Navarro Tells: Negative Body Language to Avoid in Class

Recently we spoke body language expert, former FBI agent, and author Joe Navarro to learn how to become more aware of our body language and use it to our advantage in a college and career atmosphere. For anyone who wants to have a thriving and successful career, read on! Here is the first in a three-part miniseries on body language.

My Colleges and Careers: For people who may not be familiar with body language and non-verbal communication, how would you define these terms?

Joe Navarro: Non-verbal communications is really anything that communicates the message but is not a word. So, how you choose to dress, whether or not you have a fancy pen, or a cheap pen, how your car looks, whether or not you hesitate as you speak, how you wear your hair, any speech error that you have, whether you’re standing tall or slouching, everything communicates a message. If it communicates and it’s not a word, it’s non-verbal.

Body language falls under the rather large umbrella of non-verbal communications. It’s literally what your body is saying, but that’s different from your clothing, your accoutrement, what your house may look like from the outside.

MCC: With body language, what our bodies communicate can often be far more persuasive than our spoken communication. For college students on campus and in classrooms, how can understanding and controlling body language be important?

JN: The first thing is realizing that we’re constantly transmitting. That’s the first fallacy that I see out there they don’t realize – they think that nobody notices when they smirk and they roll their eyes. We notice everything and we’re constantly transmitting information. So knowing that we’re constantly transmitting information is number one, and number two, that others are affected by our non-verbals. For instance, leadership is all about non-verbal communications. You don’t walk into a room and say, “Hi, I’m a leader.” Leadership is observed. When Colin Powell walks into a room, you don’t question, gee is that guy a leader? The man oozes leadership without even speaking a word. We analyze their body language and decide those things. So veracity, authority, all these things we’re constantly assessing through non-verbals. It’s something you can’t ignore, it’s something that you have to pay attention to, and it’s something that communicates more powerfully than the spoken word.

MCC: You bring up a really good point with relationships, that how we are presenting ourselves will have positive or negative effects on the people we’re associated with. So in a classroom in interactions with a teacher, are there body languages cues that students would be wise to avoid?

JN: Absolutely, for instance:

• slouching
• coming in with sloppy attire
• not being well groomed
• whether or not your breath is bad
• when you disagree with something, not rolling your eyes, not cringing

There’s a lot of behaviors that we really don’t pay attention to when we’re with friends, and then we think, well these are okay in a classroom, but they’re not. We know that these things register with teachers. Which students look interested? Which students look like they’ve done their work? Which students look like they’re really into this class and into the material? What we usually find is that these students will be rewarded. Because why put out any more effort into someone who doesn’t care? If I as a professor am working this hard for the students, I’m going to reward those that pay me back with interest, with curiosity, with respect. Not the person that’s sitting there, leaning back looking at the ceiling, half dazed.

MCC: There are benefits to paying attention and for learning to control and read body language.

JN: [There's] what’s called the Beauty Dividend. And the fact of the matter and the research shows that individuals who dress properly, who look nice and so forth tend to earn 8-10% more than those that don’t. And all you have to do is look at a high school yearbook, ten years later, we’ll know, just from the pictures, we’ll know who will be earning more. So we have a natural bias – in all cultures, by the way – for beauty, for order, for respect.
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In the next segment, Joe Navarro will tell us about how to become more aware of our body language and learn to control it. Stay tuned for part 2:

Navarro Tells: Mirror the Body Language You Admire

Navarro Tells: Cultivate Great Body Language Now