This is a paper on non-verbal communication and what we can learn from it. You are to write a 3 page paper (not including title and reference pages so a total of 5 pages) in proper APA 7th Edition for
The puzzle of non verbal communication: Towards a new aspect of leadership Author (s): Mehdi Mokhtari Leadership and Management in International Context Tutor: Dr. Prof. Mikael Lundgren Examiner : Dr. Prof. Philippe Daudi Subject: Bus iness Administration Level and semester: Master thesis – Spring 2013 1 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership To those who have good eyesight but who cannot see the whole puzzle … 2 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership TABLE OF CONTENT S Acknowledgement ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 5 Notifications ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 6 Abstract ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………….. 7 1. Introduction ………………………….. ………………………….. …………….. 8 Introduction to non verbal communication and leadership Why non verbal communication? Non verbal … cultural or universal? Non verbal and leadership: an innovative link Research question and aim of the thesis The puzzle of communication 2. Methodology ………………………….. ………………………….. …………… 15 Choice of the topic and sources of information Introduction to the methodology related to the structure Methodological views Quantitative or qualitative? 3. Literature review ………………………….. ………………………….. ……. 23 3.1. Emotions and emotional intelligence ………………………….. ……….. 23 What is an emotion? Emotions and emotional Intelligence Reading emotions Emotions, non verbal communication and leadership 3.2. 93% of the puzzle: The five dimensions of the non verbal communication ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 28 Presentation What is the puzzle of non verbal communication made of? Construction of the model of analysis: step 1 3.3. The peri -verbal dimension: The distance ………………………….. ….. 34 Territory Personal space and contingency Spatial zones Territory and ownership Use of territory to intimidate Construction of the model of analysis: step 2 3.4. The para -verbal dimension: The tone of the voice ………………….. 40 Close your eyes and imagine I love my company The leakage hierarchy The tone of voice within leadership Construction of the model of analysis: step 3 3 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3. 5. The infra -verbal dimension: Subliminal information ………………. 44 Presentation Construction of the model of analysis: step 4 3.6. The supra -verbal dimension: Distinctive signals ……………………. 46 The cigarette The glasses The power of make -up and of glasses for a women How to choose the briefcase? Supra -verbal and leadership Construction of the model of analysis: step 5 3.7. The pre -verbal dimension: The body Language ………………………. 50 3. 7.1. The hands ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 50 Hands and arm gestures Handshake The use of palms, hands and arms 3. 7. 2. The legs ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………….. 57 The attention stance Legs apart Foot -forward Legs crossed Arms and legs crossed The figure four Figure four leg clamp When the mind closes, so does the body 3.7.3. The face: the smile ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………. 63 How does it work? Smiling is contagious Faking a smile Three types of fake smiles Why should you laugh? Be smiling and not … morose 3. 7.4. The posture ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …….. 70 Body type Highness and power How to look taller? Taller not always better Construction of the model of analysis: step 6 3.8. Cultural or universal? ………………………….. ………………………….. … 74 The context Universality of the emotions and display rules Sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness Gestures culturally defined Universal or cultural? Why does it matter for a leadership perspective? 4 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.9. Deceit Signals ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 81 Three wise monkeys The mouth cover The eye rub The ear grab The nose touch Nudging the arm Deceit and leadership Construction of the model of analysis: step 7 3.10. Model of analysis: putting the pieces of the puzzle together …. 86 4. Empirical illustrations and analysis ………………………….. ……. 88 4.1. Illustration 1: Clinton and the Lewinsky scandal …………………… 89 4.2. Illustration 2: Bill Gates and the iPad ………………………….. ………. 93 4.3. Illustration 3: Ms. Cliton and Mr.Miliband – Press conference …. 96 4.4. Illustration 4: Marissa Mayer – Opening speech …………………… 102 4.5. Illustration 5: Ray Lewis – Inspirational speech …………………… 106 4.6. Illustration 6: The pope Francis – His first speech ……………….. 110 4.7. Illustrations: Summary ………………………….. …………………………. 113 5. Conclusion ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 114 6. References ………………………….. ………………………….. …………….. 117 7. Illustration Cr edits ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 121 7.1. Images (Literature review) ………………………….. …………………….. 121 7.2. Videos (Empirical illustrations and analysis) ……………………….. 124 5 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership ACKNOWLEDGEM ENT This thesis has been composed with the great help of our dear professors. Each of them contributed highly to the elaboration of this paper and deserves my deepest gratitude. My greatest recognition goes to Professor Philippe Daudi – my exa miner and the headmaster of my program “Leadership and Management in International Context” – for his continuous guidance, advice and for inspiring me so well. Additionally, I want to express my appreciation to Professor Mikael Lundgren, for his great id eas and for his continuous support during the whole elaboration of this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Björn Bjerke and Professor MaxMikael Björling for their lec tures and constructive feedback received during the thesis meetings. I a lso would like to thank – for her assistance during the year – Therese Johanson. Besides, I would like to thank my home Unversity: L’université de Mons Hainaut for allowing me to spend a year abroad. Moreover, I also would like to thank the university th at welcomed me so well and made me feel at home: The Linnaeus University. Tha nks to this opportunity, I have had an incredible experience which brought me a lot – academically and personally. And last but not least, I would like to thank my classmates for having such a good time, inside and outside the classroom. My last appreciation goes to my family and my friends for their support and encouragement. Thank you all. 6 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership NOTIFICATIONS This thesis includes several images. All the references are available in the end of the thesis, in the section: i llustration credit. Moreover, there are some schemes and some models that were made by myself. Therefore they do not have references in the tex t. 7 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership ABSTR ACT Communication is surrounding us. Leader s and followers are not an exception to that rule. Indeed, leadership actors are communicating w ith their co -workers, their boss, their employees, the media , and so forth . However, in the course of this paper and because of its importance , the focus on non verbal communication will be adopted. Basically, this form of communication is everything except the actual words that people pronounce . Body language, tone of the voice, cultural differences, deceit signals, all these components of non verbal communication and many others will be developed. The core of this work will be understanding the main concepts of non verbal communication and then applying them to leaders’ real lif e situation s. Thi s thesis will also, among other things , aim to answer the following questions: What is the importance of non verbal communication in everyday life? How are leaders using non verbal communication to give sense? Do they use deceit signals? What influences the non verbal communication? What is the emotional intelligence concept? Can the non verbal communication be extrapolated and be seen as being inter -cultural? Key words : Communication, non verbal communication, leadership, body language, deceit signals, culture, tone of the voice , emotional intelligence 8 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 1. INTRODUCTION Introduction to non verbal communication and leadership In our modern society, communication is everywhere. When you are at work or at school, don’t you interact with people? On your way there, don’t you see commercials, that can exhibit someone with a special expression and / or posture? If you are not talking to your spouse because of a fight, do you think that you still don’t communicate, despite the non use of words? All those small example s are il lustrating that communication – in any form – is surrounding us every day. In the case of this paper though , the use of the communication – or a specific part of it – will be connected with leadership. As a matter of fact communication is essential within the leadership area. It is used both by leaders and followers to interact and to convey tacit and / or expli cit messages. Furthermore an d as it will be discussed all along this thesis, leadership is a multi communicative activity. Which basically means that several means of communication will be used in order to convey sense, meaning. Let me take for example the following image of the well known leader and president of the United State s of America , Barak Obama (2010, announcement of the end of the Iraq War) . 