emotional
component were quicker and more efficient than if you would have had to
analyze the situation before reacting to it.
26 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Reading emotions
This thesis will treat the concept of understanding better the non verbal
communication. But as it is stated above, emotions are causing the non
verbal communication. In other words, reading the non verbal
communication is somehow related to reading the emotions. However,
understanding better the non verbal communication through the reading of
this thesis does not mean that people who won’t read this work or others
concerning non verbal communication are not able to interpret emotions/
non verbal communication. Everybody is actually skilled to understand non
verbal communication. Indeed, everybody is able of understanding the big
picture of the non verbal communication puzzle. Even though there are some
pieces missing. The difference is that some experts could make more
meaning of what they see than others: they are able to see pieces that the
non experts cannot see. In other words, everybody is able of recognizing and
decoding non verbal communication, those who don’t are actually suffering
from a disease: the Asperger’s Syndrome. If you are not suffering from this
disease, you are able to decode the non verbal communication and this
thesis is aiming, among other things, to help you doing it better. This paper
is aiming to make you see the whole puzzle better.
27 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Emotions, non verbal communication and leadership
To summarize, emotions are the underlying cause of non verbal
communication. Behind a gesture or a specific position, one could find the
emotion that is causing this movement. Moreover, this chapter is developing
the fact that rationality is not the only variable on which we rely while we
make everyday’s decisions. Emotions are indeed highly part of the decision
process: that is called the emotional intelligence.
The literature is suggesting that good leaders are not only excellent with
rationality, several of them are also emotionally intelligent leaders (Turchet,
2009). They are skilled to understand others and to feel empathy for them.
Furthermore, you as a plausible or confirmed leader are already decoding
quite good non verbal communication. One of the aim of this thesis is –
through a better understanding of non verbal communication – to provide
you a better “decoder” in order to make more sense of non verbal
communication which is surrounding you.
28 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.2. 93% OF THE PUZZLE: THE FIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE NON
VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Presentation
The human brain actually recognizes five forms, five dimensions of non
verbal communication. Each form belongs to a specific place within the brain
and the information is treated individually as well. Non verbal
communication most often evocates body language to people. As a matter of
fact, most people are directly associating the body language to the non verbal
communication which is not totally correct. Indeed, the body language is
part of one of the five dimensions of the non verbal communication but there
are four more others dimensions to consider. When you are discussing with
somebody, you are not only moving your body but you also keep a certain
distance to him or her, and you are sending and receiving subliminal and
conscious information as well. The author and specialist in body language
Turchet (2009) refers to these five dimensions as following: peri-verbal, para-
verbal, infra-verbal, supra-verbal, and pre-verbal. Those five dimensions will
be developed and are the core of the literature review since, when they are
put together, they create the outline of non verbal communication.
The peri-verbal dimension is the level which will treat all the space and
distance factors. The communication is not the same regarding the fact that
you are close or not to a person. Moreover, you will not communicate in the
same way if you are in front of a person, or if you are next to him or her. The
para-verbal dimension includes the tone of the voice. The meaning of simple
words like “hello, how are you?” is totally influenced by the tone of your
voice. If you are in a good mood and smiling, you will probably pronounce
those words with a different tone of voice than if you are in a funeral. The
infra-verbal dimension is treating subliminal information, information which
is decoded unconsciously. This kind of information could be gathered from
colors, smells, etc. On the other hand, distinctive signals are parts of the
supra-verbal dimension. That dimension of the non verbal communication
includes for instance the clothes, the jewelries, the watches, etc. that a
29 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
person will consciously decode and make sense of. And last but not least,
the pre-verbal dimension which is basically treating the body language. This
is a really important dimension since it gives insights about a person's
opinions, emotional states, behavior, state of mind, etc. All those five
dimension will be developed below and importance of those dimension will be
exposed regarding a leadership point of view. Since the non verbal
communication is crucial and part of leadership, those five dimensions
might also bring some new perspective regarding leadership aspects.
However, an important link between non verbal communication and
leadership will be discussed in this paragraph. It is the concept of
congruence, from James (2008). You are congruent when you are actually
performing a perfect communication. A perfect communication in this
context means that the five dimensions of the non verbal communication
and the words that you actually say are in harmony. Your body language,
tone of voice, ect. will match the words you are saying. If it is the case, you
will appear honest, genuine and people will see that you really mean what
you are saying. Therefore, it is vital in a leadership perspective to look
congruent. For instance, a non toxic leader who is congruent will probably
be seen as being authentic. If his or her non verbal communication is really
matching the words he or she says, and if the message is well embodied, the
leader will probably qualified as being an authentic leader. Nevertheless,
meaning what you are saying is not enough to be congruent. Incongruent
communication does not only happen when a person is lying or trying to
mask or even deceive. It could happen for other reasons like shyness,
embarrassment, etc. Indeed, a leader could tell a client that it is a pleasure
to meet him or her, and can be true. However if the leader cannot shake
properly the client's hand, and is holding his or her arm crossed in a
defensive posture, if the leader cannot look into the client's eyes, etc. the
message of the words which evocate “I am pleased to meet you” will be in
conflict with the opposite signals of the non verbal communication.
30 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
It has been said above that in leadership, and likely in many others
situations and fields, it is better to have a congruent communication.
However, it is not rare when a person does too much to be seen as congruent
and finally become overcongruent. An overcongruent person is a person who
will have for instance a too high tone of voice and who will over do and
exaggerate gestures. Overcongruent communications are the enemy of
honesty, authenticity and sincerity. Therefore and in order to avoid
overgoncruence, you should practice how to say things and not only what to
say. It is discussed in the literature that a good way to avoid to be seen as
overcongruent is to keep your hand gestures within the congruent zone:
between your waist and your shoulders.
The following chapters will treat the five dimensions of the non verbal
communication. Description and meaning of gestures, stances, objects, etc.
will be developed and links between the non verbal communication aspects
and leadership will be highlighted. However, there are three rules to respect
when you make sense of the non verbal communication information that you
gather. Those three rules are explained by Pease and Pease (2006).
The first rule is to read gestures in clusters. This rule suggest to not
interpret only one gesture in isolation of the other ones, or by not taking into
account the circumstances. Interpretation should be done by considering all
gestures that are done in the same time than the isolate one. For instance, a
weak handshaking is not automatically synonym of shyness and weak
character but could also mean that the person is suffering from arthritis.
Non verbal communication could actually be compared to any spoken
language. Like any spoken language, body language has sentences and
words which could have several meanings. In this case, each gesture is a
word and could have more than one meaning. In order to understand the
sentence and the meaning of the body language, attention should be paid to
all the words, all the gestures, in order to understand the sentence, to make
sense of what you see. To make it clear, it is said in the literature that people
31 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
should not make conclusion of an isolated movement but they should rather
consider the whole context and all the signals.
The next rule has actually been discussed previously, it concerns the
congruence. Of course the non verbal communication is important and
should be observed but it should also be compared to the words that people
actually say. If non verbal communication and words are in harmony, the
person who is sending message is congruent and as it has been said
previously, the person will be seen as being authentic. However, Pease and
Pease (2006) are mentioning an incongruent experience that Freud1 had in
his researches. Freud was talking to a woman who was married, about her
conjugal life. The woman was smiling and talking positively about it.
Nevertheless, she was unconsciously slipping her wedding ring on and off
her finger. After a while, the marriage issue began to surface. The
observation of the gestures cluster and congruence of the verbal and non
verbal communication are actually the key to be able to collect meaning
accurately of what you see.
And the last but not least rule: the gesture should be read within the
context; the contingency variable should be taken into consideration. Which
means that the gesture should be considered in the context in which they
occur. If somebody is crossing his or her arms and legs in a cold winter day
at a bus station, the meaning could be different than the same gesture but
in a well heated conference room. All those rules are preventing us from
drawing conclusions too quickly. These three rules are valid in a leadership
perspective as well since a leader – or a follower – should see the whole
picture instead of a part of it in order to make sense.
What is the puzzle of non verbal communication made of?
The contingency, the congruence, the tone of the voice, the distance, the
body language, the hand gestures, etc. all of those aspects are part of non
1 Pease and Pease: P. 23
32 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
verbal communication. The focus of this thesis is the leadership context, and
in this specific context, leaders and followers who are eager to have a better
understanding of leadership perspective through non verbal communication
should see the whole picture in order to make sense of it. As a matter of fact,
a specific metaphor would fit to this statement. All the messages which are
sent are actually like a whole puzzle that represent communication. And in
order to make sense, leaders and followers should put together the different
clusters of the puzzle – the verbal communication, and elements of the non
verbal communication like the contingency, the peri-verbal dimension, the
para-verbal dimension etc. Those clusters are in turn composed of pieces of
the puzzle – hands gestures, facial expressions, clothes, jewelries etc.
Moreover, each piece of the puzzle could be placed differently, indeed any
side can face any direction which would refer to the fact that each piece –
each small gesture – could have several meanings depending on how it is
placed. Therefore reading the whole puzzle is not easy. Each piece should be
understood and placed in a way that the whole puzzle will make sense. The
following chapters will treat each cluster or piece of the puzzle of non verbal
communication, in order to provide a better understanding of them.
33 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Construction of the model of analysis: step 1
All along the theoretical framework (except for the universality of non verbal
communication), I will construct – step by step – the model of analysis. So
far, I just provided you the fact that communication is divided in two parts:
verbal and non verbal. The scheme has the appearance of the final one, and
even though I introduced the five dimensions, I will not include them yet,
since I have not develop them enough yet. They will be completed, section
after section and will form at the end the model of analysis which will be
used to analyze the videos.
34 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.3. THE PERI-VERBAL DIMENSION: THE DISTANCE
The first cluster of the puzzle which will be described is regarding the aspect
of the peri-verbal dimension. Why do people usually don’t like it when others
are too close to them? What do people consider as their personal space?
What do they consider as their possession and how do they demonstrate it?
Is the concept of personal space the same for everybody? This section will
treat all those questions and the implicit or explicit meaning that the
distance between two people, or more, signifies. The ideas in the following
chapter are originally coming from the following authors: Hall (1981), Pease
& Pease (2006) and Phipps (2012).
Territory
The word territory comes from the Latin territorium, from terra which means
“earth, land”. The first and common meaning of this word is applied to
countries, regions, cities, neighborhood, etc. However, in this specific
context, the word territory is more a synonym of what “belongs” to people. Or
to be more precise: what people claim to have on their possession. In other
words, the territory is a space or an area that a person claims to possess, as
if it was an extension to his or her own body. It could be a home, a car, a
bureau, a specific seat in a meeting room, and the personal space located
around the body. The following paragraphs will point out what are the links
between those possessions and leadership.
Personal space and contingency
Most animals have their own personal space, which is the air space around
them that they claim to be theirs. However, the volume of this personal
space depends on the contingency, and the main variable to be considered is
the crowdedness, the density. The illustration given by Pease and Pease
(2006) is a perfect example to understand this idea. A lion in freedom in
Africa could have a personal space of which the radius is about 50km. On
the other hand, a lion raised in captivity will have his personal space
35 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
dramatically decreased: his space will only be a few meters. The contingency
factor is here the density of the local circumstances. The more the density is,
the more the personal space decreases. This point is relevant to consider for
a leadership researcher interested in the peri-verbal dimension. My reflection
concerning this aspect is that this example could be extrapolated for human
being, as it will be developed in the following paragraph. Therefore, a
researcher should have in mind that the personal space that a person A
considers is not systematically the same as the one that person B considers.
This example for animals perfectly fits with human beings. The personal
space around a person could be represented by an air bubble and is also
determined depending on the local circumstances. Therefore, the personal
space is culturally defined. If people are used to crowded spaces and deal
with this kind of situation, their space will be small. It is the case for the
Japanese culture. On the other hand, when people are not used to density,
they want others to keep their distance. This is more the case for Northern
Europe, North America, and any culture which is “westernized”. People from
this culture are less eager to have invaders in their space, and their behavior
can be directly affected. Let me take the example of Phipps (2012) to
illustrate this cultural difference. Japan is a country of 120 million while the
UK has 60 million of inhabitants. Those two countries have roughly the
same superficies. In other words, Japan has twice the population of the UK
within the same territory, so Japanese should have a reduced personal
space. As a matter of fact, a Japanese work nowadays is called oshiya, which
consists in pushing others in public transports, in order to get the most
people as possible in trains, metros, etc. I personally hardly think that such
a practice would be tolerated in westernized cultures. As it has been
suggested in the last paragraph, the personal space – the air bubble – is
culturally defined. This statement should be considered by a researcher in
leadership who would want to go further into the study of the peri-verbal
dimension and leadership.
36 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Spatial zones
According to the anthropologist Hall (1981), there are five spatial zones
surrounding each of us. Each zone has its characteristics and implications.
As it already has been discussed in a previous paragraph, those zones are
also depending on the culture. The length of those zones presented below are
a mean in westernized countries.
Close intimate zone (0cm - 15 cm)
Intimate zone (15cm - 45cm)
Personal zone (45cm - 1,22m)
Social zone (1,22cm -3,6m)
Public zone (3,6m +)
The intimate zone (0cm – 45 cm) is often considered as being an extension to
people’s bodies. They will guard this space and allow only close people to
enter it. The personal zone is related to the normal zone, when people are
socializing and interacting with each others. The social zone represents the
distance that people keep with strangers. And finally, the public zone is
observable when a someone is addressing a large group of person. The
speaker will stand, on average, more than 3,6 meters away from his or her
audience.
I came to the conclusion that what matters is when changes occur in the
spatial zone. I will refer to this change of distance as being the distance
fluctuation. As a matter of fact, distance fluctuation will give a tone to the
communication, will punctuate it. As Hall (1981, p.175) says, “ The flow and
shift of distance between people as they interact with each other is part and
parcel of the communication process”. Therefore I think that a leadership
researcher can pay attention to this peri-verbal dimension since it could give
information about the nature of the relationship. It could also give some
information about the congruence: if the person A claims to be at his or her
ease and cannot stay in the personal zone the person B, it could be a clue to
the fact that the person A is not congruent.
37 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Territory and ownership
Inanimate objects that a person possesses or often uses are seen as being a
private territory (as it has been discussed above: personal space). Thus, this
person can “fight” to protect the object or the area. Actually those inanimate
things are seen as extensions of our own body. The object can be a house, a
preferred seat in a conference room, a favorite spot in the restaurant or a
favorite chair in the kitchen.
