Reading Body Language
I have an entrepreneur friend who is really good at reading body language. She got me interested in the topic. I really do not know anything about it and have no training in it.
Of course there are the obvious expressions of body language that anyone can read, like the difference between a frown and a smile or between folded and unfolded arms. I get the obvious signs.
I spent 30 min reading up on body language. As suspected, there are many different opinions on the topic. Here are some of the things I learned:
- An overview of reading head, torso, and feet (link)
- Because we often mask our feelings, the head is often a poor indicator. Friends can read each other’s body language better than any expert. (link)
- An extension of body language is to watch how the person interacts with their cell phone (link)
- There are 11 basic emotions which can be communicated via facial expressions (link)
- Of course, I’ll always remember the importance of smiling, especially after reading the classic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People“
- Personal space is interesting to understand, see the pic below
After thinking about this some, I’m wondering if there are any tricks that set some leaders apart from others when it comes to reading body language. I want to hear from you.
Do you have any body language reading tricks that help you read people better than most?