9 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership In this image , one could tell that the leader is not only using words . The president Obama is actually using his facial expression and his hands and is also using an object since he is wearing a pin. Moreover behind him, there is a wide window with no specific visual enforcement. There are also the presidential flag, the flag of the United States of America and pictures of his family. Do you think that all these items were placed randomly? I personally hardly think so. In my opinion, all of what you see in the image conveys a specific meaning, has a specific aim. Some of these meaning will be develop ed in the following chapters. Why non verbal communication? I could have written my thesis about communication and leadership. However, I always have been more fascinated by the non verbal component in comparison with the verbal one. The gestures, the postures, the importance of clothing and accessories, the tone of the voice, etc. are indeed variable s that I always wanted to understand better. This desire increased when I began my first readings about the subject. I actually read astonishing scientific numbers. In a face -to -face conversation, the communication is impacted by the tone of the voice (38% ), by the body language (55%) and by the words (7%). The conclusion of this research is that communication is impacted by the non verbal (93%) way more than the verbal communication (7%). This study was done by Mehrabian (1972), but more recent studies see m to agree with this report and uses those numbers as well (Olah, 2011 ; James, 2008; Pease and Pease 2006) . If you have never considered non verbal communication, are you still thinking in the same way? I personally believe that those numbers and the whole thesis could actually bring you a lot, or at least the envy and the curiosity of understanding better the concept of non verbal communication. Moreover, if you aim to have a role as a leader, don’t you think that you should have the more impact as possibl e on your team or your audience? If you do, I firmly believe that a better understanding of the non verbal communication would be beneficial , since it represents that much impact on your interlocutor. That is actually a reason why I am 10 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership writing this thesis and aiming to provide my work which could give a deeper understanding of some of non verbal communication concept to the reader . Nevertheless, something bothered me when I did further researches about the verbal and the non verbal. I looked up for more precise definition s of “verbal” and I was su rprised. Verbal was defined as “spoken rather than written” . I tried to find some antonym of verbal because I could not believe that the opposite of verbal was written and I found results even more stunning. Word s such as “written”, “printed” and even “uncommunicative” came out. Yes, “uncommunicative” ! My whole thesis will be based on the exact opposite of this statement: the opposite of verbal is the most im portant regarding communication and is everything except uncommunicative . In each step of life, non verbal communication is vital. When for instance a baby is born, the doctor is seeking for non verbal signs such as the color of the skin and the air breathing process. When people have an important interview or a master thesis defense, don’t they shave and dress properly? Despite the huge importance of non verbal, and as it is stated in the paragraph above, I could not find this terminology as being the opposite of verbal. Moreover, some dictionaries don’t even have a definition for non verbal and when they do, they usuall y define it as “not using words” or “communication by using gestures” . I will develop later on what is, according to scientists, non verbal communication but I can already tell you one thing: it is not only about gestures. The point I want to share is that there is no clear consensus on what is verbal and non verbal communication. Besides , non verbal communication does what words just fail to do : transmitting meaning and attitude. Imagine if y our interlocutor is speaking to you using the same tone of voice, and without any body movement, would not it be boring? Furthermore, if someone is telling you by using a monotone voice and without external signals that the whole building in which you are is on fire, would you trust him? Even if you cho ose to deny or ignore the non verbal communication, you will rely on it when it concerns important 11 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership message s; because when it comes to the words alone, people find it hard to understand, remember or believe (James, 2008) . This statement has actually a huge impact since it proves somehow that words are not strong enough. Isn’t it important to keep in mind in a leadership perspective? If you want to have an impact o n your audience, you know now that simple word s alone will not be enough . Non verbal … cultural or universal? One central assumption will be done and applied to the whole work: non verbal communication is partly universal. By using this statement I don’t imply that our personality, psychology, culture, etc. don’t affect our own non verbal communication. The reflection of this thesis is simply located in another level. The aim is not to prove that a mother in Manh attan will use the same gestures and body language tha n a mother in Dubai when they are talking to their children. If both of them are human beings which are sharing the same genetic capital and if they meet, they will be able to recognize and to understan d each other. As a matter of fact, the human is the only animal who is able to communicate by using words. Nevertheless, between the apparition of the two -legs walking (about 7 million years ago) and the spoken language (about 35 thousand years ago), the g enetic capital of the non verbal communication had been developed. Which means that some parts of the non verbal are inborn. The debates still exists concerning whether the gestures are inborn / genetic, or culturally learned. However, many studies showed that despite different cultures, there is a common use of same facial expr essions, same body language, etc. to show emotions. If you are still dubitative, let me try to convince you by using the research of the German scientist Eibl -Eibesfeldt (1971). He actually discovered that deaf and blind babies were able to smile, which could not have been learned through a copying process. This is the reason why people from different origins, and who speak different verbal language can somehow communicate. The mean ing of their non verbal communication will be assimilated in the same way. However, the cultural component (which is not 12 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership universal) has a huge impact on the non verbal, therefore I will discuss that particular influence within a proper chapter. As Pease an d Pease (2006, p. 18) stipulated “ cultural differences are many but the basic body language is the same everywhere ”. A whole part of the thesis will be dedicated to this discussion: is the non verbal communication universal or cultural? This discussion has all its importance since it will provide insights on whether non verbal communication can be extrapolated and be inter -cultural or not . Non verbal and leadership: an innovative link A major reason that gave me the incentive to write regarding non verbal communication and leadership is because of the innovation that both associated terms imply. During the composition of my work, I could not find scientific articles and/or books which a re linking leadership on the one hand, and non verbal communication on the other hand. I found at best 14 results when I tried to search for “non verbal communication leadership ” in Scholar Google and only 60 results in the e -library of the Linnaeus Univer sity. However, the worst of it is that within those results none of them connected those two concepts. Nevertheless, there were plenty of work s or studies regardi ng leadership and communication and s ome of them dedicated some pages about non verbal communi cation. However, there were no particular focus on the leadership aspect concerning the non verbal. Furthermore, plenty of articles and book are dedicated to the non verbal. It is not something new and would rather be the opposite actually. People were stu dying non verbal communication without naming it. For instance this field has been deeply studied in the theatre field, in anthropology, in psychology, ect. but not enough with the scope of leadership. By writing this work, I want to provide the reader s omething new; I want to contribute to existing science by using my own lenses and fill ing the current scientific gap. Hence I have the motivation of writing my thesis about this uncommon theme in order to use existing knowledge (through the literature revi ew) and new point of view (through the empirical illustration ) to better understand the leadership area. 13 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership As it has been said above, communication is crucial concerning the leadership aspect. Sense making or giving, transmission of explicit or implicit message, interaction with other human being s, … all of it would not be possible without communicatio n. Plenty of research are focussing on communication within the leadership field and claim that it