People are most often using non verbal communication to claim the
ownership of those areas. A person who wants to show that something
belongs to him or her will touch, or lean against the object. To do so, a
physical contact is required. For example a person will have his or her feet
on a car or lean against it to prove that it is his or her object. The object will
actually be seen as being an extension of the body. The same reasoning can
be done for a meeting room. A person who wants a specific spot will touch
the chair where he or she wants to sit. Moreover, when people do not
actually possess the item, like a chair in a conference room or in a library, a
table in a fast food restaurant, etc. they can use other forms of non verbal
communication to mark their territory. They can for example leave personal
stuff in or around the desired area, like personal briefcase, pencils, books,
cup of coffee, ect. Another interesting fact is that in this last example, the
objects will probably be spread with an unconscious aim: protecting the
intimate zone. The objects will protect the person from intruders and will
show and delimitate a personal territory, their personal area. This paragraph
illustrates how important it is for people to have “their own” objects. In
business leadership, this could be used to put pressure on people, which will
be developed below.
Use of territory to intimidate
As it has been argued in the previous paragraph, people touch or lean
against things they claim to possess. Nevertheless, this practice can be used
in order to intimidate others. Think about a chief executive who is putting
his feet on a desk or who is leaning against the doorway. Isn’t it a sign to
38 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
show that the items are under his possession? Isn’t it intimidating? Another
way to intimidate people is to lean, touch, or use someone else’s object
without asking for the permission. Such practices are used by a lot of
people: leaning on someone else’s doorway or sitting on someone else’s chair.
According to Pease and Pease (2006) some people are habitual doorway
“leaners” and intimidate others from the very beginning. Those people are
using non verbal communication to make others having a good first
impression. To do so, they will use in addition with the leaning technique,
the visible palm practice. As we will discuss in a following chapter, the
visible palm will be helpful to gain other’s trust (3.7.1. the hands). The first
impression that people make when they see you can vary according to
several authors. It could be done in the blink of an eye (James, 2008) or
within the first four minutes (Pease and Pease, 2006). My opinion about the
first impression is that it does not matter that much if the first impression is
done within the firsts seconds or within the first five minutes, the important
aspect to consider is that it is done in a relatively short time. My reflection
upon this point is that leaders and followers could actually use the peri-
verbal dimension to influence, and intimidate others. Furthermore, this
influence could have more impact if it is done within the first impression
process. Moreover, the importance of the first impression has also a huge
impact in interviews since the interviewee has usually a few seconds to make
the employers trust him or her. This aspect has all its interest since the
leadership world is counting many interviews. Other dimensions of the non
verbal dimension which will be developed in following chapters can also have
impact of the first impression.
The previous paragraph has important consequences in the business world.
Let me take this example: a salesman is invited on a one-to-one meeting to
somebody else’s place (a bureau, at his or her house, etc.). If the aim of the
salesman is not to intimidate the client, he or she should ask “which chair is
yours?”. This question will avoid the owner to be intimidated by seeing
somebody else on his or her chair. I personally think that this example is
fitting perfectly the world of business leadership since in my opinion this
39 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
situation occurs a lot in this world. Therefore, if you – as a leader – want to
negotiate, it would be advised to pay attention to this problematic.
Construction of the model of analysis: step 2
40 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.4. THE PARA-VERBAL DIMENSION: THE TONE OF THE VOICE
The second dimension and cluster of the puzzle is the para-verbal one, the
one which impacts a one to one conversation by 38% (Merhabian, 1972): the
tone of the voice. Since its importance, the para-verbal dimension represent
a significant part of the puzzle of communication. The tone of voice gives
somehow a context to words. It has been discussed in a previous paragraph,
the simple words “hello, how are you” are pronounced differently regarding
the current situation. As a matter of fact, the voice can be seductive, cutting,
questioning, joyful, angry, attractive, sad, encouraging, caring, repulsive,
and so forth (Olah, 2011).
Close your eyes and imagine
In addition to emotions that the voice could convey, people actually build an
image of who you are, or on your behavior based on the voice. This
statement is strengthened if the receiver does not see you. it could be the
case if you are negotiating on the phone for instance. Mullennix and al.
(2002, p.255) are arguing that: “when humans produce sounds, the resulting
productions contain linguistic information related to the intended message
and nonlinguistic indexical information about the speaker producing the
utterance. Indexical information refers to personal aspects of the speaker,
such as voice quality, age, gender, dialect, emotional state, social status, and
so forth”. In other words, people make their image of you based on their
interpretation that have out of your voice. If you speak to a man whose
height is 1.9m and weight 90kg, and you hear that he has a low-pitched
voice, it will not be that surprising, would it be? On the other hand, if this
man is speaking with a really high pitched voice, the image that you have of
him will change. This phenomenon is even more important and amplified
when you don’t see the counterpart like it is the case in a telephone
conversation. In a leadership perspective I think that this specific aspect
would provide good researches questions. Are they differences when leaders
41 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
communicate only by using phone instead of meeting people? If there are
differences, how do they impact the communication?
I love my company
As it has been argued above, the tone of voice influences the perception that
people have of others. In addition with the tone of voice, the accentuation
should also be included and could give hints about the personality of the
speaker. To illustrate this fact, I will give you a short example. Read the
following sentence by emphasizing the bold words:
- I love my company
- I love my company
-I love my company
-I love my company
The different possible accentuation are indeed suggesting a different
meaning in addition with the simple words. The way people pronounce,
emphasize, and use their tone of voice add a certain dimension to those
words. For instance, the third one, “I love MY company” could suggest that
the person who emphasize the “my” really want to show his belonging to the
firm or it could also suggest that it is his or her company, that he or she
actually owns the company. Even if the internalization and the deep
understanding of the messages that the voice conveys is unconscious, people
actually judge and make their mind about others based on what is said and
how it is said (Olah, 2011; Devore and Cookman 2009). This statement is
also valid in a leadership perspective. It is actually an additional reason for
leaders – or followers – to think about how to say things, in addition with
“what to say?”. In this case, the how to say things is related to the voice and
according to the texts, leadership actors should train also their voice, before
a presentation for instance.
42 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The leakage hierarchy
Why should people pay attention to the tone of the voice? Well, it has been
discussed above that the voice is part of non verbal communication and
thus, it brings additional meaning to the message. But it is not the only
reason why you should take into account the voice factor of your
counterpart. As a matter of fact, if you want more information about the
emotional status of the speaker, the voice is really good dimension to
consider for the following reason. According to Zuckerman et Al. (1982) – and
to their interpretations of Ekman Friesen (1969), and Larrance, Spiegel, &
Klorman (1981) – a hierarchy exists among different channels of non verbal
communication. Their studies show that the tone of the voice, like the body
language is less controllable than the facial expressions. A plausible reason
to this fact could be suggested by the fact that the “senders” are more aware
of their facial sending than of their vocal sending skills. Therefore, the tone
of the voice is considered as being a source of leakage of information. My
interpretation on this fact is that attention should be paid by leadership
actors to this source of leakage in order to get more information about the
emotional state of the sender. However, this point should be balanced and
put into perspective. As a matter of fact, DePaulo et Al. (1978) reached the
conclusion that the face has a bigger impact that the tone of voice. They
observed that a positive facial expression combined with a negative tone of
voice was better rated than a negative facial expression combined with a
positive tone of voice. In other words, people are organizing into a hierarchy
the different dimensions and this specific study tends to show that the face
has a bigger impact than the voice, when they are used simultaneously.
The tone of voice within leadership
In this chapter, it has been raised that the para-verbal dimension – the tone
of the voice – has its importance within the non verbal communication. It
can indeed influence the perception that you have of a person or even modify
a pre existing impression that you would have about somebody. Therefore, I
get to the conclusion that the para-verbal dimension is relevant to be
developed within a leadership perspective. All that has been said in this part
43 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
could be extrapolated to leadership. I personally think that there is a gap
concerning the para-verbal and the leadership. In other words, the tone of
the voice will impact the meaning done by the receiver of the information.
This fact is really significant when it is related to a leadership view.
Interesting studies could actually be done to see if there is any correlation
between the used tone of voice of a leader and its impact of followers. My
impression on this kind of problematic is that I would think that since the
tone of voice conveys messages, the used tone of voice could actually
influence the listeners in a good or in a bad way. A good discussion that
could be opened is “how does the voice influences others? In which
circumstances?”. Besides, There are other clues that one could examine
about the tone of the voice of a leader. For instance, the harmony of the
voice. If the person is feeling strong emotions like anger or sadness, it is
likely that the leader’s voice will be affected by those strong emotions.
Furthermore, uncomfortable situations could be conveyed by the fact that
the leader is using a lot of repetition and is hesitating. Those two variable are
indeed belonging, in my opinion, in the para-verbal dimension.
Construction of the model of analysis: step 3
44 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.5. THE INFRA-VERBAL DIMENSION: SUBLIMINAL
INFORMATION
Presentation
As it has been stated in a previous paragraph, the infra-verbal dimension is
an important part of the puzzle and is treating the subliminal information,
which is decoded unconsciously. The author (Turchet, 2009) gives the
following example in order to illustrate the subliminal information concept:
the smells, the colors, and any other sign that are analyzed by our brain
without us being conscious of it. Those practices are for example used in the
supermarket field. Good smells, nice colors and music are chosen by the
marketing team in order to give the client the best purchasing experience. All
those information are subliminal and their aim is to make the client
comfortable so he or she can enjoy better the shopping.
I am really appealed by the study of the infra-verbal dimension since I find it
really interesting. Nevertheless, since its wide and complex nature, it is quite
difficult to have a deep understanding of it in the context of this thesis.
Indeed, the unconscious analysis of such stimuli are highly dependent to the
person’s characteristics. Which make the task difficult to be studied in this
work. Moreover, stimuli are so many that unfortunately, a good description of
them would require too much space in the frame of this thesis. Furthermore,
this dimension is the hardest one to observe. It will be almost impossible for
me to see this dimension in the part dedicated to illustrations of leadership.
For all those reasons, I chose to not develop this dimension in this thesis
and to focus more on the four others, the ones that could be easier visible.
However, let us keep in mind that this dimension could represent a big part
of the puzzle of the communication. It could indeed influence a person’s
decision, and the most interesting is that the person will not even be aware
of it. That is why I believe that the infra-verbal dimension is essential and
should be studied more deeply, but not in the case of this paper.
45 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Construction of the model of analysis: step 4
46 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.6. THE SUPRA-VERBAL DIMENSION: DISTINCTIVE SIGNALS
The supra-verbal dimension concerns all the signals that you assimilate
consciously. The signals are either objects that you carry on you: your
clothes, glasses, watch, etc. I consider this dimension as being a specific part
of the communication puzzle. This section will treat five of those signals: the
cigarette, the jewelries, the glasses, the make-up, and the briefcase. Those
objects are widely treated by Pease and Pease (2006) and are also evocated
by James (2008).
The cigarette
Even though in a lot of countries, smoking is more and more prohibited in
the companies' meeting rooms, I personally still find it interesting to develop
since, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world
cigarettes consumption is still raising. Actually, leadership does not only
occur in offices or in meeting rooms but everywhere else. Therefore I will
suggest meanings – by using the literature – of what could mean the
situation where you would see someone smoking. Moreover, some
interpretations about the state of mind of the smoker will be pointed out.
It is said in the literature that a plausible meaning of smoking would be that
the smoker need reassurance. Therefore smokers light cigarettes when they
feel under pressure or when they feel insecure. The non smoker people are
expressing the same feelings by using other methods: chewing their gum,
biting their nails, fingers and foot taping, etc. All those gestures are
suggesting the same meaning than when the smokers smokes : a need for
reassurance. Another well known phenomenon that people use to reassure
themselves is using their jewelries. People keep touching them while they feel
unsecure. They actually place their fear, insecurity, lack of confidence and
impatience in them. If you want to be seen as a confident leader, try to avoid
touching your jewelries and watches or if you are a girl, do not touch your
hair. If you have issues to control this, it is advised by the literature that
47 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
removing all the objects that could give a negative impression of you is a
good thing to do.
If you are negotiating or socializing with somebody who is smoking, it could
be helpful to get some information on the person's state of mind. A person's
attitude could actually be described by observing the way he or she exhales
the smoke. A positive attitude like confidence and superiority are usually
associated with blowing the smoke up. On the other hand, a negative
attitude like secretiveness or suspiciousness would be shown by a person
who is blowing the smoke down. This is a interesting observation which
could be useful to the leadership field. In negotiations for instance, a leader
could notice whether the potential buyer is blowing the smoke up or down. If
the smoke is blew up, it would suggest that the potential buyer made his
decision and is eager to buy and vice-versa.
The glasses
According to Thornton (1944), people wearing glasses are rated to be more
intelligent, studious, educated and honest compared to people who do not
wear them. And it seems like the heavier the frames on the glasses are, the
more frequently those adjectives were likely to be used. This could find its
meaning in the leadership. As a matter of fact, Pease and Pease (2006) are
arguing that it is the case because business leaders who wear glasses
usually have heavier frames. In order words, heavier frames would signify
power while in the opposite, lighter frames would suggest the image of a
“nice guy”. If a person wants to be seen as a powerful leader, and if he or she
wishes to wear glasses (non correctable glasses if there is no need to wear
them), my opinion is that this leader could choose heavier frames to assert
his or her powerful status.
It is also said in the literature that peering over the glasses should be
avoided if you want to give a positive image of yourself. The perception that
people have when they are looked with the eyes over the glasses is usually
48 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
that they are judged. Which could lead them to proceed to negative body
languages signals such as arms and legs crossed.
The power of make-up and of glasses for a women
A study has been made by Pease and Pease (2006) and they conclude that
for women, the ones who are wearing glasses and make-up were seen as
being confident, intelligent and the most ongoing. Women who wear make-
up with no glasses have also good rating concerning their appearance but
are seen as being less out going than if they were wearing glasses. In other
words, if a woman wants to have a positive and memorable impact on others,
it is said by the authors that they should wear make-up and glasses. My
personal opinion concerning this fact is that if what Pease say is true and
universal, women who feel the need to become leaders and taken more
seriously should wear glasses, even if they do not actually need them, by
using non correctable glasses for instance.
