Why Understanding Body Language Better is Valuable

Martin Brooks, communication coach and trainer and founder of Success Through Impact

Body language communicates, even when people don’t want that to happen. We don’t often realize what we’re communicating in that language or what other people are communicating with their own. 

Martin Brooks, communication coach, trainer and founder of Success Through Impact does know and has provided analysis about it on the BBC, LBC Radio and the Discovery Channel. Brooks says that there is great benefit in learning and understanding body language as the messages conveyed can aid us in making better decisions in our personal and professional lives.

He says what we can learn through keen observation, knowledge and practice provides us with real-time feedback about whether our message is resonating so that we can adjust our own communication techniques. It also tells us whether someone is making a power play, whether a person can be trusted, and whether someone has confidence or not. 

He has created body language decoder cards to help inform and educate people on how to use body language to build rapport, understand power dynamics in the workplace, gauge who can be trusted and who should be questioned, how to communicate with more conviction and how to use body language in video conference calls.

While everyone knows what body language is, not everyone knows all about it as it relates to communication and its significance in their lives.

“Body language affects every relationship you will ever have,” Brooks plainly states. “Not being aware of it’s impact doesn’t stop that happening.”

He elaborates that what isn’t as obvious still matters and affects other people and ourselves.

“Humans cannot smell the poisonous gas, carbon monoxide - but it will kill us anyway. A lack of awareness of body language can kill our chances of landing our dream job, winning that new customer, or landing a date with the partner of our dreams,” Brooks says. “Our body language is always communicating a message. However, is it saying what we want to say and are we really understanding what other people are saying to us?”

In fact, he believes that there is no doubt as to how vitally important education about it is to traverse people, interactions, relationships and life.

“Understanding body language is a core life skill and massively impacts your chances of being more successful in life,” Brooks says.

There is of course a segment of people who are show me the research and evidence before they will objectively listen for a second to new ideas. To no surprise, body language has been studied scientifically, Brooks states.

“A study done at Erasmus University focused on how much of a role body language can play in convincing people. Actors were given a script to pitch a new product to potential investors. One version had very deliberate use of body language over another. The investors showed a 12% higher likelihood of investing in the pitch where the actors used more demonstrative body language. This study was featured in the Harvard Business Review.”

His own study has provided information and consistencies that have helped Brooks further develop his work.

“For over 20 years I have been a communication coach and have observed impactful world leaders communicating and have seen the same patterns of communication that have informed the design of the cards in Body Language Decoder & in the 101 video clips in my course on Teachable.com – Body Language Communication Mastery,” he says. 

The benefits that are available to be gained are clear to him.

“As it’s name suggests, body language is literally a language. It sends messages that can powerfully complement, or contradict, what we are actually saying. It also sends subtle messages that aren’t communicated verbally. Becoming more aware of body language enables us to better understand what people are really saying and respond accordingly,” Brooks says.

His confidence in his product of cards is high. He explains how they work to teach.

“The cards in the ‘Conviction’ are useful to evaluate who would should hire, trust or even date. The flip side is that we can become more aware of our own body language to ensure we are communicating the right message to people,” Brooks says, adding, “This is where the cards from the ‘Nervousness’ section are useful. Once we are more aware of these behaviors that can broadcast our nervousness to a potential employer, customer or first date, we can replace them with gestures from the ‘Expressing Interest’ or ‘Confidence’ sections, to better represent ourselves and achieve more of our goals.”

The idea that body language can help determine trustworthiness is intriguing, if it is accurate and reliable.

“When people are communicating honestly, their body language and words tend to align. When someone is being less than truthful, their body language can leak the discomfort that comes from attempting to be deceptive,” Brooks says.

He explains more in depth.

“That’s when we normally have that niggling doubt in our minds about the trustworthiness of people, without any firm evidence to base it on as we don’t know what we are looking for to confirm our fears,” Brooks states. “One example from the ‘Deception’ section of the card deck is the ‘truth slip’ – shaking the head ‘yes’ whilst saying ‘no.’ President Nixon infamously saying, ‘I’m not a crook’ whilst nodding his head ‘yes.’ The ‘Deception’ section has more body language tells that can indicate attempted deception and better inform our decisions about who to trust.”

Unsavory type of individuals pay attention to behavior and skills that can help them exploit and cause great pain to other people. That’s just part of humanity. Body language then, it seems to reason, is another tool for such people to present to lure victims.

“Great awareness of body language is a tool. Nefarious people are always seeking any advantage they can get. That’s exactly why greater awareness of what they are attempting to do can help us avoid being unduly influenced,” Brooks reassures.

Again, it’s the teaching in the cards that can provide protective knowledge leading to smarter reactions and responses to dangerous people.

“The information in the card deck will give you influencing skills, but that knowledge will also give you what I call influence defense by being able to spot it more easily and make a conscious decision based on the visual evidence you now better understand,” Brooks says.

Once someone invests the time to learn and understand body language, that new language proficiency or mastery becomes additional knowledge and insight for human interactions in people’s professional and personal lives. People will begin to notice what they previously didn’t recognize.

“The big thing is awareness,” Brooks says. “We cannot recognize or act on information we don’t understand.”

He uses an example of a foreign language to illustrate.

“I can’t read Japanese. I can see it and appreciate it’s aesthetic beauty but beyond that, it’s not communicating anything specific to me. Once I start to learn Japanese I can start to understand what’s actually being expressed in that writing. Body language is exactly the same,” Brooks says.

“Once you can read it better, you can deepen your understanding of what’s being said to you and express yourself much more effectively in your work and personal life. I call this making a greater impact when communicating with people and it’s why my website, which has a number of free tips on it, is called Success Through Impact.”