has a major role, for leaders and for followers . Scientis ts are aware of the importance of communication, but why are there no – or a few – articles and books about the non verbal communication and leadership ? It is stated above that the non verbal communication is way more important than the verbal one – which are the two forms of communication. So why this deny of such an important dimension? This work is significant since we know that communication is important in the leadership field and since the non verbal communication is a major part of communication . However, let us keep in mind that the subject is related to human science. All the reviews, studies and conclusions cannot be extrapolated to everybody with a high rate of success. The art of observing and understanding feelings and emotions is not a predi ctable science. It is not because somebody has his or her arm s crossed that it will mean that he or she has a defensive attitude, it can simply mean he or she is cold. More will be developed about this problematic in the coming chapters. Research question and aim of the thesis This research is about communication but with a particular focus: the non verbal part of it. The aim of the thesis is to gain a deep understanding of the non verbal communication which is reaching each of us, during our whole life, and every day. By reaching this deep understanding, my objective is to explain and make link s with leadership in ord er to improve the understanding of relatively unknown facet s of non verbal communication concerning leaders, followers and the link between them . It has also been stated that there is a scientific gap regarding the link between leadership and non verbal co mmunication. My purpose is to offer my work as one of the pieces to bridge the gap. 14 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The puzzle of communication In this thesis, I chose the metaphor of a puzzle to illustrate communication. However , only 7% of the puzzle is representing verbal communication. Indeed, communication is like a puzzle that the counterpart will interpret and make sense of. Nevertheless, as it is stated above, 93% of the communication is actually made of non verbal communi cation, which is the center of attention of this thesis. Components of this puzzle will be developed below (3.2. 93% of the puzzle: the five dimensions of the non verbal communication) and will give a better insight of what the puzzle of non verbal communi cation is made of. People usually have a good interpretation of the whole puzzle because they don’t need the whole picture to figure out what the image is about. Even if there are few pieces missing, sense can be made of the big picture. Nevertheless, the thesis will aim to provide the reader a better understanding of the puzzle, in order to make even more sense of what the puzzle is about by filling the gaps and assembling the missing pieces. In other words, the better understanding of non verbal communication will focus on a deeper understanding of the pieces of the puzzle that people are less aware of. First, this thesis will provide the reader a better understanding of the non verbal communi cation’s puzzle : the parts of this puzzle will be one by one explained (literature review) . Then, this puzzle will be assembled (model of analysis) and use d to make links with leadership by using leadership illustrations (empirical illustrations and analysis) . 15 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 2. METHODOLOGY In this chapter, I will develop my way of thinking during the elaboration of the thesis. This part will give the reader information about how the thesis was constructed. Indeed, choices had to be made, and I will explain why I chose a particular way instead of another one. I will also argue about the methodological perspective that I think fit s the best the thesis. This part is actually an important milestone of the whole paper. Indeed, the methodology part gives somehow the author some credibility since I will explain all my choices and decisions. Choice of the topic and sources of informatio n Finally, this is the major work and achievement that I – as a knowledge creator – have to compose. This is the work that teachers, students and my whole academic entourage were talking about during my years in university. This is it: my master thesis. Th e one that I will only have one shot to compose properly. The one that will stay for a lifetime in my library. How to choose the subject? Should I write about something I like? Something I will use in a future career? Will I be able to write something that I will be proud of at the end? I asked myself all those questions again and again for a while before having a n idea of what my thesis will be about. However, something was sure: I really had the motivation to do something creative. Furthermore, I was aw are that I would spend a considerable amount of time on this project and that I will have to manage it correctly. Therefore, this thesis is more than a scientific work for me, it is also a good preparation for a future career since it is a project. Thus I am considering the project’s variables – time, pressure, reflection, action – and their management really seriously since they are somehow a good training for the future. For all those reasons, I had to do the good choice concerning the subject. 16 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership After a deep reflection, I came to the conclusion that I should combine two aspects: on the one hand, my personal interest and pleasure; on the other hand, the utility of it for a professional career. That is why I ended up with non verbal communication an d leadership areas. Indeed, I always have been fascinated by non verbal. Moreover, through this program and this thesis, I had the opportunity of combining this aspect with leadership. In fact, since I am aiming to become manager and hopefully a leader in a future career, I really took the opportunity of trying to better understand leadership and non verbal communication with this thesis so I could become a plausible better leader. Finally , I have my subject: leadership and non verbal communication. But th e difficulties came quite quickly: non verbal communication is a broad subject and the first obstacle was to chose the scope of my research . I had basically two possibilities: either going into details of some specific parts of the non verbal, or having an overview of all the parts of the non verbal communication. I chose the second option since I really wanted to treat non verbal communicatio n as a whole. Indeed, I do not want to treat only some part of it since I want to illustrate that all the non verbal communication is important, not only a certain part of it. After the decision, I began my work by doing a draft of what the final version s hould look like: I did a draft of the table of content. The rest of the elaboration of the work will be explained in the following paragraph: the structure of the thesis . Introduction to the methodology related to the structure In order to make links with theoretical parts and with methodological perspective, I will develop how I conceptualized the structure, the general layout of the thesis. Indeed, I think that explanations concerning my thesis are needed before analyzing concretely the methodological pa rt. But before that, I will explain which sources I used to gather information that I will use. I focused my researches on non verbal communication. I indeed searched books and articles related to that area only . Since I have to make links by 17 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership myself with leadership, my references collection process was not focused on existing links with leadership. And a s it is explained in the introduction, even though I would have wanted such references, it would have been really tough for me to find some. Regarding the approach of leaders, followers and the association of those two concepts, I used the literature, my experience gained thanks to my whole year studying leadership, my own personality and lenses, and some common sense to build some links between the approach es quoted above and non verbal communication. Images and videos will also be used to illustrate the theory, but this part will be more deeply analyzed below (4. empirical illustrations and analysis) . Basically, my thesis structure is divided in two parts. The first one – the literature review – is aiming to provide the reader a better understanding of non verbal communication. In addition to that, some links with leadership perspective will also be made. At the end of the literature review, all the parts will be put together and form the model of analysis. This model will be a summary of the review but will also include the structure that I will follow while I will examine and interpret the illustrations of the second part . The model of analysis is part somehow a reminder for me to follow for the illustrations analysis. That part is aiming to present concrete examples of what have been discussed during the literature review. The scheme presented below is – among other thing s – a summary of the thesis’ structure. 