All Hail Paul Ekman!

I am continually studying the power of non-verbal communication – both for my own sake and for that of my clients. If you are not aware of your own body language, you’re probably not in control of what you are really communicating! So there’s rarely a client of mine that doesn’t get coaching in this aspect of their presence. Through the study of body language, not only can we learn how to portray ourselves as confident, powerful, thoughtful professionals (even if we’re not!), but we can also have a deeper understanding of the people around us. A good body language reader can almost seem like a mind reader – and that’s powerful insight in a business setting!

When it comes to body language, most people immediately think about the basics – crossing arms indicates you’re closed, clenched fists indicate anger, etc. The basics are important and extremely useful to understand and control. But if you really want to advance your body language reading ability, get to know the work of Paul Ekman, the genius psychologist who pioneered the study of emotions and how it relates to facial expressions. (As an aside, the Fox TV show “Lie to Me” is based on Paul Ekman’s work.)

Ekman’s study of the isolated South Fore tribesmen of Papua New Guinea led him to understand that certain emotions are basic to all humans and universally identifiable in facial expressions. These are Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Surprise, and Contempt. His further research identified “microexpressions” or fleeting emotional signals that last for only a fraction of a second, and unlike basic body language, are nearly impossible to control. Therefore, being able to spot and identify these brief flashes of emotion can give us an edge in business and relationships. Want to see if you’re a “natural” in identifying microexpressions? Check out this test. Try it without freezing the image. Let me know your score – I only missed two…

Ekman not only developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) which categorizes every conceivable human facial expression, but has researched and published widely on all aspects of non-verbal communication as well as specializing in deception and lie detection. If you are really serious about this area, you can even get specific training on Ekman's website – obviously useful for law enforcement professionals and the like.

Start focusing on what people are saying with their bodies, faces and gestures-- you’ll be surprised at how much information is not verbalized!