Half a communication

Body language can easily be understood only as a way for reading other people. We should however keep in mind that communication in its broadest sense has at least 4 components; the sender, the receiver, the message and the noise. At any moment all these are in action and they all affect each other.

When in the receiving position you have to adjust your body language in a way to encourage the sender. This can have the immediate effect of getting people to like you. It will also be helpful as people will be more eager to talk to you.

You should face the sender of the message, always or whenever possible, thus cars and movie theatres are a poor choice for communication.

You should also lean slightly toward the other person, keep eye contact and nod or smile accordingly. Smile usually works unless the subject is grim and the nod will keep them talking. When you nod, the sender of the message understands the message is going through and keeps sending new information. This avoids any interruption in the train of tought they'd usually make to get an input from you.

As a salesman, I know most of my sales are made by listening to the prospect and not going on for hours about some technical details of my products. Listening helps me first of all, better connect to the customer and gives me a better understanding of their needs.

Keeping track of your own body language while listening and trying to read the sender's body language at the same time can be challenging at first but it's very important. Your body language can affect the other person's body language thus misleading you on the reading. For example, people tend to mimic each other's gestures involuntarily thus, the other person might have crossed their arms because you just did it. One part's body language can only be half the communication.