18 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Methodological views “Choosing a research methodology means developing a research question and the tool to generate evidence for its answer; both of these should be consistent with a theoretical framework” – Rose (2007, p. 1). Nevertheless , I would like to put things into persp ective. I believe that I would add on what Rose (2007) is saying, that the “choice” must somehow be compatible with the nature of the work and with his subject. In other words, I think that the methodology applied to a work is not really chosen but is instead implied. Model of analysis Leadership illustrations Used to analyze Understanding the pieces of the puzzle of non verbal communication Assembling the pieces of the puzzle of non verbal communication Applying the puzzle of non verbal communication to illustrate leadership situations 19 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership In my opinion and as it will be discussed below , the tools that I will use to generate evidence are coming from different areas, from different methodological views. After considering the approach of Bjerke and Arnor (2009) and their thre e methodological view – analytical view, systems view, and actors view – I came to the conclusion that this thesis is not fitting completely one of those “boxes”. Instead, I believe that this work has some resemblance with the three following methodologica l approach : the analytical view , the visual methodology, and the grounded theory . Indeed, I will explain why I think that this paper actually has some point s of those three different views and do not belong totally to any of them. First, the aim of the li terature review is to provide the reader with a better understanding of the non verbal communication concept but also to be the basis of the model of analysis. Indeed, the model of analysis will be constructed by taking into consideration the information s tated in the literature review. Therefore I believe that the thesis has a resemblance with the analytical view since I am trying to come up with a model in order to explain the reality. This model will be applied afterwards for the second part: the analysi s and the explanation of the reality through videos which will be presented in the illustration part. The model of analysis will be applied to videos that I found on the internet. I will have no interaction with the leaders, with the interviewer s and with the situation s. This is a statement that will actually reinforce the analytical view since people that I will observe will not learn from me or my conclusions. Then, the illustration part will be analyzed through my interpretation. In other words, I will try to come up with my personal interpretation even though the analysis will be based on the model of analysis. Indeed, videos will be seen, explained and analyz ed by me, my personality, my frames of references. Thus, conclusions that will come up will also be influenced by the interpretation that I am making of the reality. In other words, I will 20 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership analyze the reality (common to everybody) but interpretation that I will make will be – by definition – not reflecting the reality but instead reflecting the reality that I perceive. I am not claiming here that this thesis fits with the actors view, since the analytical view and the actors one are incompatible. However, I do believe that I am an actor who is observing other actors in special situations. Moreover, I also think that this paper has some resemblances with the grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967), Corbin and Strauss ( 1997), and by Corbin and Strauss (2008). Indeed the grounded theory is significant and is applied in a lot of cases implying qualitative approach. As it will be discussed in the following section, I believe that this paper belongs to that approach. Besides, the grounde d theory allows the knowledge creator to enable new theories through the description and analysis of existing data. And finally, this theory is focusing on the empirical experience. Therefore, I am stating that this paper has some connections with this the ory. As a matter of fact, the concept of this thesis is anchored in the human empirical experience. The focus is indeed a part of the everyday human experience. The variable s that are interesting me are indeed empirical. Nevertheless, a deeper understanding of the theory is needed in order to apply and understand it to daily empirical experiences. Through the illustration part, I will elevate the observation of a specific situation to the level of interpretation. This int erpretation will be based on the one hand on the empirical experience and on the other hand on the theoretical framework. Thus, the interpretation is doubled anchored: in the empirical experience and in the theor etical framework . In addition to those two approaches mentioned above , I also think that this paper is somehow linked to an interesting concept developed by Rose (2007) and Pink (2012): the visual methodology. Pink (2012, p.3) is qualifying the raising of the use of this method as followed: “this m arked a moment in the social sciences and humanities where for a number of reasons the visual was becoming more acceptable, more viable and more central to qualitative 21 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership research practice”. This methodology is actually based on representation that the author has of reality. This representation could be explicit or implicit, conscious or unconscious, and it could be conveyed in everyday life through television, rhetoric, speeches, art, culture, etc. Indeed, in the course of this paper, it makes sense to me t o consider this view as being part of the presented methodology. On the one hand, I am using a lot of image s within the theoretical framework. On the other hand, the part dedicated to illustrations is mainly constructed around visuals. Instead of focusing on image s, I chose to study videos. In fact, videos make more sense to analyze since it will allow me to observe movement s, which would be impossible with images . A significant part of non verbal communication is actually about movement s and about comparison between two moments. Besides, I chose videos where there is a clear leadership situation in order to illustrate in the best way possible the link between leadership and non verbal. The aim of this procedure is to look at leadership wi th the lenses of non verbal communication. To do so, it was quite clear for me that the video s have to emphasize a leadership situation that will illustrate what has been said in the literature review. In other words, videos will be chosen in order to anal yze (through the model of analysis) leadership actor’s non verbal communication The leadership situation was picked up based on my own definition of leadership but to make it simpler, I tried to cho ose well known leaders, belonging to several fields (busin ess, politics, sport, religion ). Quantitative or q ualitative? There are many and many types of approaches which can be used to conduct a scientific work. However, in the context of this paper, I will consider the two well known following ones : the qualitative and the quantitative approach . Qualitative and quantitative analysis are the two approaches, that are – according to Corbin and Strauss (2008, p.1) – “techniques and procedures for gathering and analyzing data”. 22 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership According to Quinn (2002) and to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009), the quantitative method is verifying existing statements by transforming data into numbers which will be taken into consideration for the analysis. Those numbers will be statistically and econometrically used in ord er to extract meaning from them. Since numbers are universal, the kind of information that will be extracted from them has a n objective basis somehow . Therefore this approach is result -oriented. On the other hand, the qualitative analysis is described by Corbin as Strauss (2008, p.1) as followed: “a process of examining and interpreting data in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge ”. Moreover, this approach would emphasize situational concepts instead of statistical methods (Strauss,1987). I firmly believe that this paper’s approach belongs to the second category. Since its nature of human science, and since the nature of the collected data, it does make sense to assume that the approach which would fits the thesis is the qualitative one. Besides, nearly no numbers or statistical data are used in the context of this paper. As it is stated by Bjerke and Arnor (2009), a qualitative approach allow s me – the author – more freedom in the data collection’s process. Severa l forms of qualitative data are appearing in this paper. The illustrations, image s, schemes, videos are indeed qualitative. Besides, all the data which were gathered and put together in the literature review also have the characteristic of qualitative data . Furthermore, any form of numbers studies (statistics, comparative study, ect.) is nearly inexistent in the course of this paper. For all those reasons, I qualify this thesis as being a qualitative approach. 