Product Training for the Technical Expert

13Stand UpEffective Nonverbal Engagement

Your students can completely trust you and believe what you are going to say even before you open your mouth! Now that is encouraging! In a well‐known (and often misrepresented) study completed by Dr Albert Mehrabian¹ at the University of California, only a small percentage of your credibility has to do with the actual words you speak. Words are important, but what will make others believe and trust you has more to do with how you say those words and what you look like or do when you say them.

While research may help to put a percentage number on the statistic, anyone with teenagers—or, for that matter, ever was a teenager themselves—knows this to be true. I’ve heard (and likely said) the words, “Yes, Dad” in a variety of different ways, each with a significantly different meaning. The point is that the way we say things matters, even in the classroom.

How smart or educated you are doesn’t matter; you don’t get a pass on nonverbal communication. All instructors must learn to engage students nonverbally. All communication must be encoded by the communicator and then decoded by the receiver. As you read this chapter, think of at least one thing you can do to improve your observable communication and one that you can do to improve your perceived communication. Put yourself in the place of your students. They are listening to you, hearing you say things about your products. Does what they see you say align with what they hear you say? While ...