How to choose the briefcase?
The size of the briefcase is giving signals to others about the owner's status.
A large briefcase would suggest that the owner takes a lot of work on his or
her house which could lead to the interpretation that the owner is managing
poorly his or her time. On the opposite, a slim briefcase would say that the
owner is only concerned by the bottom line and therefore has a more
important status. Moreover and as it will be discussed later on, the theory
also states that the briefcase should be worn on the left side, in order to
leave the right hand free for handshaking. Another point developed in the
theory is that a women should not wear both a hand bag and a briefcase
because it would give the feeling that she is not organized. I personally found
this point really interesting since it is regarding the leadership and especially
the business leadership. The briefcase is actually an object that the majority
of business leaders are using. Therefore I think that knowing the theoretical
framework could improve the image that leaders are sending. For example, if
a business women is seen as being not organized, if she is aware of this
image and willing to change it, if she is wearing all the time a briefcase and a
49 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
handbag, she could actually try to change that negative image by limiting
herself by only wearing either the bag or the briefcase.
Supra-verbal and leadership
In a leadership perspective, if you as a leader – or a follower – want to make
better sense of what you see, you should consider also the supra-verbal
dimension, since it gives a lot of non verbal communication signals. The
more people have accessories and use them, like touching repeatedly the
jewelries and so forth, the more you would be able of making sense of what
you actually see. And on the other hand, if you – as a leader or a follower –
want to modify the image that you are sending to others, you could also use
some objects to help you to do so. You could for instance wear glasses if you
want to appear more intelligent or have a slimmer briefcase if you want to
show that you have a more important status. Nevertheless, for the further
analysis part of the paper, I will distinguish two categories of accessories, of
distinctive objects. The first category includes the essential accessories, like
the clothes, the glasses, the make-up, etc. On the other hand, the second
category is including miscellaneous accessories: the cigarettes, the
briefcases, the watches, etc.
Construction of the model of analysis: step 5
50 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.7. THE PRE-VERBAL DIMENSION: THE BODY LANGUAGE
The pre-verbal dimension is the dimension related to the whole body and to
the signification of specific part of it. It is an important part of the cluster of
the final puzzle. As a matter of fact, the following parts will be dedicated to
smaller pieces of the puzzle.
3.7.1. THE HANDS
Hands and arms gestures
Did you know that a hand has 27 bones which are laced together by a
network of ligament and tiny muscles to move? Moreover, did you also know
that there are more nerves connections between the brain and the hand than
between any other part of the body? Those observations are scientifically and
medically approved (Tubiana, Thomine, and Mackin,1998; Schmidt, Lanz,
2003; etc.). Why am I talking about anatomy facts within this work? Because
it provides an evidence that the hand gestures give somehow a powerful
insight into our emotional state. Furthermore, hands are usually placed in
front of our body, so people can use them – consciously or not – to give
sense.
Illustration 1: bones of the hand
51 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Hands are used when you shake other's hands, when you speak or when
you listen. In other words, they are constantly used when you interact with
people. This section will give an overview concerning the most used gestures
regarding hands, arms and their meaning. The explanations below are highly
inspired by five experts in body language: Goman (2011), James (2009),
Pease and Pease (2006), Phipps (2012), and Turchet (2009). However, I use
my own understanding and structure to explain the concepts.
Handshake
Handshaking has historical reasons that I will not develop here. However,
nowadays the handshaking practice has evolved and is used for greetings
and departures, in business context as well as in other ones. Nevertheless,
the impact of your handshake should not be underestimated since it is a
signal that could be used by the others to judge you: a handshaking can
make or break a relationship. Actually, as it has been discussed previously,
the first impression is rather important and if you have the chance to give a
first good impression with your handshake, why would you not take this
opportunity. This part will not give an overview of all the possible style of
handshakes but rather will treat the following question “what is a good
handshake?”. I personally think that this point has all its importance since I
firmly believe that the leadership world – especially the business leadership –
uses considerably the handshaking practice.
Several factors are taken into consideration when you shake hands. Have
you ever wondered how you shake hands? Who is the initiator? What is the
angle of your hands and the used strength? To begin with, if you are not
totally certain that the other person is not comfortable with you, it is better
to let him or her initiate the handshake. Otherwise the other person might
feel not welcomed and obliged to shake hands in return. The angle of your
handshake matters as well and shows the concept of dominance. If your
palm is up it would mean that you let the other one be more dominant and
vice-versa. A good compromise is to make sure that your hand is vertical, so
nobody is the dominant. In other words, if you want to be a leader who gives
52 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
a good handshaking – in order to leave a good impression for instance – it is
advised in the literature that you should keep your palm vertically and that
you should match the other person's strength.
Illustration 2: Dominant handshake by the person in the suit who is using the palm down
position, while the other person is using the submissive handshake since his palm is up.
Illustration 3: Vertical handshake – good handshake with no dominance sign
Another practice which is done when people shake hands is using the left
hand to make a second physical connection. According to Hoppe (2011)
touching with your left hand the elbow of the other person while you shake
hands could be powerful to have better chances to get what you want. It is
discussed in their article that researchers from the University of Minnesota
have conducted an experiment which will be called “the phone booth test”.
The astonishing conclusion of this test is that you will get up to three time
what you want when you make an light elbow touch. In other words, do not
hesitate to practice a quick elbow touch (less than 3 seconds) but make sure
that the context of the relationship or of the meeting allows you to do so. I
53 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
personally think that this fact could be used by leadership actors while they
shake hands. It could have a significant impact especially for negotiations.
Illustration 4: Handshaking and elbow touch – Ban Ki-Moon and Obama
The use of palms, hands and arms
Basically, the palms can be used in two ways: opened palm (palm up) and
non-opened palm (palm down, hidden palm). The meaning of a opened palm
is positive (palm up), it gives the image of trust and honesty while a non-
opened palm conveys a rather negative image and could even mean power
(for instance the palm-down handshaking of the previous paragraph). Using
the opened palm is powerful since on the one hand it shows trust and
honesty and on the other hand, it could encourage the other person to be
more open and honest with you as well. So, the use of the palms has its
importance for leaders or followers who would want to improve their image
by using the open palm posture.
The movements or postures that you do with your hands could be classified
into two categories: the good ones and the bad ones (James, 2008).
Fundamentally, the good hand gestures are used to convey either
illustrations (when you count something while presenting or when you use
your hand to describe the height of a problem) or emphatics messages (when
you gestures are showing emotions: when people stab or wring the hand to
show anger, frustration, etc.). Those gestures are powerful since they give
visible information. They are often used for emphasizing and are really
effective for embodying messages. On the other hand, bad hand gestures
54 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
could transmit aggressiveness, stress, anxiety, etc. Worse, your hands can
betray you and say the opposite of your words. If you pretend to be confident
and if you can't stop fiddling with your jewelry, do you think that your
interlocutor will have the same opinion? If you want to use only good gesture
for speeches, meetings, etc., there is no miracle and according to the theory,
you have to practice. People usually think about what to say but seldom
about how to say things. For instance, if you have problems with touching
jewelries or hair (for girls): take off your jewelries and tie your hair. This
paragraph would be more related to presentations. If you – as a leader or a
follower – are making presentations, I think that this theoretical framework
can bring you a lot about how to practice and how to use hands.
Furthermore, I firmly believe that this statement would be useful for a
researcher in leadership, using the non verbal communication. As a matter
of fact, that information could be used to better decode possible non-
congruence in a leader’s speech for instance.
This paragraph will give an overview of common gestures and their meaning.
However, as it has been said and as it will be said within the following
sections, the contingency should be taken into consideration. It is not
because a man crosses his arms that it would definitely mean that he is
defensive, he might just be cold. The first gesture that will be analyzed is the
steeple, which occurs when the fingers of one hand are lightly pressed
against the other hand's fingers and forms a church steeple. This posture is
showing confidence and assurance although it can also show arrogance. The
steeple can also be extended into a shape of praying, which means even
more self-confidence. If you want to look confident and having the right
answer, the steeple is the perfect position, which is advised by the theory, for
you. However, theory also states that this position should not be over used
or you risk to be seen as an arrogant. Another position which will be
developed is when people hold their hands behind their back. This stance
leaves the genitals without protection, which could convey confidence from
the initiator of this position. Therefore this posture is often synonym of
confidence, authority and superiority. It is a posture which reminds me of
55 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
the army where the superior is talking to his subordinates. However this
position could be powerful when you are unsecure or under pressure since it
will make you feel confident and therefore you will become more confident. A
last hands position which will be described in this section is the hands
clenched which happens when people have their hands woven together. This
gesture could convey the signal of confidence but could also convey the
opposite image. Actually, it could be a frustration gesture which could mean
that the person is holding back anxiousness or negative attitude. Therefore I
personally think – based on the reviewed literature – that as a leader, if you
see somebody with this gesture, you should try to “unclench” the situation
by for instance offering a beverage or by making the person holding
something.
Illustration 5: The steeple hand position: Nicolas Sarkozy (former president of France)
Illustration 6: Hands behind back position
Illustration 7: Clenched hands position
The last paragraph is dedicated to the use of arms within one particular
position: the crossed arms. According to the authors quoted in the beginning
of this section, and especially to Pease and Pease (2006), arm crossing is a
negative signal. It could convey defensive and insecure attitude, and even
disagreement. Those statements could be worse if the person is gripping his
or her arms or if his or her fists are clenched. Furthermore, people with this
gesture will retain less of what you are saying. If you are the speaker and
you are observing this gesture in your audience, it is stated by the authors
that it is advised to make the person's arms uncrossed in order to create a
56 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
better environment for you. Same techniques as hands clenched posture can
and should be applied to make the situation better. The theoretical
framework would suggest that you can give your audience a pen, a book,
something to look at in order to make them uncross their arms. If you are
the speaker, the same recommendation is given: uncross your arm.
Otherwise you risk to be seen with a defensive position. Have you ever
considered why you cross your arms when you are not at your ease? When I
asked some of my friends or relatives regarding this issue, they tell me that
they do that posture because it is comfortable, like it is stated in the
theoretical framework. Maybe it is comfortable for you to have the arms
crossed on that specific moment but if it is that comfortable, why don't you
keep this posture when you are having fun or when you are enjoying a
dinner or a comedy movie? What is probably true is that crossed arms is a
comfortable position because it matches the emotional state on a specific
moment. My interpretation based on the literature regarding this
problematic is to avoid the arm crossing in any circumstances, except if you
want to show your disagreement or if you do not want to participate into the
conversation. This paragraph is also related to leadership in the sense that
the importance of the arms is omnipresent in social exchanges. Moreover,
the specific cases exposed above are fitting the presentation or negotiation
situations. Indeed, the theory could be extrapolated to those contexts and
give a basis to presenters on how bad it is to cross arms or to see people in
the audience doing that posture.
Illustration 8: The arms crossed position – Arsene Wenger (Liverpool football coach)
57 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.7.2. THE LEGS
Did you know that the further we get far away from the brain, the less people
are aware of their own body movements? Most people are aware of what kind
of facial expression they are doing because they know that the face mirrors
the felt emotions. Then people are aware, but less than the facial movement,
of their hand gestures, since they often have visual contact with them. In
other words the more we get close to the feet, the less people are aware of the
part of the body. Therefore legs are an important source to get information
from. People actually seldom consider faking leg gestures since they don't
pay enough attention to them. Since this lack of attention, a body language
reader could easier figure out the counterpart's emotional state.
This legs part will be dedicated to some common postures and will suggest
meaning to those stances. Therefore, this section should be considered as
being an overview of the legs position and their importance within the
leadership area. Most of the literature that will support this part is coming
from the following authors: Ekman (1977), Goman (2011), James (2009),
Pease and Pease (2006), Phipps (2012), and Turchet (2009). However and
like the previous section, I will use my own interpretation and structure to
explain the concepts.
Historically, legs have two main purposes: to move forward to what one
want, and to get away from what one does not want. Those two basic
movements are still valid nowadays in everyday's life. As a matter of fact,
legs and feet are giving information concerning whether the person wants to
stay or to leave a conversation. In other words, legs are showing the
counterpart's commitment. This commitment part will be develop in the
following paragraphs. Moreover, the legs movements could also give hints
about the counterpart's honesty. The conclusions of the psychologist Paul
Ekman (1977) regarding this problematic are really interesting: there is a
positive correlation between the legs movements and lies. The more people
lie, the more they would tend to move their legs. Furthermore, people (who
58 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
do not have special abilities of reading body movements) would have a higher
probability to spot a lie when they can actually see the other's entire body.
This conclusion could be helpful in a leadership perspective. As a leader or a
follower, you could easier spot a lie if you can see the whole body, even if you
are not trained to do so since the process is unconsciously accomplished.
Some most common leg positions…
… while standing
This part will be dedicated to legs positions you can see every day, while the
observed person is standing. Four of them will be developed :
The attention stance
The attention stance is the basic posture. This is actually a formal position
which shows a neutral attitude. The legs are kept together and the meaning
would be that the person has no intention to stay or leave the conversation.
This position is usually observed in a boss-employee relationship. In the
leadership perspective, official leaders can usually see this position on their
followers since it is a boss-employee relationship.
Illustration 9: The attention stance
Legs apart
The legs apart is similar to the attention stance except the fact that there is
more space between the feet. In the opposite of the previous stance, this one
would clearly transmit a “no leaving intention” message. The weight of the
person will be more distributed thus he or she will be more stable. I have
personally observed this posture in a specific sport: boxing. Actually boxers
59 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
use this kind of stance when they do not want to move from their position.
They enlarge their posture so the weight is better distributed which will
make them harder to be pushed back or to fall. the meaning of this posture
is actually quite similar to the one that already has been discussed in a
previous section (3.7.1 the hands): the hands behind the back position. It is
used by dominant persons and conveys confidence. This explanations could
be used in a leadership perspective in order to make more confident insecure
leaders or followers. They could actually have this stance to seem more
confident and therefore they will feel and act like confidents persons.
Illustration 10: The Leg apart position
Foot-forward
This posture requires one leading foot on which the weight will be put. In
this case, the weight is not equally distributed between the two legs like
previously but rather on the first and leading foot. Information could be get
by observing the foot-forward: actually the leading foot is pointing the
direction the mind wants to go. It could be a specific person in a group on
who the foot-forward person has a special interest, or it could be the exit
door if the person wants to leave the conversation for some reasons. The
observation of such a phenomenon is rather interesting in a leadership point
of view since it could give hints on the person's first interest and could give
answers of the following questions: does the person want to stay in the
conversation? Who is considered by the foot forward posture the most
important person in the group?