23 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3 . LITERA TURE REV IEW 3.1. E MO T I O N S A N D E MO T I O N A L I N T E L L I G E N CE Rationality, logic, methods, common sense, etc. do you think that those concepts are driving our everyday’s behavior, decisions and life? Many authors, in several fields (psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, etc.) claim that the answer to this qu estion is “no”. The emotions also have a huge part in our decisional process. What is an emotion? How are emotions linked to the non verbal communication? How are emotions taken into account while people take decision s? This chapter will give some deep ins ight concerning theses problematic and is highly inspired by Turchet (2009) and several other authors named below. What is an emotion? Emotion is a word coming from the Latin “ emovere ” and means “to move”. In other words, if you feel an emotion, it will make something move on you, on your face, on your body. There is always a movement after an emotion. Therefore, emotions are readable thanks to the focus that one could have on movements. As a matter of fact, the movement could even happen before one reali ze s the emotion. LeDoux (1996), is convinced that this statement is true since he reached the s ame conclusions in his research . The example of the bear is given to make his point. If you are hiking alone and if you see a bear 3 meters away from you, would you realize that you are scared and then run? Or would you run and then realizing that you are scared? Well according to Ledoux (1996) and James (1884), people run away before realizing that they are scared and they will be conscious that they are afraid while they are running. 24 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The fact that emotion is followed by a movement is crucial to know in the context of this work. As a matter of fact, you know now that if you want to be aware of which emotion is coming from your counterpart, you have to pay attenti on to his or her movements since they are reflecting emotions. This point has also a huge importance for the leadership perspective. You, as a potential or confirmed leader, know now that the movement s that you make are somehow reflecting what you feel. Em otions are impacting your non verbal communication since it will affect your body language, your face, your position, etc. Emotions are somehow the underlying cause to the non verbal communication. Emotions and emotional Intelligence Until the nineties, emotion theories were not taken seriously and only few works were treating the subject. Goleman (1995) was a pioneer to focus on the subject and he was the first to develop the emotional intelligence concept. Is the emotional intelligence, that Goleman (19 95) is describing, important? As a matter of fact, this new concept is really crucial for everybody in the everyday life. The emotional intelligence is indeed directly linked to the decisional process. As it is discussed above, until the nineties, most of the scientists think that the neocortex is essential within the decisional process. The neocortex, is the part of the brain that people would use consciously, with rationality. However, scientific discoveries will be made (McLeland, 2002; LeDoux, 1996; Da masio et al., 1 997; etc.) and will confront this previous statement. As a matter of fact emotions are unconsciously used in order to rank important information. Damasio et al. (1997) are indeed reaching this conclusion based on their experiment. They found out that some people who have several part of their brain (linked to emotions) damaged are not able to take good decisions. The reason would be that they are not anymore able to rank what is important or not. 25 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Emotional intelligence is therefore framing, selecting and ranking the information that people get. Let me illustrate the importance and the mechanics of the emotional intelligence through a concrete example that could happen to you. Imagine this situation : you are married and your spouse is leaving you a vocal message on your phone: “Hello, I am calling you because I was supposed to take the children at their school but I have something important to finish at work, and I can’t get out of here. Could you pl ease go and get them? They are waiting for you on the sidewalk outside the school… Ah and yes, I almost forgot, did you see the fridge? We are running out of milk, could you go to the shop and get some please? Thank you!”. Well, after hearing this message, you will have basically two missions: bring the children back home and get some milk. Which one are you doing first? The children on the sidewalk or the milk? Well, when this question is asked, people usually say without hesitation: the children on the si dewalk. Nobody asks “can you tell me which one is the most efficient?”, “which one is the fastest?”, “how old the children are?” or “when the shops are closing?”. People are systematically answering the children without questioning it, as if it was natural . The emotions that emerges from “children on the sidewalk” are conditioning people to answer “the children”. This is emotional intelligence: feeling and sensing what is important without the need of analyzing the situation. We trust our brain and make t he decision without a rati onal and deep analysis: we rank the decision s based on emotions. While you were reading the words “children on the sidewalk”, it triggered a certain emotion which ranked the mission of getting the children home as being the top pr iority. In other words, the final decision was based thanks to the felt emotion. If you are driving in a car, it might have occurred to you that you suddenly had to break before analyzing the nature of the danger. This reflex appear before the neocortex – the conscious brain – analyze s the situation, otherwise, it would have been too late. The emotional component were quicker and more efficient than i f you would have had to analyze the situation before reacting to it. 26 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Reading emotions This thesis will treat the concept of understanding better the non verbal communication. But as it is stated above, emotions are causing the non verbal communication. In other words, reading the non verbal communication is somehow related to reading the emotions. However, understanding better the non verbal communication through the reading of this thesis does not mean that people who won’t read this work or others concerning non verbal communication are not able to interpret emotions/ non verbal communication. Everybody is actually skilled to understand non verbal communication. Indeed, everybody is able of understanding the big picture of the non verbal communication puzzle. Even though there are some pieces missing. The difference is that some experts could make more mean ing of what they see than others : they are able to see pieces that the non experts cannot see . In other words, everybody is able of recognizing and decoding non verbal communication, those who don’t are actually suffering from a disease: the Asperger’s Syn drome . If you are not suffering from this disease, you are able to decode the non verbal communic ation and this thesis is aiming , among other things, to help you doing it better. This paper is aiming to make you see the whole puzzle better. 27 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Emotions, non verbal communication and leadership To summarize, emotions are the underlying cause of non verbal communication. Behind a gesture or a specific position, one could find the emotion that is causing this movement. Moreover, this chapter is deve loping the fact that rationality is not the only variable on which we rely while we make everyday’s decisions. Emotions are indeed highly part of the decision process: that is called the emotional intelligence. The literature is suggesting that good leaders are not only excellent with rationality, several of them are also emotionally intelligent leaders (Turchet, 2009) . They are skilled to understand others and to feel empathy for them. Fu rthermore, you as a plausible or confirmed leader are already d ecoding quite good non verbal communication. One of the aim of this thesis is – through a better understanding of non verbal communication – to provide you a better “decoder” in order to make more sense of non verbal communication which is surrounding you. 28 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.2. 9 3 % O F T H E P U Z Z L E : T H E F I V E D I ME N S I O N S O F T H E N O N V E R B A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N Presentation The human brain actually recognizes five forms, five dimensions of non verbal communication. Each form belongs to a specific place within the brain and the information is treated individually as well. Non verbal communication most often evocate s body language to people. As a matter of fact, most people are directly associating the body language to the non verbal communication which is not totally correct. Ind eed, the body language is part of one of the five dimensions of the non verbal communication but there are four more others dimensions to consider . When you are discussing with somebody, you are not only moving your body but you also keep a certain distanc e to him or her, and you are sending and receiving subliminal and conscious information as well . The author and specialist in body language Turchet (2009) refers to these five dimensions as following: peri -verbal , para – verbal , infra -verbal , supra -verbal , a nd pre -verbal . Those five dimensions will be developed and are the core of the literature review since, when they are put together, they create the outline of non verbal communication. The peri -verbal dimension is the level which will treat all the space and distance factors. The communication is not the same regarding the fact that you are close or not to a person. Moreover, you will not communicate in the same way if you are in front of a person, or if you are next to him or her. The para -verbal dimensio n includes the tone of the voice. The meaning of simple words like “hello, how are you?” is totally influenced by the tone of your voice. If you are in a good mood and smiling, you will probably pronounce those words with a different tone of voice than if you are in a funeral. The infra -verbal dimension is treating subliminal information, information which is decoded unconsciously. This kind of information co uld be gathered from colors, smell s, etc. On the other hand, distinctive signals are parts of the su pra -verbal dimension. That dimension of the non verbal communication includes for instance the clothes, the jewelries, the watches, etc. that a 29 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership person will consciously decode and make sense of . And last but not least, the pre -verbal dimension which is basically treating the body language. This is a really important dimension since it gives insights about a person’s opinions, emotional states, behavior, state of mind, etc. All those five dimension will be developed below and importanc e of those dimension will be exposed regarding a leadership point of view. Since the non verbal communication is crucial and part of leadership, those five dimension s might also bring some new perspective regarding leadership aspects . However, an importan t link between non verbal communication and leadership will be discussed in this paragraph. It is the concept of congruence, from James (2008). You are congruent when you are actually performing a perfect communication. A perfect communication in this cont ext means that the five dimensions of the non verbal communication and the words that you actually say are in harmony. Your body language, tone of voice, ect. will match the words you are saying. If it is the case, you will appear honest, genuine and peopl e will see that you really mean what you are saying. Therefore, it is vital in a leadership perspective to look congruent. For instance, a non toxic leader who is congruent will probably be seen as being authentic. If his or her non verbal communication is really matching the words he or she says, and if the message is well embodied, the leader will probably qualified as being an authentic leader. Nevertheless, meaning what you are saying is not enough to be congruent. Incongruent communication does not onl y happen when a person is lying or trying to mask or even deceive. It could happen for other reasons like shyness, embarrassment, etc. Indeed, a leader could tell a client that it is a pleasure to meet him or her, and can be true. However if the leader can not shake properly the client’s hand, and is holding his or her arm crossed in a defensive posture, if the leader cannot look into the client’s eyes, etc. the mess age of the words which evocate “I am pleased to meet you” will be in conflict with the opposi te signals of the non verbal communication. 30 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership It has been said above that in leadership, and likely in many others situations and fields, it is better to have a congruent communication. However, it is not rare when a person does too much to be seen as cong ruent and finally become overcongruent. An overcongruent person is a person who will have for instance a too high tone of voice and who will over do and exaggerate gestures. Overcongruent communications are the enemy of honesty, authenticity and sincerity. Therefore and in order to avoid overgoncruence, you should practice how to say things and not only what to say. It is discussed in the literature that a good way to avoid to be seen as overcongruent is to keep your hand gestures within the congruent zone: between your waist and your shoulders. The following chapters will treat the five dimensions of the non verbal communication. Description and meaning of gestures, stances, objects, etc. will be developed and links between the non verbal communication asp ects and leadership will be highlighted. However, there are three rules to respect when you make sense of the non verbal communication information that you gather. Those three rules are explained by Pease and Pease (2006). The first rule is to read gestures in clusters. This rule suggest to not interpret only one gesture in isolation of the other ones, or by not taking into account the circumstances. Interpretation should be done by considering all gestures that are done in the same time than the iso late one. For instance, a weak handshaking is not automatically synonym of shyness and weak character but could also mean that the person is suffering from arthritis. Non verbal communication could actually be compared to any spoken language. Like any spok en language, body language has sentences and words which could have several meaning s. In this case, each gesture is a word and could have more than one meaning. In order to understand the sentence and the meaning of the body language, attention should be p aid to all the words, all the gestures, in order to understand the sentence, to make sense of what you see. To make it clear, it is said in the literature that people 31 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership should not make conclusion of an isolate d movement but they should rather consider the wh ole context and all the signals. The next rule has actually been discussed previously, it concerns the congruence. Of course the non ver bal communication is important and should be observed but it should also be compared to the words that people actually say. If non verbal communication and words are in harmony, the person who is sending message is congruent and as it has been said previously, the person will be seen as being authentic. However, Pease and Pease (2006) are mentioning an incongruent experien ce that Freud 1 had in his researches. Freud was talking to a wom an who was married , about her conjugal life. The woma n was smiling and talking positively about it. Nevertheless, she was unconsciously slipping her wedding ring on and off her finger. After a while, the marriage issue began to surface. The observation of the gestures cluster and congruence of the verbal and non verbal communication are actually the key to be able to collect meaning accurately of what you see. And the last but not least rule: the gesture sh ould be read within the context; the contingency variable should be taken into consideration. Which means that the gesture should be considered in the context in which they occur. If somebody is crossing his or her arms and legs in a cold wi nter day at a bus station, the meaning could be different than the same gesture but in a well heated conference room. All those rules are preventing us from drawing conclusions too quickly. These three rules are valid in a leadership perspective as well since a leader – or a follower – should see the whole picture instead of a part of it in order to make sense. What is the puzzle of non verbal communication made of? The contingency, the congruence, the tone of the voice, the distance, the body language, the hand gestures, etc. all of those aspects are part of non 1 Pease and Pease: P. 23 32 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership verbal communication. The focus of this thesis is the leadership context, and in this specific context, leaders and followers who are eager to have a better under standing of leadership perspective through non verbal communication should see the whole picture in order to make sense of it. As a matter of fact, a specific metaphor would fit to this statement. All the messages which are sent are actually like a whole p uzzle that represent communication . And in order to make sense, leaders and followers should put together the different clusters of the puzzle – the verbal communication, and elements of the non verbal communication like the contingency, the peri -verbal dimension, the para -verbal dimension et c. Those clusters are in turn composed of pieces of the puzzle – hands gestures, facial expressions, clothes, jewelries etc. Moreover, each piece of the puzzle could be placed differently, indeed any side can face an y direction which would refer to the fact that each piece – each small gesture – could have several meaning s depending on how it is placed. Therefore reading the whole puzzle is not easy. Each piece should be understood and placed in a way that the whole puzzle will make sense. The following chapters will treat each cluster or piece of the puzzle of non verbal communication, in order to provide a better understanding of them. 33 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Construction of the model of analysis: step 1 All along the theoretical framework (except for the universality of non verbal communication), I will construct – step by step – the model of analysis. So far, I just provided you the fact that communication is divided in two parts: verbal and non verbal. The s cheme has the appearance of the final one, and even though I introduced the five dimensions, I will not include them yet, since I have not develop them enough yet . They will be completed, section after section and will form at the end the model of analysis which will be used to analyze the videos. 