Your marks and your report card are not the only things that define you. The key to a good student and good performance in school is also related to your communication skills and body language. Body language has the ability to say a lot without speaking even a single word. Many students do not even realize the importance of body language and communication until they are in the final year of their colleagues when they have to prepare for interviews.
Therefore, it is also always a good decision to engage in such activities right from the school so that you have an upper hand while you are in college. Not only does this help in college, but it can also help in your work and pretty much your whole life. In this article, we will see how good body language and good communication skills will help students in their careers.
Forms Overall Impression
Words have immense power, but it is body language that really captures the power of those words. There is a reason why people say “your body language defines you”. It is based on three factors – the word you speak, the pitch of your voice, and your body language. Out of these three, body language makes up the highest percentage of your overall communication. Only 7% of what we speak makes up our communication, 38% of our pitch and tone is used while 55% of body language contributes to the overall communication of a person. Therefore, if you have good command over your body and your action such as good posture, an air of confidence, proper hand gestures, then you are bound to make a better impact than the people who don’t possess such qualities.
Increase in confidence
Even if you are not confident about yourself or about what you are going to speak in front of an audience, it is always better to fake than to be bad. Make “fake it till you make it” your mantra. And over time you will see that better body language such as indulging in small activities like proper eye contact, nodding of the head at the right time, use of proper pitch and tone, during communication will improve your communication skills and boost your confidence.
Better relationships
Ask yourself a question, would you be willing to talk to someone who pays no attention to you or someone who does? You will obviously choose the latter and the reason is that have you want them to listen to you and understand. There is no physical movement to show that someone is listening to you, whatever is done is done through body language. Little gestures like making proper eye contact, having proper arm gestures, and head movement, let the speaker know that you are listening to them and paying attention. When you practice good body language and communication skills you will find that you have better relationships in your personal and professional life because people are more willing to listen to you or talk to you.
Improved Public Speaking
Imagine this: you are on stage delivering a speech with your arms folded and absolutely no change in the pitch of your voice. You are speaking in a monotone. You are making no eye contact with the audience. Do you think you will win the competition? Hardly likely. No matter how powerful your speech was, you are probably not going to win the competition because of the lack of body language. Speakers need to pay attention to their audience; their speech shouldn’t be like a speech, it should be like a conversation with the audience, with the correct hand gestures at the right time, the fluctuation of the pitch to make an impact, and powerful words all contribute towards making a good speaker and if you practice enough, good body language can result in better public speaking.
Success in the workplace
Since engaging in good communication and body language skills has forged you better relationships, you are bound to reap the benefits of it in your workplace as well. Not only will it mean that you have better relationships with your colleagues, but it will also mean that your boss is impressed by you and therefore you have better chances of a raise or promotion than people who lack such qualities.
Better Job Opportunities
The HR interview round in college is probably the hardest round during the placement process. This is because students are a ball of nerves and focus too much on what they are saying instead of how they are saying. When you impress an HR by your words as well as through your body language, you are bound to receive an offer letter. Speaking calmly in a cool confident tone, not moving your arms to hysterically but still having some movement, maintaining proper eye contact with the interviewer, a good handshake, being able to nail such actions can go a long way.