60 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Legs crossed
Submissive attitude, defensive attitude, unsecure, lack of confidence, etc. all
these state of mind could be conveyed by a legs crossed position. On the
opposite, open legs would transmit openness or dominance. The legs crossed
position could also mean for a man that he has no intention to leave the
conversation but that he also is not at ease since crossed legs would protect
masculinity. By crossing the legs, a man is actually preventing to be kicked
where it hurts. The same comment as in a previous paragraph (3.7.1. the
hands) could be done concerning the reason of a legs crossed position.
People usually say that it is because it is comfortable, it might be
comfortable on the moment because this stance matches the emotional state
of the moment that could be: submissive or defensive attitude, lack of
confidence, etc. Nevertheless the contingency factor should not be forgotten,
it is not because someone has his or her arms and legs crossed that he or
she is defensive, it might just be that the person is just cold. In a leadership
aspect, the observation of crossed legs could be used for instance during an
interview. If a candidate claims that he or she is confident, relaxed and if he
or she has the legs and arms crossed, this could mean that the candidate is
not as relaxed as pretended. The interviewer could make sense of such
posture to see if the person is congruent or not.
Illustration 11: The crossed legs position
… while sitting
This part will focus on legs position, but when the observed person is sitting,
instead of standing. Three interesting position will be explained:
61 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Arms and legs crossed
As it has been discussed in a previous section (3.7.1. the hands), arm
crossing is not a posture you want to see in your audience. The leg crossing
is actually giving more impact on the negative attitude. The arms and legs
crossed would mean that the person is emotionally out of the conversation,
that it is quite futile to try convincing him or her. In business context, it is
usually accompanied by shorter sentences, more rejected proposal, and less
recall of details of the discussion. As a leader or a follower and if you want to
be persuading, you should try to make your audience uncross their arms
and or legs. The same techniques as it has been said previously (3.7.1. the
hands) could be used in this case: offering beverages, make the audience
touching something, for example graphs or images … And of course, the
techniques should be adapted to the audience.
Illustration 12: The crossed legs position - Obama
The figure four
The figure four occurs when a person is crossing the legs and when the writs
are on the other knee. In “Americanized” cultures, a person who would use
this posture would convey a dominant attitude, but would also be seen as
relaxed and youthful. Nevertheless, there is a cultural difference which is
quite important. If you happen to do this posture in Asia or in the Middle
East, it will be seen as an insult since you will show the sole of your shoes,
which walk in the dirt. Pease and Pease (2006) are discussing the fact that
people take more final decisions when they have booth feet on the floor.
Which means that in a leadership perspective, it is more appropriate for a
leader or a follower to ask the counterpart to make a final decision when the
other’s legs are both touching the floor.
62 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Illustration 13: The figure four position – Steve Jobs
Figure four leg clamp
This position is an extension of the figure four one. The person has the same
position but in addition has one or both hands on the legs that does not
touch the floor. The literature would suggest that this is a sign of tough
minded person and stubborn individual who rejects opinions different that
their own. In a leadership point of view, the leader or the follower should
keep in mind that it will be hard to convince a person with such a posture.
Therefore it is advised to try keeping such a person having his or her hands
busy, as we have seen in the arms and legs crossed part.
Illustration 14: Figure four leg clamp position
When the mind closes, so does the body
In conclusion for this legs and feet part, I would like to emphasize the fact
that the body is doing clearly what the mind really thinks. Therefore it is
important for a leader or even for a follower to pay attention to this part of
the body which could give a lot of information about the emotional state of
mind of the observed person. If you are presenting something and if you
need the audience or even a single person approval, try to make them
uncross their legs and arms and you will see that their attitudes and their
63 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
mind will follow. Your audience will retain more details, will be more opened,
and will be in favorable condition to make the decision that you are waiting
for. On the opposite if you are observing somebody, you can also have hints
about his or her state of mind, nervousness, willingness of being part of the
conversation, ect.
3.7.3. THE FACE: THE SMILE
I choose one specific part of the face to develop: the smile. The reasons of
this choice is that I find the smiles really interesting and impacting the
leaders’ everyday life. Many other parts of the face (the eyes, the facial
expressions, etc.) could also have been developed but I firmly believe that if I
would have chosen to explain each part of the face, it would have taken too
much space in the course of this paper. Nevertheless, I will discuss in a later
section (3.8. cultural or universal!?) the facial expressions and their nature.
As it has been said in a previous section, babies “learn” to smile by
themselves, it is an expression which find its roots in the human genetic
capital. Babies begin to smile around the fifth week and begin to laugh
between the fourth and sixth months. This expression is universal and
would show the person's happiness and joy, on that moment. This chapter
will treat the importance of smiling and its consequences.
How does it work?
Without going too much into details, the French scientist Duchene de
Boulogne (1849) discovered that two kind of muscles were used while people
are smiling: the zygomatic major and the orbicularis oculi. The zygomatic
major are the muscles which allow the mouth to be enlarged and the cheeks
to be pulled back. The orbicularis oculi on the other hand are the muscles
which will make the eyes narrow and cause “crow's feet”. Those two type of
muscles are important to understand since only one of them can be
activated consciously. Indeed, the zygomatic major are controlled and can be
used at will, which means that if somebody is faking a smile the orbicularis
64 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
oculi will not move. To make it simpler, a fake smile will only involve the
mouth, while a genuine one will involve the mouth and the eyes. Fake smiles
are not easy to spot, for regular people who are not trained to do so.
However, faking a smile can be easier for actors who are trained to feel the
wanted emotion and to reproduce the expression that is link to that emotion.
More details about the impact on leadership and about fake smiles will be
given in the following paragraphs.
Illustration 15: Zygomatic major and orbicularis oculi
Smiling is contagious
The Swede professor Dimberg at Upsalla University and some colleagues
(2000) conducted a really interesting study about how the unconscious has
the control of facial expressions. Participants were asked to smile, frown or
having a neutral face while they were looking at several pictures. The study
showed that it was difficult for people to smile when they were looking at sad
people and vice versa. When people were looking at a specific emotion, they
tend to recreate the same one. The conclusion of the study demonstrates
that people are mirroring when they are facing an emotion. Therefore, it is
more difficult to smile when people are looking at sad people.
This statement has a huge impact. As a matter of fact, that means that if
person A smiles, person B will probably also smile thanks to the mirror
effect, even if person B does not feel like smiling. And by smiling, person B
will also feel happier. When smile to someone, he or she will reciprocate by
returning the smile, even if both smiles are fake ones. Therefore regular
65 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
smiling is important to have in a leader's repertoire, even if he or she does
not feel totally like it. On the one hand, it will give the incentive to people to
smile back at the leader which will create a good atmosphere, and on the
other hand it will influence people's attitude toward the leader, since they
will feel happier thanks to repetitive smiles. Moreover, according to the
experience of Pease and Pease (2006) smiling with the right timing during
negotiations or sales is increasing the favorable outcomes and the ratio of
sales.
Faking a smile
As I argued in the paragraph “How does it work?” the fake smile is usually
not easy to recognize. One clue that we have seen is the absence of eye's
movement orbicularis oculi), but there is actually one more clue to spot a
fake smile. The part in our brain which control facial expressions is located
in the right hemisphere. As you might know, the right hemisphere is
responsible for the left part of our body. If I am using my left hand, the order
is coming from my brain’s right side. Why am I explaining some functions of
the brain, hemispheres and spotting fake smiles? Well, when people are
using a fake expression, that expression will be more pronounced on the left
side of the face. Actually when the smile is genuine, both sides of the brain
will give the same instructions and both sides of the face will respond
simultaneously and symmetrically. In other words, the theory is stating that
looking at the left side of the face of your interlocutor is a good practice if
you are doubting about him or her. If you are still reluctant about the
theory, you can try a simple experiment which requires only a mirror. Try
honestly to make a fake smile in front of the mirror and you should see that
your left side of your face is more pronounced than the right one. My
impression is that it might be important for you as a potential leader to have
this “looking on the left side” in your repertoire when you are doubting about
the sincerity of your counterpart. However and as it will be discussed below,
faking a smile is not automatically synonym of negative attitude: it could be
a social reason smile.
66 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Illustration 16 : reading the left side of the face
This is the picture of a women who is asking to the “kidnapers” of her children to give them
back, during a press meeting. Actually, the truth is that it is this women who harmed her
own children. We can observe that if the focus is only given to the left side of the face, the
person is actually smiling, while the right side is sad (even crying). The left side is giving the
genuine emotional state of the person (the smile) and the right one is faking (sadeness).
The point of this section is to warn you about an idea that people usually
have: a liar smiles more than an honest person. According to the great
researcher in psychology and especially in the facial expressions Paul
Ekman (2009), this statement is wrong. His study showed that when people
deliberately lie, they are less likely to smile. Liars actually avoid smiling
because they believe that smiling is positively correlated to lying. Therefore
and in order to lure the interlocutor, they avoid this facial expression. My
interpretation regarding this issue is that if you are a “smiler”, do not
restrain yourself because of false perception that you have about that
correlation. As it has been argued in a previous section and as it will be said
in the following ones: smiling is beneficial. This statement could be
extrapolated to leadership. Indeed, smiling brings a lot of positive attitudes
that will be developed in the following paragraphs and as a leader – or a
follower – you will probably have positive responses when you smile.
67 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Three types of fake smiles
This part will be dedicated to three types of fake smiles you will probably see
in the everyday life (Pease & Pease, 2006): the tight-lipped smile, the twisted
smile and the drop-jaw smile.
The tight-lipped smile is characterized by concealed teeth and the lips are
tight and are forming a line across the face. This kind of smile could convey
that the person who is smiling has actually a secret that he or she does not
want to share. This is a typical smile that could occur when someone does
not like somebody else but is smiling at him or her for social reasons. The
tight-lipped “smiler” will not share his or her real opinion about the other
person but will smile politely instead.
The twisted smile has already been explained somehow earlier. Usually, it
happens when only one part of the face (the left one) is expressing the
emotion. The left part will be smiling while the right one will show for
example angriness. If a mirror is used on the left part of the smile, the whole
face will be smiling and vice versa for the angry one (like the illustration 16).
This expression is usually used by the Western world and is a conscious
movement, which could show sarcasm.
The drop-jaw smile arises when someone wants to feign happiness. It is
characterized by a lowering of the jaw, which could convey the message that
the person is playful or laughing and which is not actually the case.
Illustration 17: The drop jaw smile
68 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Those three types of smiles are likely to be faked in order to give a good
message. The point here is not say that a fake smile is bad. There are a lot of
reasons to feign smiles: mirroring, cheering somebody up, social reasons,
protecting a secret, ect. However, if you pay attention and see one of these
types of smile, it is probable that the person is not congruent (3.2. 93% of
the puzzle: the five dimensions of non verbal communication). As a
leadership actor, you can use fake smiles since it could have a honorable
reasons. And if a fake smile is spotted, you should not – based on the
literature – draw quickly negative conclusions since it could have acceptable
reasons.
Why should you laugh?
Laughing is an incredible activity that will affect your whole body positively.
When you laugh, you will breath quicker than usual, which implies that
your lungs, diaphragm, face, neck, stomach and shoulders will be exercised.
It will also cause an increasing amount of oxygen within your blood, which
helps healing, improves the blood circulation and expends some of the blood
vessels. This is a reason why people turn red when they are laughing. Some
studies were done and were quite positive concerning the use of laughing to
help the diseases to be cured and to make people feel happier. One of them
is a research conducted by Dr Patch Adams2 who introduced the laughter
therapy. The conclusions of his work are that the laughter therapy
accelerates the healing progress. The consumption of pain killer is lowered
while people are following this therapy. Moreover, a professor in psychology
in the University of North Carolina, Arnie Cann found that the laugh can
cure first signs of depression. Finally thanks to the use of EEG
(electroencephalograph), Richardson professor of psychology and psychiatry
showed that when people smile or laugh, even though they don’t feel like it,
will activate the “happy zone” located in the brain. In simpler world, if you
laugh, you will feel happier even if you didn’t feel like it before.
2 Laughter therapy, available online at < http://veronik2302.webnode.es/patch-adams-
father-of-laughter-therapy>
69 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Those medical reasons I mentioned have to be added to the previous
dimension: the mirroring effect. As a matter of fact, when you will laugh and
smile you will feel happier and thanks to the mirroring effect, you will have
an impact on your own entourage. Furthermore, it is good for your own
body. In a leadership perspective, the medical reason is an additional reason
to the previous ones that have been discussed: mirroring effect and the
increase of the success rate during negotiations. Therefore, smiling and
laughing should be taken seriously by leaders. Don’t people say mens sana
in corpore sano?
Be smiling and not … morose
I praised in the previous paragraph the positive power that you will have on
your entourage by using smiles and laughs. This section will treat what
would happen if you do the opposite of smiling. As a matter of fact, the
mirroring effect works in both ways. If you seem depressed you will have an
effect on people around you and vice versa: it is also unpleasant to work in
an environment in which you can feel a negative vibe. It is actually a vicious
circle. An unpleasant work environment will make people unhappy, which
will lead to an even more unpleasant environment.
Moreover, if you are regularly in a morose state of mind it can affect your
face and be printed on it. That what is called the permanent down-mouth.
Instead of going up, the corners of your moth will go down. Indeed, repeating
an emotion again and again can be printed on your face and be seen even if
your face is in a “neutral” position. According to studies that Pease and
Pease (2006) refer to, the consequence of such a permanent expression is
that people will avoid this kind of person and giving them less eye contact.
So if you want to avoid frightening little children, the theoretical framework
is stating that attention should be paid if you have some “symptoms” of the
down-mouth. The previous paragraphs stated why leaders and followers
should smile and laugh. This one is actually arguing about why leaders and
followers should not be morose since it could lead to a down-mouth
70 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
permanent expression. This expression could also impact negatively the first
impression that people are having.