34 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.3. T H E P E R I -V E R B A L D I M E N S I O N : T H E D I S T A N C E The first cluster of the puzzle which will be described is regarding the aspect of the peri -verbal dimension . Why do people usually don’t like it when others are too close to them? What do people consider as their personal space? What do they consider as t heir possession and how do they demonstrate it? Is the concept of personal space the same for everybody? This section will treat all those questions and the implicit or explicit meaning that the distance between two people, or more, signifies. The ideas in the following chapter are originally coming from the following authors: Hall ( 1981 ), Pease & Pease (2006) and Phipps (2012). Territory The word territory comes from the Latin territorium , from terra which means “earth, land”. The first and common meaning of this word is applied to countries, regions, cities, neighborhood, etc. However, in this specific context, the word territory is more a synonym of what “belongs” to people. Or to be more precise: w hat people claim to have on their possession. In other words, the territory is a space or an area that a person claims to possess, as if it was an extension to his or her own body. It could be a home, a car, a bureau, a specific seat in a meeting room, and the personal space located around the body. The following paragraphs will point out what are the links between those possessions and leadership. Personal space and contingency Most animals have their own personal space, which is the air space around them that they claim to be theirs. However, the volume of this personal space depends on the contingency, and the main variable to be considered is the crowdedness, the density. The illustration given by Pease and Pease (2006) is a perfect example to understan d this idea. A lion in freedom in Africa could have a personal space of which the radius is about 50km. On the other hand, a lion raised in captivity will have his personal space 35 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership dramatically decreased: his space will only be a few meters. The contingency factor is here the density of the local circumstances. The more the density is, the more the personal space decrease s. This point is relevant to consider for a leadership researcher interested in the peri -verbal dimension. My reflection concerning this asp ect is that this example could be extrapolated for human being, as it will be developed in the following paragraph. Therefore, a researcher should have in mind that the personal space that a person A consider s is not systematically the same as the one that person B consider s. This example for animals perfectly fits with human being s. The personal space around a person could be represented by an air bubble and is also determined depending on the local circumstances. Therefore, the personal space is cultural ly defined. If people are used to crowded spaces and deal with this kind of situation, their space will be small. It is the case for the Japanese culture. On the other hand, when people are not used to density, they want others to keep their distance. This is more the case for Northern Europe, North America, and any culture which is “westernized”. People from this culture are less eager to have invaders in their space, and their behavior can be directly affected. Let me take the example of Phipps (2012) to illustrate this cultural difference. Japan is a country of 120 million while the UK has 60 million of inhabitants. Those two countries have roughly the same superficies. In other words, Japan has twice the population of the UK within the same territory, so Japanese should have a reduced personal space. As a matter of fact, a Japanese work nowadays is called oshiya , which consist s in pushing others in public transports, in order to get the most people as possible in trains, metros, etc. I personally hardly t hink that such a practice would be tolerated in westernized cultures. As it has been suggested in the last paragraph, the personal space – the air bubble – is culturally defined. This statement should be considered by a researcher in leadership who would want to go further into the study of the peri -verbal dimension and leadership. 36 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Spatial zones According to the anthropologist Hall (1981), there are five spatial zones surroundin g each of us. Each zone has its characteristics and implications. As it already has been discussed in a previous paragraph, those zones are also depending on the culture. The length of those zones presented below are a mean in westernized countries. Close intimate zone (0cm – 15 cm) Intimate zone (15cm – 45cm) Personal zone (45cm – 1,22m) Social zone (1,22cm -3,6m) Public zone (3,6m +) The intimate zone (0cm – 45 cm) is often considered as being an extension to people’s bodies. They will guard this space and allow only close people to enter it. The personal zone is related to the normal zone, when people are socializing and interacting with each others. The social zone represents the distance that people keep with strangers. And finally, the public zone is observable when a someone is addressing a large group of person. The speaker will stand, on average, more than 3,6 meters away from his or her audience. I came to the conclusion that what matters is when changes occur in the spatial zone. I will refer to this change of distance as being the distance fluctuation. As a matter of fact, distance fluctuation will give a tone to the communication, will punctuate it . As Hall (1981, p .175) says, “ The flow and shift of distance betwee n people as they interact with each other is part and parcel of the communication process”. Therefore I think that a leadership researcher can pay attention to this peri -verbal dimension since it could give information about the nature of the relationship. It could also give some information about the congruence: if the person A claims to be at his or her ease and cannot stay in the personal zone the person B, it could be a clue to the fact that the person A is not congruent. 37 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Territory and ownership Inanimate objects that a person possesses or often uses are seen as being a private territory (as it has been discussed above: personal space). Thus, this person can “fight” to protect the object or the area. Actually those inanimate things are seen as ext ensions of our own body. The object can be a house, a preferred seat in a conference room, a favorite spot in the restaurant or a favorite chair in the kitchen. People are most often using non verbal communication to claim the ownership of those areas. A person who wants to show that something belongs to him or her will touch, or lean against the object. To do so, a physical contact is required. For example a person will have his or her feet on a car or lean against it to prove that it is his or her object . The object will actually be seen as being an extension of the body. The same reasoning can be done for a meeting room. A person who wants a specific spot will touch the chair where he or she wants to sit. Moreover, when people do not actually possess the item, like a chair in a conference room or in a library, a table in a fast food restaurant, etc. they can use other form s of non verbal communication to mark their territory. They can for example leave personal stuff in or around the desired area, like pe rsonal briefcase, pencils, books, cup of coffee, ect. Another interesting fact is that in this last example, the objects will probably be spread with an unconscious aim: protecting the intimate zone. The objects will protect the person from intruders and w ill show and delimitate a personal territory, their personal area. This paragraph illustrate s how impo rtant it is for people to have “their own” objects . In business leadership, this could be used to put pressure on people, which will be developed below. Use of territory to intimidate As it has been argued in the previous paragraph, people touch or lean against things they claim to possess. Nevertheless, this practice can be used in order to intimidate others. Think about a chief executive who is putting his feet on a desk or who is leaning against the doorway. Isn’t it a sign to 38 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership show that the items are under his possession? Isn’t it intimidating? Another way to inti midate people is to lean, touch , or use someone else’s object without asking for the permis sion. Such practices are used by a lot of people: leaning on someone else’s doorway or sitting on someone else’s chair. According to Pease and Pease (2006) some people are habitual doorway “leaners” and intimidate others from the very beginning. Those peop le are using non verbal communication to make others having a good first impression. To do so, they will use in addition with the leaning technique, the visible palm practice. As we will discuss in a following chapter, the visible palm will be helpful to g ain other’s trust ( 3.7.1. the hands ). The first impression that people make when they see you can vary according to several authors. It could be done in the blink of an eye (James, 2008) or within the first four minutes (Pease and Pease, 2006) . My opinion about the first impression is that it does not matter that much if the first impression is done within the firsts seconds or within the first five minutes, the important aspect to consider is that it is done in a relatively short time. My refl ection upon this point is that leaders and followers could actually use the peri – verbal dimension to influence, and intimidate others. Furthermore, this influence could have more impact if it is done within the first impression process. Moreover, the impor tance of the first impression has also a h uge impact in interviews since the interviewee has usually a few seconds to make the employer s trust him or her. This aspect has all its interest since the leadership world is counting many interviews. Other dimension s of the non verbal dimension which will be developed in following chapters can also have impact of the first impression. The previous paragraph has important consequences in the business world. Let me take this example: a salesman is invited on a one -to -one meeting to somebody else’s place (a bureau, at his or her house, etc.). If the aim of the salesman is not to intimidate the client, he or she should ask “which chair is yours?”