Illustration 18: The down-mouth expression
3.7.4. THE POSTURE
Are you short? Tall? Thin? Overweight? Do you wonder if the physical
appearance matters for a first impression? This section will treat those
questions and the aspects of the shape, the height and the size that people
have. Moreover, some consequences of the body type that people have will be
discussed as well. Finally, some advices will be given in order to adapt to
particulars situations. All the following ideas are highly inspired from Pease
and Pease (2006) and from Phipps (2012).
Body type
As a matter of fact, the question of the physical appearance and the first
impression stated above will be considered immediately. It does make sense
that of course the physical appearance will influence others. Actually,
physical appearance is the first thing that the world will see, therefore it will
influence the perception that people have of you. People will make
assumptions of your traits, characters, etc. based only on their perception
that they have of you: this is called stereotypes. If you are overweight,
majority of people will assume that you are unfit and lazy. If you happen to
be very thin, people will think you have eating problems. If you are really
tall, people will be intimidated even if you haven’t said a word yet. On the
opposite, if you are short, people will have the impression that you are a kid.
Those standards are made in comparison with the average. If the difference
between a person’s characteristic and the average is big, he or she will be
71 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
classified into one of these four categories. According to an NHS study in
2009, the average English man is 83.9kg for 1.75m and the average English
women is 70.2Kg for 1.62m. Those numbers and the classification into
categories depend on the location. The standards are not the same for the
whole world.
The body type is mainly determined by the genes, the alimentation and the
physical exercises. Moreover people cannot always change their shape,
except maybe for the weight. Politicians who are rising and becoming more
powerful and more famous are sometimes doing diets, in order to lose the
image of lazyness that has been said in the previous paragraph. Otherwise, it
is quite impossible nowadays to get or lose 20 cm. Thus, there is not much
things that can be done in order to change the body type. However, things
can be done to control some messages that you are sending through your
posture, size, shape and height. Those aspects will be discussed in the
followings paragraphs.
Highness and power
Historically, the height has always been linked to status. For instance, when
people refer to a king or a queen, the words “Your Highness” are usually
used. The judge sits higher than everyone else in the court, the Olympic gold
medal winner stands above the silver and the bronze medal winners, and
some cultures divide their social classes into “upper classes” and “lower
classes”. One can already sense that people who are physically or
metaphorically higher than others have more power, a higher status.
The height of the body is also linked nowadays to a superior – subordinate
relationship. When the superior is not satisfied of a subordinate, he will tend
to be the highest possible while the subordinate will probably look smaller.
In extreme cases, the superior will stand right, will have his or her shoulder
wide and his or her face directed at the subordinate, while the subordinate
will have the shoulders collapsed inwards and the head slightly lowered. I
actually personally experienced those postures during my current program.
72 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
A guest lecturer proposed us an experiment while person A was the superior
– the rich and powerful owner of the house – and person B was the
subordinate – the gardener who made a huge mistake. Person A had to be
really firm and criticize the work of person B and even if the experiment was
not true, since the students were acting the situation, I could actually
observe all what has been said above. The relationship superior –
subordinate was obvious just by observing the postures and how people
acted to look higher or smaller. In other words, if you aim to be dominant,
try to look taller and vice-versa. The “how to do” will be treated in the last
section. This paragraph could actually be helpful concerning a leadership
perspective since the relationship official leader - employee is similar to a
superior - subordinate one.
How to look taller?
As it has been discussed, if you look short you will not be seen as dominant.
However, you are also more likely to be interrupted by men. It has been
argued in the literature that smaller people cannot finish their sentences
more often that taller ones. If you want to be seen as taller and to gain some
dominance and be taken more seriously, this section will describe what has
been said in the theory.
If you are often interrupted because of your height and if you want to be
taken more seriously when people are sitting and having a discussion, find
an excuse and stand up. You can grab a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom
or whatever, but you will see how efficient this technique is. However, this
tip is quite difficult to put into practice in an everyday life. If you are sitting
on a chair and cannot stand up at your will, try to have a seat that you can
make taller, it can always help. Moreover, you can try the posture of having
your arms on the chair’s armrest. It will give the impression that you are
taller and more imposing.
If you are presenting something behind a lectern, you can try to have it
smaller, so it will show that the distance between your chin and the lectern
73 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
is higher. This technique is usually used by politicians when they have to
make a speech and they are not that tall. Talking of politicians, some are
using soles to seem taller (Sarkozy for instance). Finally, try to be assertive
and to perform strong performances. It has been studied and proved that
assertiveness make us see people taller, especially through television.
Taller not always better
That is true that being taller can be considered as an advantage. However,
being tall has its downsides as well. It can show too much dominance and
too much aggressiveness. It is the case when the tall person need to talk on
one-to-one and on the “same level”.
But there are some tips as well if you want to reduce that negative image. If
a customer is angry and let you know the facts, and if you know that you are
wrong and want to apology, try the following method. First of all try to
reduce the barrier. If you are behind your desk, or behind a store counter,
give up that position and gain the customer’s side. If you are seated, then
put your elbows on your laps, next to the armrest: it will amplify the fact
that you look smaller. In addition of that, you can practice the open palm
position to calm the customer. You can also try to do the opposite of what
have been said in the previous section to be seen smaller, for instance be
seated while you are talking to a coworker, which will give the height
advantage to him and which will decrease your dominance status.
Construction of the model of analysis: step 6
74 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.8. CULTURAL OR UNIVERSAL?
This chapter has all its importance since it will provide insights on whether
non verbal communication can be extrapolated and be inter-cultural or not.
To link this concept to the puzzle of non verbal communication, I would refer
to the question of universality of non verbal as being directing a piece of the
puzzle. Indeed, a piece could be oriented in many ways (four if the puzzle is
rectangular). The orientation of the pieces, in this metaphor is depending on
the contingency and for this specific example, on the culture. If non verbal
communication is universal, there is only one way to put the piece in the
puzzle. If non verbal is culturally defined, the piece would suggest different
meaning depending on its orientation. The orientation of the piece will refer
to the location, to the culture. As it will be discussed below, if you make an
“OK sign”, depending on the location (the orientation of the piece) it will have
a different meaning.
Is non verbal communication universal or culturally learned? This questions
has been dividing the scientific community for a while. As it has been stated
in the introduction, some evidence would suggest that the non verbal
communication is universal. This section of the thesis will treat deeper this
aspect and the fundamental question of the universality of non verbal
communication. It is following the previous sections so that now you have
the theoretical materials to have your own view on the question.
Nevertheless, I will give you my interpretation – based on theory – about the
question.
As it is discussed in the emotion part (3.1. emotions and emotional
intelligence), emotions are the underlying cause of non verbal
communication. The non verbal communication of a person is somehow
showing the emotions he or she is feeling. In this section, the emotions will
be the studied variable. The question “is non verbal communication
universal of cultural?” is actually in this part “are emotions universal or
75 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
cultural?”. The answer to the second question is actually giving an answer to
the first one since both are positively correlated. If the emotions are
universal, non verbal communication (which is used to show those emotions)
is also universal.
This question is primordial for a leadership perspective. As a matter of fact,
all information that could be gathered about the non verbal communication
is important. This one is essential since it would give a preview on the
universality of the non verbal communication applied to leaders. Are all the
leaders expressing themselves in the same way, when they are feeling a
common emotions? And you, as a plausible leader and non verbal
communication reader, is it a good thing to make sense in the same way on
what you are seeing in two different persons (coming from significant
different cultures)? Concretely, if a Japanese and a Brazilian are doing the
same facial expression, does that mean the same? I personally think that
this problematic is really interesting and is necessary to be better
understood, in order to have a deeper understanding of leadership.
This part of the thesis is highly inspired by the well known Paul Ekman
(2004). Ekman is actually a psychologist, expert of facial expressions and he
has studied for more than forty years emotions and their expressions. He did
cross cultural studies of facial expressions and his findings will be developed
in the following paragraphs. I chose Ekman’s point of view to develop the
concept since I personally agree with his ideas. Moreover, I think that he has
a good balance within the question of universality of emotions. He also uses
a lot of authors and experiments to make his point stronger and on the other
hand, he is humble and explains quite well the point of view of the
counterpart. Nevertheless, in addition with Ekman’s way of thinking, many
other authors which agree or not with his ideas will be quoted below.
The context
The question of the universality of emotions is raised mainly by Darwin
(1872). He actually was convinced that emotions are universal. Since then,
76 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
many authors totally disagreed with Darwin’s conclusions. Indeed, according
to Ekman (2004, p.13), authors like Mead, Bateson, Hall, Bridwhistell and
Osgood seem to think differently than Darwin. Those authors, coming from
different areas (psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc.) are indeed believing
that emotions are socially and culturally learned. Their way of thinking is the
following one: emotional expressions are the product of learning, and
therefore are different in each culture. On the other hand, one author – in
addition to Darwin – was doubting the statement that emotions are
culturally learned. Silvan was in fact firmly believing that emotions were
universal.
Ekman, had the opportunity of going deeper in this question. First, he was
on Hall’s and others side, he thought that emotions were not universal.
Therefore he tried to prove this statement and he actually found the opposite
of what he wanted to prove. Isn’t it an ideal scientific finding?
Universality of the emotions and display rules
In order to go further in this research question (emotions: universal or
cultural?), Ekman (2004) ran several experiments. His first study concerning
this problematic was done in five different cultures (Chile, Argentina, Brazil,
Japan and United-States). He used pictures which showed specific emotions
to those different people. The conclusion was that they were all able to
interpret those emotion in the same way which would suggest that emotions
are universal. This statement is reinforced by another study done quite
simultaneously by Izard (1971). Izard is a psychologist and ran quite the
same experience as Ekman and had the same conclusions.
However, why many other respected authors think different from Darwin and
from the universality of emotions. For example, the well known
anthropologist Birdwhistell (1970) specialized in gestures and expressions
stated that he stopped to agree with Darwin’s ideas when he found out that
in many cultures, people smile even if they are not happy. Ekman reconciled
77 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
the universality of the expressions and Bridwhistell’s observation and he
came up with the display rules.
According to Ekman (2004, p.4) the display rules are “socially learned, often
culturally different, rules about the management of expressions, about who
can show which emotion to whom and when they can do so. […] These rules
may dictate that we diminish, exaggerate, hide completely, or mask the
expression of emotion we are feeling”. In other words, emotions and
expressions are universal but the management of them are culturally
defined. To make his point stronger, Ekman ran the following experiment. He
showed to Japanese and American persons a movie with surgeries and
incidents. When the persons were sitting alone in front of the television, they
were expressing the same emotions. On the other hand, when a scientist was
sitting next to them, Japanese persons were more smiling than American’s
one. Japanese were actually masking the negative expression with a smile,
when they were not alone. The conclusion to this experiment is that the
management of emotions is not the same for people issued from different
cultures. In this case, the expressions were innate in private and managed in
public, especially for the Japanese persons. On the other hand, Ekman is
contrasting his concept by saying that symbolic gestures, such as the
nodding, the head shake no, the OK gestures, etc. are culturally defined.
More information about that area will be developed in a further paragraph.
In order to reinforce even more his point, Ekman decided to run another
experiment, by controlling better the environment. He chose an isolated
culture, where people were not influenced by movies, televisions, magazines,
and even people from other cultures and he shown the same pictures as his
previous study in five different cultures. The Papua New Guinea was chosen
to conduct his experiment. His conclusions were the same as previously,
people from Papua New Guinea were using the same expressions when they
were expressing themselves. Furthermore, the meaning that people made of
the facial expressions were the same. This point was demonstrated by
showing somebody else (from America) close-up expressions, with no
context. People were able to find the showed emotion without knowing the
78 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
context, they just had a picture of the facial expression. If emotions and
expressions were culturally learned, people from Papua New Guinea should
have their own way of expressing themselves. Moreover, if emotions were not
universal, how was it possible for Americans to decode emotions from
another culture, that they have never seen before?
Sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness
Ekman is still humble even though his findings are impressive. According to
him, at least some facial expressions are universals. Those expressions
would be the sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness. Those expressions
would be the one that people can decode universally. Fear and surprise on
the other hand, are not distinguished from each other. Despite his
researches, other authors are still thinking that emotions – and even basic
ones as it is described above – are culturally defined. Nevertheless,
somebody else actually helped to reinforce Ekman’s ideas. Heider (2006) ran
the same experiment in another isolated culture because he wanted to prove
that Ekman was wrong. Heider finally found out that Ekman was not wrong
concerning those emotions. He even reached the same conclusions
concerning fear and surprise.
Illustration 19: Disgust (upper left)– enjoyment (upper right) – sadness (lower left) – anger
(lower right)
79 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Gestures culturally defined
As it has been stated in a previous section (3.3.the peri-verbal dimension),
the peri-verbal dimension is culturally defined. In addition to that, some
symbolic gestures are also not universal. Some of the differences in the body
language are listed by Pease and Pease (2006). For instance the “OK” sign
with the hand have several meanings depending on the culture. To a
westerner, it means ok; for a Russian, Brazilian or Turks, it is an insult; for
a French, it could mean zero, worthless; and for Japanese, this gesture
means money, coins. The same could be done with the “two gesture” which
could mean “two” for an American, “victory” for a German, and be an insult
in Britan. Furthermore, greetings also depend on the culture. People shake
hands in westernized countries; after the handshaking Saudi men are used
to hold the other’s hand in public to show respect; on the other hand,
Japanese don’t shake hands since it is considered as being impolite. In
Japan, handshaking and kisses are not common. Japanese people bow when
they meet and the person the most important bows the least while the less
important bow the most.
Illustration 20: The OK sign – Tony Blair
Even universal signs like the head nodding does not have the same
signification everywhere. In Bulgaria, the nodding means actually “no”; in
Japan it does not mean “yes, I agree with you” but “yes, I heard you”. In my
opinion, being aware of those cultural differences really matters, especially
in the leadership area. Business leaders for instance have to make their
client comfortable while they are doing business and it comes down to
sincerity and good manners. Therefore efficient leadership actors might take
80 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
into consideration the foreign culture while they are dealing with cultural
differences.
Universal or cultural? Why does it matter for a leadership perspective?
In my opinion, this problematic is really important and is should be
developed in the context of leadership and non verbal communication. As a
matter of fact, leadership’s actors are dealing more and more with the multi-
cultural environment. Our society is indeed more and more multi-cultural.
People are working on a daily basis with different persons from different
cultures. Moreover, thanks to the globalization, the economy is becoming
more and more wide. Those statements indicate that leadership actors are
confronted to cope with several cultures. Therefore, a better understanding
of what is universal or not is important to be developed. Basic emotions tend
to be universal (Ekman, 2004) even though the management of them is
culturally defined (display rules). Furthermore, as it has been stated above,
there are a lot of cultural differences which are depending on frame of
references (Weick, 1995). Gestures do not automatically have the same
meaning for people from different cultures.
In order for you, as a plausible leader, to decode better the puzzle of
communication, a better understanding of what influences the pieces of the
puzzle is needed. Indeed, the pieces of the puzzle are influenced by the
culture. A piece could for instance be a “OK” sign and be interpreted as
being an insult or as “everything is ok”. This statement has also all its
importance for a leadership researcher who would study leadership through
non verbal communication. The cultural factor is indeed an element of
contingency and the literature is stating that conclusions should not be
made quickly but should rather be considered in their cultural environment.
81 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.9. DECEIT SIGNALS
In this chapter, I will treat the deceit signals. Those signals are a clear signs
of non congruence. If somebody is often displaying the deceit gestures that
will be developed below, it is likely that this person is non congruent, that he
or she does not believe what he or she is saying. To link this concept with
the puzzle of non verbal communication, I will refer to the deceit signals as
being black pieces in a colorful puzzle. Indeed, if you see a beautiful and
colorful puzzle but with one or several black pieces, you will probably think
that the puzzle does not make sense, that something is wrong. It is the same
for non verbal communication, if a person uses non verbal signals but then
is using deceit signals – and if you are able to spot them – you will know that
what the person says does not make sense since the person also uses deceit
signals. This chapter will provide you – among other things – information so
you can spot easier the black pieces in the puzzle of non verbal
communication.
“You are a liar. So am I. Everyone is a liar” – Godin (2005). Such an
assumption chocked me a bit, when I first read it. But after proceeding to
some researches, I found that even numbers were going on the same way as
this statement. Indeed, James Patterson – writer of “The Day America Told
the Truth” – did a survey on a impressive sample (2000 persons) and found
out that 91% of the sample lied regularly at home or/and at work.
If you are not a naïve person, you might have considered the fact that lies
are also occurring and part of the leadership world – especially concerning
some specific areas that I will not develop further. But as I have argued
above, humans are liars and since leadership actors are humans, I assume
that they might lie as well. Therefore in this section, I will treat some
common signals that liars are likely to display.
82 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Three wise monkeys
Have you ever seen the image of those monkeys? The one where the
monkeys are covering their ears, their eyes and their mouth? Well, those
monkeys are in fact a good representation of the following sentence: “hear no
evil, see no evil, and speak no evil”. As a matter of fact, their simple “hand to
face” gestures are forming the basis of the human deceit gestures. In other
words, when people are speaking, seeing or hearing lies, they tend to cover
their mouths, eyes, or ears with their hands. This statement is reinforced by
the researcher Morris (1994) whose conclusion are the following: lying
persons are increasing their hands to face gestures and they are tending to
gulp their saliva more often.
The following paragraphs will give deeper explanations about common liars
gestures (inspired by Pease and Pease 2006). Nevertheless, I want to
emphasize it one more time since its importance: do not forget the
contingency. Indeed, conclusions cannot be made if you see someone
covering his or her mouth without knowing the clusters and the context.
There is no causality link in the following paragraphs. One of the following
gesture below do not have as a consequence that the person is lying. But
instead, a lying person is likely to show some of the following gestures.
Illustration 21: the three wise monkeys
83 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The mouth cover
“Say no evil”. You might see this gesture when the person is using a part of
his hand – or the totality of it – to cover the mouth. Indeed, sometimes this
gesture might be only several fingers but could also be the fist, the meaning
remains the same. People sometimes try to hide this gesture – consciously or
unconsciously – by making a fake cough.
Illustrations 22 and 23: The mouth cover (Barack Obama for the Illustration 23)
The eye rub
Have you ever witnessed a scene in the real life or in a movie where a person
– who might even be yourself – covers the face and especially the eyes with
the hands? This would refer to the “see no evil” that is discussed in a
previous paragraph. This gesture would suggest that the brain is attempting
to block the deceit it thinks it sees. Therefore people would be tempted by
rubbing their eyes or looking away while they are lying.
Illustration 24: The eye rub – George Bush
84 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The ear grab
This gesture would refer to the “hear no evil” discussed previously. It
consists in grabbing the ear, rubbing the back of it, or simply, a quick touch
of it. This gesture would suggest that the person does not want to hear what
is said and could even be transformed in an anxiety sign.
Illustration 25: The ear grab
The nose touch
Did you know that the human nose actually expands with blood when people
lie and that this phenomenon is called the “Pinocchio Effect” (Pease and
Pease, 2006)? Furthermore, did you know that chemicals (catecholamines)
are released when a person lies and is causing the tissue inside the nose to
swell? Unfortunately, one could not see this swelling on the naked eye but
instead, one could observe the consequences: the nose touch. This might
explain why people are rubbing or touching their nose while they are lying.
Illustration 26: The Pinnochio effect
Illustration 27: The nose touch – McCain
85 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Nudging the arm
Well, this gesture would also be a sign of lying. Nevertheless, it could also
signify that the person is not believing what he or she is saying. The gesture
happens when one of the arm is nudging while the other one stays in the
same position. In other words, one of the arm and shoulder will be elevated
for short moment while the other one does not move.
Deceit and leadership
As it is already stated above, it also happens that leadership actors lie. The
legitimacy of lies will however not be discussed here. This section is just
emphasizing the fact that people lie, but do not argue about the fact that it is
a good or a bad thing. Nevertheless, I do believe that this results and those
gestures could be useful for the leadership research and especially
concerning the “authentic leadership”. Indeed, the authentic leader is
supposed to be congruent and to have his communication in harmony. In
addition to that, the authentic leader is supposed to say the truth. Well, this
chapter exists – among other things – to verify the authenticity of leaders.
Construction of the model of analysis: step 7
86 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
3.10. MODEL OF ANALYSIS: PUTTING THE PIECES OF THE
PUZZLE TOGETHER
The proposed scheme of my model of analysis is actually exactly the same as
the one presented in the previous section. Indeed the last section was the
last step in the construction of the model. The model of analysis is separated
in two part. The first one is a visual summary of the literature review. The
communication is basically divided in two parts: the verbal and the non
verbal. As it is stated in the introduction, I chose the focus of non verbal in
the context of this paper and especially of its components – the five
dimensions – the big parts of the puzzle. The second part of the scheme is
actually constituting the questions that I will ask myself while I will observe
and analyze the videos.
This model will be the basis for the understanding and analysis of the part
“Empirical Illustrations an Analysis”. Nevertheless, the videos will not
87 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
probably treat all the questions from the scheme. Indeed, finding a video that
will illustrate all the aspects that were treated in the literature review could
be a really hard task. However, I will chose a certain amount of videos so at
the end, I will try to cover all the aspects examined in the literature review.
The questions that are presented in the scheme were elaborated so they will
be quite wide. Indeed, non verbal communication is more about reading the
whole sentence instead of reading each word separately. Therefore I
preferred to have a broader approach: I used substantives instead of
questions such as “are the arms crossed? Are the arms behind the back? Is
the speaker using the steeple position? etc.”. The broader approach will allow
me more freedom so I can use my interpretation and can make more link
with the whole non verbal communication.
Finally I also added, to the dimensions which will be observed, the question
of the congruence. Indeed, thanks to the deceit part (3.9. deceit signals)
developed in the literature review, I can also inspect and interpret the
speaker’s congruence.
All the videos illustrations will be interpreted by me, my personality, and my
frames of references. Therefore the conclusions could be quite different for
somebody else, who could watch the same video but having another point of
view. Nevertheless, my interpretation is also highly influenced by the
literature review that I have been composing. My vision is not only based on
me and my personality, it is also rational since I will use scientific facts to
draw conclusions of what I see.
88 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4. EMPIRICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND
ANALYSIS
I will describe this section by answering the three following questions: what
is it made of? How am I going to proceed? And why am I doing this?
The empirical illustrations and analysis part is made of videos displaying
leadership situations and their analysis. Those analyses will contain first a
description of the scene, of what is happening in the video. It will include the
context and non verbal communication signs. Those signs will be interpreted
and some meaning of them will be proposed.
How will this analysis be proceeded? Regarding the description, I will base it
on my own interpretation. On the other hand, concerning the analysis, I will
base it on the model of analysis developed in the section before. I will indeed
apply the model of analysis in order to draw conclusions from the videos
which will illustrate situation where leadership is exposed. In other words, I
will use the puzzle of non verbal communication to better understand a
leadership situation.
The reason of this procedure is to provide a better understanding of the
theoretical concepts mentioned in the literature review. Indeed, the use of
concrete and visual examples should highlight the importance of
understanding leadership by using the puzzle of non verbal communication.
Nevertheless, please keep in mind that all the interpretations that will be
made could be wrong. Indeed, it is a human science, nothing is 100% sure
when it comes to non verbal communication. Therefore, assumptions that I
will make could be right, or totally wrong.
89 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.1. ILLUSTRATION 1: CLINTON AND THE LEWINSKY SCANDAL
Who: Bill Clinton – Former president of the United States
Leadership field: Politician leader
Description: Bill Clinton is testifying in the Lewinsky scandal at the council
Title of the youtube video: Clinton testify
Length of the video: 2 minutes 6 seconds
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfpG2-1Bv4 >
Accessed on 06 May 2013
Description of the video
In this video, Clinton is testifying and defending himself concerning the
Lewinsky case. The “interviewer” is asking the former president questions
regarding the possible sexual relationship that he would have had with miss
Lewinsky. If the video is not watched but only heard, one could tell that Mr.
Clinton could tell the truth. However, when more attention is paid to his tone
of voice, to the repetitions that he is making, to his body language and to his
facial expressions, doubt could emerge about his honesty.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
In this video, only few thing could be said concerning the distance that the
president is using. Indeed, he is only changing the distance by leaning
forward when he is talking (example: 00.11 minute). I did not find any
significant changes in his tone of voice, except some hesitations and some
words repetition. Regarding the supra-verbal dimension – the distinctive
signals – one could easily see that he is well dressed (which is kind of normal
in this situation) and the fact that he has his wedding ring. Nevertheless,
there are quite a lot of interesting facts to say about his body language and
about deceit signals.
Before even starting the video, the very beginning draw my attention. Here is
a print screen of the video at 00.00 minute:
90 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The position that Mr. Clinton is using at this moment is indeed including a
lot of non verbal communication clues. The first one is the steeple – his
fingers of one hand are lightly pressed against the other hand's finger and
forms a church steeple. In addition to that, the steeple is covering his mouth
and touching his nose. The steeple gesture is conveying assurance and
confidence. He will use it also at 00.31 minutes. This gesture could suggest
that he is prepared and feeling confident about his answers. Nevertheless, he
will not use it after. Even if the hands are not always visible on the video,
one could tell that he is holding them together: he will use the hands
clenched position. This position would mean that Mr. Clinton is not
confident anymore but rather frustrated and anxious.
Concerning the mouth cover, it could be seen as a deceit signals which could
mean “speak no evil”. This deceit signals would signify that Mr. Clinton lies
or that he knows something but he is restraining himself in order to not to
say it. Moreover, the nose – the part of the body that becomes itchy when
91 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
people lie – is also touched. Those are two strong elements in the favor of the
lie possibility.
After the first question, “would she be lying?” (00.08 minutes), the steeple
position is abandoned and he is using the hands clenched position instead.
The same change but intensified is also observable between the 00.34
minute and the 00.40 minute. Another gesture that he is doing at the end of
the video (1.48 minutes) is that he is drinking. Is there a meaning in addition
with a plausible thirstiness? Well it could be I think. First, it could prove
that he has his throat dry. Second, it could also indicate a barrier that he
would put between him and his interlocutor. A physical barrier that he
would have used to feel more secure. But once more, like the rest of the
analysis, this is only assumptions.
Before the general impression part, I would like to mention two images that I
obtained by freezing the videos. Those two images are showing expressions,
or in the jargon: micro-expressions.
92 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The first image is appearing at 01.06 minutes. One could say that this
expression is rather negative and that it could express anger or disgust. The
second one is appearing at 01.13 minutes after a question quite surprising.
Emotions that could be interpreted from this question are fear and surprise,
he is probably wondering how the “interviewer” knows that element.
General impression
By watching the whole puzzle of the communication that Mr. Clinton is
displaying, one thing is emerging quite obviously from the image: he is not at
his ease. Indeed, even though that confidence is the image that we would
want to show at the beginning (by using the steeple gesture), this state of
mind is diminishing all along the video. Instead, hands clenched, anger,
disgust, fear and surprise are replacing more and more the confidence of the
former president. Concerning the deceit signals, he is using the cover mouth
and the nose touch, two strong indicators of lie. But as it has been said and
said again, nothing is sure in the art of the observation of non verbal
communication.
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
93 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.2. ILLUSTRATION 2: BILL GATES AND THE IPAD
Who: Bill Gates – CEO of Microsoft
Leadership field: Business leader
Description: Bill Gates is commenting the iPad
Title of the youtube video: Bill Gates on the iPad
Length of the video: 55 seconds
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLUSnPB08kc >
Accessed on 07 May 2013
Description of the video
In this short video, Bill Gates is asked two questions concerning the iPad.
The questions are mainly “what do you think about the iPad” and “whether
Microsoft is catching Apple innovations”. Bill Gates will answer that the iPad
is not an innovation and that Microsoft has been ahead all the way. He also
says that all the touch screen tools is a window’s phenomena. The fact is
that is body language might convey a totally different meaning.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
This video is not displaying anything special about the distance. Moreover,
the para-verbal dimension – the tone of the voice – is quite normal without
variation that I could notice. Concerning the distinctive signals, Mr. Gates is
dressed correctly, is wearing a wedding ring, and is wearing glasses. As it is
discussed in the literature review, the glasses have in general positive impact
and give the impression that people are more intelligent. The use of light
frame could also convey that Mr. Gates is conveying the image of a “nice
guy”.
Concerning his body language, it is clear that Mr. Gates has his legs crossed.
It is indeed visible at the 00.14 minute and all through the video. The legs
crossed position could mean a defensive attitude. Concerning his hands and
94 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
his arms, Mr. Gates is keeping them opened. Which is a quite good signals
since it would mean openness. This posture is the opposite of the crossed
arms which would have conveyed a rather negative signal and would have
meant that he put a barrier between him and his interlocutor – which is not
the case in this video. However, despite his openness, I found quite
interesting the fact that he is holding almost all the time the armrest of the
couch.
Besides, I found really fascinating a specific part of this body language: his
face. Indeed, he shook his head mainly twice during this video. The
interesting fact is that he shook his head while he was claiming two things.
First he says (00.24 minute) by talking about the phenomena of this new
technology : “Microsoft has been ahead” and then (00.32 minute) he says:
“that is a window’s phenomena”. But while those words are coming from his
mouth, his head is saying no. Which could mean that he does not really
believe what he is saying.
Finally, Mr. Gate’s body language is also repeating quite a lot the following
gesture: the arm nudging. He is displaying this gesture for instance at the
00.31, 00.34 and 00.38 minutes. It is indeed visible that his left hand is
elevated for less than a second each time. This gesture – as it is developed in
the literature review and in the model of analysis – is a deceit signals which
could mean Mr. Gates is lying or does not believe what he is saying.
95 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
General impression
This second illustration of the well know business leader – Bill Gates – is the
opposite of the previous one with Bill Clinton. Indeed in this video, Mr. Gates
is smiling at the end, and he keeps a opened position during the whole video,
which is clearly not the case with Mr. Clinton. Nevertheless, I could mention
that Mr. Gates is not totally at his ease since he has his legs crossed and
says that he does not want to comment further the question. However, I
doubt his credibility since he is shaking his head while he maintains the fact
that the iPad is not a innovation and that Microsoft is ahead. Moreover,
deceit signals are also clearly visible with his repeated arm nudging gesture.
The only question is, are those signals enough to interpret those signals as
conveying lies ?
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
96 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.3. ILLUSTRATION 3: MS. CLITON AND MR.MILIBAND – PRESS
CONFERENCE
Who: Hillary Clinton and David Miliband – Politicians
Leadership field: Politician leaders
Description: Hillary Clinton and David Miliband in a press conference in
July 2009
Title of the youtube video: Secretary Clinton meets U.K Foreign Minister
David Miliband
Length of the video: 24.40 minutes
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AfVh2j-Z4 >
Accessed on 07 May 2013
Description of the video
This video is a transmission of a press conference held on the 15th July
2009. The video lasts 24 minutes and includes questions from journalists
and answers from both politician: Hillary Clinton (secretary) and David
Miliband (foreign minister). Since the length of the video and the fact that
there are two leadership actors to examine, I will separate the analysis. The
first part will be dedicated to Mr. Miliband while the second will concern Ms.
Clinton.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
The distance is not significant in this context, both of politicians are
standing behind their lecterns. The tone of the voice of Mr. Miliband is,
according to me, quite neutral during all the video. He has no specific
distinctive signal. However, some things should be said concerning his body
language, especially about his hands and his facial expressions. The
impression that I get from him is that he is really confident. He nearly never
looks at his notes, he is always making eye contact with his audience.
Moreover, he uses really often and for a long time the steeple position, which
97 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
would signify assurance and confidence (example: 02.46 and 08.00
minutes).
However, his face was surprising when Ms. Clinton took the voice. Indeed,
when she began to speak and to express her gratitude towards the British
government, which provided a great leadership, Mr. Miliband had the
following micro expression (00.52 minute):
His face is for me clearly reflecting negative feelings. It seems like it is anger
and/or disgust toward Ms. Clinton or towards what she says. This micro
expression is also appearing later (09.09 minutes), when he is looking at her.
At the very end of the video, a journalist is asking Ms. Clinton about the
publishing of a certain document. Mr. Miliband is at that moment not
comfortable, indeed he is touching his button (20.45 minute) and his
wedding ring just after (20.48 minute). This uncomfortable moment is
verbally demonstrated right after since Ms. Clinton says that she will not
answer the question. The fiddling with the ring gesture also happens at
98 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
15.00 minutes where Ms. Clinton is asked about political prisoners. More
details will be given about that question in the coming paragraphs.
Concerning Hillary Clinton’s body language, one could tell that at the
beginning of her speech (01.00 minute), she is really relaxed. She describes a
situation and she uses her hands to illustrate and punctuate her verbal
communication. She is confident and prepared, she looks quite often at her
notes. At the 07.18 minutes, the journalist is asking Mr. Miliband if he is
confident about getting enough support from the population. Her reaction
was the following eye touch gesture.
As it has been developed in the literature review – and summarized in the
model of analysis – the eye touch belongs to the deceit signals category. This
gesture would mean “see no evil” and would happen when the brain tries to
block the deceit it thinks it sees. By considering that fact, Ms. Clinton is
somehow answering the question that is asked to Mr. Miliband.
99 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
The image above (15.14 minutes) is illustrating the facial expression that she
has when she hears the question about a possible abuse of political prisoner.
This facial expression is a smile. A reason for this smile could be that she
knows in advance the answer to that question and she expresses it by using
this smile. Her para-verbal dimension – her tone of the voice – is quite
regular and confident until the 16.20 minutes. After that moment, she is
hesitating quite often on what she will say. The hesitation is conveyed by the
“ahh” and “hum” that she says. This could mean that for a specific reason,
she is not sure anymore of what she is talking about.
At 17.21 minutes, she evocates the fact that political prisoners should be
released and treated with respect. However, here is the gesture that she
uses:
She touches her right ear. At the 17.23 minutes, 2 seconds after her ear
touch, she tries to cover the gesture by putting her hair beside her ear. The
ear touch gesture belongs to the deceit signals and would mean “hear no
100 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
evil” which could signify that she does not believe what she actually hears.
In other words, she is not thinking what she is saying: she is lying.
At 18.04 minutes, she is affirming that she was concerned by the
problematic. Her body language at that moment would say rather the
opposite. Indeed, here is the gesture that her body displays at 18.09
minutes:
She is indeed touching her nose, which is another strong deceit sign. As it
has been stated in the literature review and in the model of analysis the nose
would expand when a person is lying (the pinnochio effect) and therefore,
this part of the face is becoming itchy. That could explain why Ms. Clinton is
touching her nose which would mean that she is lying. Another deceit signal
that could be observed is when she is nudging her arm. This gesture is, like
it is developed in the deceit signals part, occurring when one arm (her left
arm on the video) is elevated for a very short moment. Since it is a
movement, I cannot show it by using screenshot. However, for the curious,
you could spot it by using the link (you should focus because it is not an
easy one to detect). It is happening around the 18.02 minutes just after she
says the word “deported”. This gesture is somehow reinforcing the two others
deceit signals that I mentioned before.
101 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
General impression
My general impression, after this third illustration, is that this is a really
good example of uncomfortable situation. Despite a good beginning from
both politician (assertiveness, steeple position, etc), the situation turned
more negative for them. Indeed, signs like hesitations in the voice, use of
deceit signals (Ms. Clinton), and the “fiddling the button and ring”
movements (Mr. Miliband) began to appear and to convey the fact that they
are not at their ease anymore. Moreover, Ms. Clinton is displaying a lot of
deceit signals. Finally, one could wonder about the real relationship between
Mr. Miliband and Ms. Clinton since the face that Mr. Miliband displayed
when he was looking at her.
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
102 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.4. ILLUSTRATION 4: MARISSA MAYER – OPENING SPEECH
Who: Marissa Mayer – CEO of Yahoo
Leadership field: Business leader
Description: Marissa Mayer is performing an opening speech
Title of the youtube video: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer Opening Speech |
TechCrunch 2012 Crunchies Highlights
Length of the video: 1.29 minutes
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxUoBKBHMY >
Accessed on 08 May 2013
Description of the video
This video clip is presenting Marissa Mayer while she is welcoming people
and thanking them for their innovative work. The video lasts 1.29 minutes
and is displaying rather good non verbal communication signals. This fourth
illustration will highlight good hands postures and good facial expressions to
have when leaders address an audience for this kind of situation.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
The first impression that I had by looking at Ms. Mayer is that she is well
dressed: a nice top, a watch, earrings, and some make up for the occasion
(essential and miscellaneous accessories). This representation of her is
conveying the fact that she takes care of her image.
Her body language is also sending a lot of information. She is smiling and
laughing quite often (for example: 00.09 minute, 1.25 minutes, images
below). Those smile expressions are powerful. As it is said in the literature
review, the smile has basically two positive aspects in this situation. It builds
a better image of the leader. And thanks to the mirroring effect, the audience
will have the tendency to smile back, which put them in a better state of
mind. Moreover, the smile is a useful for negotiations as well. Even though
this opening speech has nothing to do with negotiations, she is saying (1.20
103 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
minutes) that her company is hiring and is laughing just after the
proposition.
I also would like to emphasize her hands gestures. She is indeed using her
hands from the beginning to the end of the video clip. She is using them as
illustrative movements since she is waving them to punctuate her verbal
communication. For example, you could see this illustrative movement
between the 00.20 minute and the 00.25 minute. She uses the gesture also
at the end when she is saying “we are hiring”. Indeed, she does the gesture
(1.10 – 1.13 minutes) of bringing people towards her with her right arm.
In addition to illustrative gestures, she is using the steeple position. She is
using it often but very briefly, she is not staying more than half a second in
that position. She is using the steeple position at the 00.25 minute, the
00.27 minute, the 00.31 minute (image below), the 00.33 minute and the
00.48 minute. In other words, she is using five times this gesture which is
conveying the fact that she is really confident and at her ease on stage. This
confidence is also demonstrated by the fact that she knows what she is
saying, that he prepared her speech, she is not reading any reminder.
104 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Finally, she is using the open palm posture. This gesture is often displayed
during the video ( for instance: 1.10 minutes, 1.13 minutes). As it has been
discussed in the literature review, this gesture signifies trust and honesty.
Her audience can trust her because she is not a threat, she is not keeping
the down palm position. Here is an example of her open palm position (1.10
minute):
105 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
General impression
In my opinion, this video is a great illustration which answer the following
question: how to use the hands while speaking? Indeed she uses her hands
in a good way, on the one “hand” she is illustrating what she is talking about
and on the other “hand” she is displaying trust and honesty by using the
open palm position. Furthermore, she is smiling often which is pleasant. She
looks friendly and at her ease, she even makes jokes. Besides, her para-
verbal dimension is in harmony with the context. Her accessories are
perfectly fitting the context. I deeply believe that this video is a good example
of congruence and of good use of non verbal communication.
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
106 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.5. ILLUSTRATION 5: RAY LEWIS – INSPIRATIONAL SPEECH
Who: Ray Lewis – Coach of Stanford Basketball team
Leadership field: Sport - Basketball
Description: Ray Lewis is performing a inspirational speech to his team
Title of the youtube video: Ray Lewis Inspirational Speech: Stanford
Basketball @NIT
Length of the video: 2.22 minutes
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07fhOVQ9wEA >
Accessed on 08 May 2013
Description of the video
This video of 2.22 minutes is displaying a sport leadership situation. The
basketball coach, Ray Lewis, is performing an inspirational speech in order
to motivate his team. The speaker, Mr. Lewis will demonstrate his
engagement through non verbal communication. This illustration will
highlight – among other things – the importance of the peri-verbal and para-
verbal dimensions.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
The video mainly illustrates how the distance and the tone of the voice
variables are utilized by Mr. Lewis. Nevertheless, he is also using his body
language to add more meaning to his verbal communication: his body
language illustrates his verbal communication. For instance, at 00.40
minute, he is shaking his head when he says “forget anything else”.
Moreover, his body language in the case of this video is really emphasizing
his enthusiasm, his energy, his motivation. In addition to that, Mr. Lewis is
high and his shape is impressive which conveys more power. He is
performing a lot of gestures like clapping his hands (image below: 1.56
minutes), waving his arms, pointing his fingers down to show the present
moment (image below: 2.06 minutes) and so forth to convey motivation.
107 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
In addition to his body language, he also uses his tone of the voice to inspire
and motivate people. Indeed, his voice is not a quiet one, his tone is actually
full of energy, he is not speaking morosely. Besides, his tone increases when
he is emphasizing important facts. For instance, he says “let’s do what we
do, tonight” (2.06). The second illustration (with the fingers pointing down)
is an image when Mr. Lewis is pronouncing “tonight”. One the one hand he
emphasizes the moment with his fingers, and on the other hand, his uses
his tone of voice to reinforce his statement. He is speaking for tonight, not
tomorrow, not in one year, but for tonight’s big event.
Besides, a lot of non verbal messages are emerging from the para-verbal
dimension, from the distance. In the beginning of the video, he creates a
physical contact with his players. He touches them by clapping into their
hands. He enters into their intimate zones. He is close enough with his team
to touch them and transmit them his motivation. The image below is
illustrating this entrance into the players’ intimate zone (00.19 minutes).
108 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
In addition with the physical contact, we can observe that the coach is also
making eye contact with the players. This fact is also the case for the whole
video, he constantly keep eye contact with all his players. He is addressing
them directly, he is talking and motivating all of them. This is a consequence
from his distance management. The distance does not only cover the
physical distance that separates the actors in this video but includes also
the angle that the speaker is taking: towards which direction he is speaking.
At the 00.36 minute, he is looking at his left side, and at the 1.11 minutes,
he is looking at his other side (images below). He will alternate his eye
contact during the whole clip.
Finally, he is managing his spatial zone. He walks and move from a place to
another one. He steps forwards and back, goes to the left side and then to
the right one. He becomes closer to everybody by shortening the distance
and by managing the spatial zone. This management would suggest that he
is including everybody in the speech. It reinforces somehow the eye contact
since he tries to include and motivate the whole team.
In conclusion, he uses non verbal communication channels to motivate his
team. He is displaying a motivated attitude and thanks to the mirroring
effect, he is trying to transfer his motivation to his team. This video has the
advantage of also showing his audience. His audience is focused, some
players are nodding, and their facial expressions illustrate seriousness and
motivation. At the end of the video (image below: 2.18 minutes), they are all –
109 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
coach and players – making physical contacts. This could be a symbolic that
they are all sharing the same spatial zone: they are a unit, a real team.
General impression
I find this example really fascinating. I think it is a perfect example to
illustrate how to support verbal communication with the adequate non
verbal communication. Indeed, the coach is supporting his rhetoric with the
non verbal dimension: he is congruent. The different parts of the puzzle are
in harmony. What he says and how he says it are in total harmony. When he
speaks, he is making eye contact, powerful illustrative gestures, and is
managing the distance. Moreover, he is creating a special link with his
players since he uses physical contact with them. Thus, I believe that this
example illustrates perfectly the congruence on the one hand, and the para-
verbal and peri-verbal dimensions on the other hand.
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
110 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.6. ILLUSTRATION 6: THE POPE FRANCIS – HIS FIRST SPEECH
Who: The Pope Francis - Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Leadership field: Religious leader
Description: The Pope is giving his first speech
Title of the youtube video: The new Pope gives his speech 3/13/13
Length of the video: 4.53 minutes
URL of the video: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZCDBnaL90 >
Accessed on 08 May 2013
Description of the video
This 4.53 minutes video is a transmission of the first speech of the Pope. The
speech is in Italian, and since I do not speak this language, I will give all my
attention to his non verbal communication. This video will highlights the
importance of the supra-verbal dimension: the distinctive signals.
Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals
In this interpretation of non verbal communication, I will focus on two
aspects, the peri-verbal dimension (the body language), and the supra-verbal
one (the distinctive signals).
Concerning the body language, the pope is using mainly three hand
gestures: the steeple, the open palm, and the clenched hands. The steeple
would suggest the assurance and the confidence of the pope (image below:
2.04 minutes). On the other hand, the open palm gesture would show trust
and honesty (image below: 0.35 minute). And finally, due to the contingency,
I will not suggest that the clenched hands position is signifying frustration.
In this specific case, the religion has a huge role. The hands clenched
position is also a praying position in this case (3.18 minutes). In other
words, this gesture is symbolic, it does not represent a state of mind of the
speaker, it does not give clues about the speaker’s emotions. It tells us that
the gesture is symbolic. Indeed this gesture is also visible at the 3.18 minute
111 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
when we can see that they are praying. This is something that I figured out
only thanks to the non verbal signals, since I do not speak the language.
Nevertheless, the non verbal communication channels imply that what I see
at this moment is actually a prayer.
The steeple The open palm The hands clenched
In addition to the hands gesture, I would like to emphasize an important
channel, especially in this context: the distinctive signals. The essentials
signals on this picture are the clothing of the pope, his necklace, and his
ring. Without those signals, how could people know that he is the pope? If he
were wearing the same clothes as the other persons on the balcony, how
could people differentiate him from the others? All those essential
accessories and clothing are conveying the meaning that he is the pope. The
clothing are actually symbols that are differentiating the pope from others
(image below: 1.51 minutes).
112 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
General impression
My impression on this case is that the distinctive signals are primordial in
this context. Indeed, in the religion and in this context, symbols are used to
indicate the pope. Besides, the pope is using another symbolic gesture: the
hands clenched gesture which implies the prayer. Nevertheless, the pope
also displays other “normal” gestures to support his verbal communication,
such as the steeple and the open palm position.
In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within
frames (scheme above).
113 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
4.7. ILLUSTRATIONS: SUMMARY
The illustration part displayed leadership situations. Six illustrations were
described and analyzed: two of business leadership, two of politician
leadership, one of sport leadership, and finally one in religion leadership.
The purpose of this part was to give concrete examples of each part of the
puzzle. Indeed, thanks to this six illustrations, I could observe and analyze
the congruence and all the dimensions, except the infra-verbal (explanation
in the section 3.5. the infra verbal dimension: subliminal information)
Below, you will find the model of analysis completed with the illustrations.
Sometimes, several illustration were treating the same channels, that is why
several frames are linked to each others. The numbers into brackets refers to
the number of the illustration.
114 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this thesis highlights the importance of communication. Or
more precisely a component of it: the non verbal communication. Despite the
significance of non verbal communication – which is reaching each of us,
during our whole life, and every day – this thesis treats a specific focus:
leadership. As a matter of fact, this paper provides knowledge, which will be
useful to gain a deeper understanding of non verbal communication. By
reaching this deeper understanding, this work explains and makes links
with leadership in order to improve the comprehension of relatively unknown
facets of non verbal communication concerning leaders, followers, and the
link between them. Since those facets of leadership are moderately
unknown, I chose the second part of the title as followed: Towards a new
aspect of leadership.
Moreover, the metaphor of the puzzle of non verbal communication is
displayed through the whole thesis. I deeply believe that the metaphor
facilitates the comprehension and illustrates the concept of communication
and non verbal communication properly. First, the puzzle is explained,
cluster by cluster, piece by piece: several channels of non verbal
communication and their components are developed one by one. Then,
elements that could influence the puzzle – the contingency’s variable – are
described. Finally, by assembling the pieces of the puzzle, a model is created.
This model will be the basis and will support the observations of empirical
illustrations. The continuous use of the puzzle metaphor all along the thesis
gave me the incentive of using it in the first part of the title: The puzzle of
non verbal communication.
At the last step of the composition of this thesis, I get to the conclusion that:
yes, leadership can be explained and understood through non verbal
communication. The non verbal communication model fits relatively well to
the reality and to the leaders’ empirical experiences. By observing the non
115 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
verbal channels, I could make more sense of the situations than if I were
reading the transcript of the video. Indeed, if I would have analyzed the
videos without looking at them (just by reading or listening) I would have
missed important channels of non verbal communication and I would not
have been able to make totally sense of the leadership situation. In addition
to that, if I would have analyzed the whole videos without the theoretical
framework (through the model of analysis) I would not have been able to
fully interpret non verbal cues. Therefore non verbal communication
definitely adds is an important step in order to better understand leadership.
Furthermore, three additional reasons will be given in order for leadership
actors to consider non verbal communication seriously. First, a better
understanding of non verbal signals will provide leadership actors with a
better control of their own communication. Thanks to this control, it is more
likely that they will be congruent. Second, leadership actors are affecting
their audience with non verbal signs; with a better comprehension of them,
they could convey the emotions and feelings they want in a better way.
Third, the non verbal communication can be used by an individual to be
perceived differently: if you want to be a leader, act like a leader and you will
become a leader. Those three reasons are highlighting the importance for a
leader actor to control his or her non verbal communication. I agree with
Plöbst (2013) when he argues (based on Plato’s research) that the art of
leading others comes from the art of leading oneself. I deeply believe that in
order to lead oneself and to be able to communicate it to the followers,
leaders have a control of their non verbal communication. If one cannot use
non verbal communication in a proper way, how can he or she send the
message to others that he or she is able to lead him or herself?
Nevertheless, this research has its limits. The paper provides an overview
about leadership and non verbal communication. However, there is much
more to understand about the puzzle of non verbal communication. In the
course of this thesis, the scope could be narrowed in order to have a deeper
understanding of the presented concepts. Therefore I believe that this topic
116 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
could be completed and improved in the future. In addition to that limit, I
want to emphasize the importance of contingency. I considered in my thesis
rhetoric as being the verbal communication. I chose to not focus on this
part, since its small importance (7%) – Mehrabian (1972). Nevertheless this
number is valid in face-to-face communication. What about non verbal
communication when it is not a face-to-face one? Indeed, non verbal
communication has no impact when there is no visual contact. Stodell
(2013) demonstrates the importance of the rhetoric in her work. Leadership
situations occur as well through resignation letters, shareholder letters, etc.
In those written forms, the only dimension of communication represented is
the verbal one; non verbal communication has no impact in this kind of
situation. Therefore the numbers of 7% of verbal communication against the
93% of non verbal communication are becoming 100% for verbal
communication and 0% for non verbal (with the hypothesis that one
considers the verbal communication treating the psychological aspect and all
the other aspects hidden behind written words). Thus, contingency has to be
taken into account: non verbal communication is not omnipresent.
As I am typing the lasts words of this thesis, I would like you to just
remember this: no matter if you think non verbal communication is
important and no matter if I managed to convince you of its magnitude in
our everyday life; non verbal communication achieves what verbal
communication just fails to do: providing contextual meaning.
To those who have good eyesight but who cannot see the whole puzzle…
Well, I hope that after reading this thesis, you will able to better see the whole puzzle…
117 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
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121 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
7. ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
7.1. IMAGES (LITERATURE REVIEW)
Illustration from the introduction: [Obama – end of war] n.d. [image online]
Available online at:
<http://media.salon.com/2010/06/cnn_reports_on_fraud_linguists_obama_
speech_analysis-460x307.jpg> [Accessed 05 March 2013]
Illustration 1: [Bones of the hand] n.d. [image online] Available online at:
<http://www.infovisual.info/03/img_en/027%20Bones%20of%20the%20ha
nd%20(dorsal%20view).jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 2: [Dominant handshake] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/imag
es/047-dominant_handshake.jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 3: [Handshake] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.activegarage.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/handshake.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 4: [Greeting Obama and Ki-Moon] n.d. [image online] Available
at:<http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/wp-
content/uploads/2011/05/obama-ban-greeting.jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 5: [Hand gesture steeple] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.palm-reading.org/images/hand-gesture-steeple.jpg> [Accessed
01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 6: [Confidence] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.selfleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/leadership-
team_banner.jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 7: [Clenched hands] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.indiabix.com/_files/images/body-language/8-40-41-123.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
122 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Illustration 8: [Wenger] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1580442.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/
wenger-main-155171196-1580442.jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 9: Attention stance] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/imag
es/212-attention_stance.jpg> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 10: [Model legs apart] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://img4-2.realsimple.timeinc.net/images/1011/model-legs-apart_300.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 11: [Legs position] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.indiabix.com/_files/images/body-language/8-70-1.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 12: [Dalai Lama and Obama] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_log85zNPHr1qzdt6co1_500.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 13: [Crossed leg position] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.google.se/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=U1
zg7mnGMU3qOM&tbnid=UC46mC_KiObMmM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fenq
uirer.sg%2F2010%2F01%2F31%2Fand-the-ipads-reason-of-being-
is%2F&ei=vquDUbrRMebT4QTCtIGQBw&bvm=bv.45960087,d.bGE&psig=AFQjCNEmfVgx3N
W3Tn-UX10da5oLylqD-g&ust=1367669981836906> [Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 14: [Leg Posture] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
IGH5bpA76so/TxuYaG2q4EI/AAAAAAAAA8E/GSYGDjEes_0/s1600/Posture+051.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 15: Bucklin, L. Human Anatomy – Muscles. Available online at :
<http://istockphoto.com> [Consulted in Phipps’ book (2012)]
Illustration 16 : reading the left side of the face: Illustration from Truchet’s
book (2009, p. 57).
Illustration 17: The drop jaw smile: Illustration from Pease and Pease’s book
(2006, p.78)
Illustration 18: The down-mouth expression: Illustration from Pease and
Pease’s book (2006, p.78)
123 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
Illustration 19: [Ekman faces] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.jaschahoffman.com/ekmanLight.jpg> [Accessed on 01 Mai
2013]
Illustration 20: [Tony Blair] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.murderati.com/storage/04%20-
%20tony_blair_36968t.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1310634332937>
[Accessed on 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 21: [The three wise monkeys] n.d. [Online Imge] Available at:
<http://www.mesacosan.com/media//media/articles/articles-
utilisateurs/les-trois-singes-1-4299.jpg-4299-200x200.jpg> [Accessed on 01
Mai 2013]
Illustrations 22: [Mouth cover] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.a2zinterviews.com/Interview/body-language/mouth.JPG>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 23: [Obama] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=
5QiuUr9FZreTqM&tbnid=h1uKKaWHasDDNM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww
.quora.com%2FWhat-does-it-mean-when-someone-covers-their-mouth-when-they-are-
listening-to-you-speak&ei=HqKGUb_uCO-
N4gSavIC4CQ&bvm=bv.45960087,d.bGE&psig=AFQjCNHR0ZKUCLmA7qMe4cCqciwSBv2y-
w&ust=1367864062252654> [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 24: [Eye rub] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/imag
es/365-eye_rub.jpg> [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 25: [The ear Grab] n.d.[image online] Available at:
<http://www.indiabix.com/_files/images/body-language/8-51-12.jpg >
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
> [ Accessed on 01 Mai 2013]
Illustration 26: [Pinnochio] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.gradinggirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/liar2-
150x150.jpg
Illustration 27: [McCain] n.d. [image online] Available at:
<http://myblogsg.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/mccain_touched_nose.jpg>
[Accessed 01 Mai 2013]
124 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership
7.2. VIDEOS (EMPIRICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND ANALYSIS)
Illustration 1: Clinton and the Lewinsky scandal
[Bill Clinton is testifying in the Lewinsky scandal at the council] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfpG2-1Bv4>
[Accessed on 06 Mai 2013]
Illustration 2: Bill Gates and the iPad
[Bill Gates on the iPad] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLUSnPB08kc>
[Accessed on 07 Mai 2013]
Illustration 3: Ms. Cliton and Mr.Miliband – Press conference
[Secretary Clinton meets U.K Foreign Minister David Miliband] Available at :
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AfVh2j-Z4>
[Accessed on 07 Mai 2013]
Illustration 4: Marissa Mayer – Opening speech
[yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer Opening Speech | TechCrunch 2012 Crunchies
Highlights] Available at:
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxUoBKBHMY>
[Accessed on 08 Mai 2013]
Illustration 5: Ray Lewis – Inspirational speech
[Ray Lewis Inspirational Speech: Stanford Basketball @NIT] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07fhOVQ9wEA>
[Accessed on 08 Mai 2013]
Illustration 6: The pope Francis – His first speech
[The new Pope gives his speech 3/13/13] Available at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZCDBnaL90>
[Accessed on 08 Mai 2013]
Linnaeus University – a firm focus on quality and competence On 1 January 2010 Växjö University and the University of Kalmar merged to form Linnaeus University. This
new university is the product of a will to improve the quality, enhance the appeal and boost the development
potential of teaching and research, at the same time as it plays a prominent role in working closely together with
local society. Linnaeus University offers an attractive knowledge environment characterised by high quality and
a competitive portfolio of skills.
Linnaeus University is a modern, international university with the emphasis on the desire for knowledge, creative
thinking and practical innovations. For us, the focus is on proximity to our students, but also on the world around
us and the future ahead.
Linnæus University
SE-391 82 Kalmar/SE-351 95 Växjö
Telephone +46 772-28 80 00