. This question will avoid the owner to be intimidated by seeing so mebody else on his or her chair. I personally think that this example is fitting perfectly the world of business leadership since in my opinion this 39 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership situation occurs a lot in this world. Therefore, if you – as a leader – want to negotiate, it would be advi sed to pay attention to this problematic. Construction of the model of analysis: step 2 40 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.4. T H E P A R A -V E R B A L D I M E N S I O N : T H E T O N E O F T H E V O I C E The second dimension and cluster of the puzzle is the para -verbal one, the one which impacts a one to one conversation by 38% (Merhabian, 1972): the tone of the voice. Since its importance, the para -verbal dimension represent a significant part of the puzzle of communication. The tone of voice gives somehow a context to words. It has been discussed in a previous paragraph , the simple words “hello, how are you” are pronounced differently regarding the current situation. As a matter of fact, the voice can be seductive, cutting, questioning, joyful, angry, attractive, sad, encouraging, caring, repulsive, and so forth (Olah, 2011). Close your eyes and imagine In addition to emotions that the voice could convey, people actually build an image of who you are, or on your behavior based on the voice. This state ment is strengthened if the receiver does not see you. it could be the case if you are negotiating on the phone for instance. Mullennix and al. (2002, p.255 ) are arguing that: “ when humans produce sounds, the resulting productions contain linguistic inform ation related to the intended message and nonlinguistic indexical information about the speaker producing the utterance. Indexical information refers to personal aspects of the speaker, such as voice quality, age, gender, dialect, emotional sta te, social s tatus, and so forth” . In other words, people make their image of you based on their interpretation that have out of your voice. If you speak to a man whose height is 1.9m and weight 90kg, and you hear that he has a low -pitched voice, it will not be that su rprising, would it be? On the other hand, if this man is speaking with a really high pitched voice, the image that you have of him will change. This phenomenon is even more important and amplified when you don’t see the counterpart like it is the case in a telephone conversation. In a leadership perspective I think that this specific aspect would provide good researches questions. Are they differences when leaders 41 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership communicate only by using phone instead of meeting people? If there are differences, how do th ey impact the communication? I love my company As it has been argued above, the tone of voice influences the perception that people have of others. In addition with the tone of voice, the accentuation should also be included and could give hints about th e personality of the speaker. To illustrate this fact, I will give you a short example. Read the following sentence by emphasizing the bold words: – I love my company – I love my company -I love my company -I love my company The different possible accentuation are indeed suggesting a different meaning in addition with the simple words. The way people pronounce, emphasize, and use their tone of voice add a certain dimension to those words . For instance, the third one, “I love M Y company” could suggest tha t the person who emphasize the “my” really want to show his belonging to the firm or it could also suggest that it is his or her company, that he or she actually owns the company. Even if the internalization and the deep underst anding of the messages that the voice conveys is unconscious, people actually judge and make their mind about others based on what is said and how it is said (Olah, 2011; Devore and Cookman 2009). This statement is also valid in a leadership perspective. I t is actually an additional reason for leaders – or followers – to think about how to say things, in addition with “what to say? ”. In this case, the how to say things is related to the voice and according to the texts, leadership actors should train also t heir voice, before a presentation for instance. 42 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The leakage hierarchy Why should people pay attention to the tone of the voice? Well, it has been discussed above that the voice is part of non verbal communication and thus, it brings additional meaning to the message. But it is not the only reason why you should take into account the voice fac tor of your counterpart. As a matter of fact, if you want more information about the emotional status of the speaker, the voice is really good dimension to consider for the following reason. According to Zuckerman et Al. (1982) – and to their interpretatio ns of Ekman Friesen (1969), and Larrance, Spiegel, & Klorman (1981) – a hierarchy exists among different channels of non verbal communication. Their studies show that the tone of the voice, like the body language is less controllable than the facial expres sions. A plausible reason to this fact could be suggested by the fact that the “senders” are more aware of their facial sending than of their vocal sending skills. Therefore, the tone of the voice is considered as being a source of leakage of information. My interpretation on this fact is that attention should be paid by leader ship actors to this source of leakage in order to get more information about the emotional state of the sender. However, this point should be balanced and put into perspective. As a m atter of fact, DePaulo et Al. (1978) reached the conclusion that the face has a bigger impact that the tone of voice. They observed that a positive facial expression combined with a negative tone of voice was better rated than a negative facial expression combined with a positive tone of voice. In other words, people are organizing into a hierarchy the different dimensions and this specific study tends to show that the face has a bigger impact than the voice, when they are used simultaneously. The tone of voice within leadership In this chapter , it has been raised that the para -verbal dimension – the tone of the voice – has its importance within the non verbal communication. It can indeed influence the perception that you have o f a person or even modify a pre existing impression that you would have about somebody. Therefore, I get to the conclusion that the para -verbal dimension is relevant to be developed within a leadership perspective. All that has been said in this part 43 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership could be extrapolated to leadersh ip. I personally think that there is a gap concerning the para -verbal and the leadership. In other words, the tone of the voice will impact the meaning done by the receiver of the information. This fact is really significant when it is related to a leaders hip view. Interesting studies could actually be done to see if there is any correlation between the used tone of voice of a leader and its impact of followers. My impression on this kind of problematic is that I would think that since the tone of voice con veys messages, the used tone of voice could actually inf luence the listeners in a good or in a bad way. A good discussion that could be opened is “how does the voice influences others? In which circumstances?” . Besides, There are other clues that one could examine about the tone of the voice of a leader . For instance, the harmony of the voice. If the person is feeling strong emotions like anger or sadness, it is likely that the leader’s voice will be affected by those strong emotions. Furthermore, uncomfort able situations could be conveyed by the fact that the leader is using a lot of repetition and is hesitating. Those two variable are indeed belonging, in my opinion, in the para -verbal dimension. Construction of the model of analysis: step 3 44 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.5. THE I N F R A -V E R B A L D I M E N S I O N : S U B L I M I N A L I N F O R M A T I O N Presentation As it has been stated in a previous paragraph, the infra -verbal dimension is an important part of the puzzle and is treating the subliminal information, which is decoded unconsciously . The author (Turchet, 2009) give s the following example in order to illustrate the subliminal information concept: the smell s, the colors, and any other sign that are analyzed by our brain without us being conscious of it. Those practices are for example used in the supermarket field. Good smells, nice colors and music are chosen by the marketing team in order to give the client the best purchasing experience. All those information are subliminal and their aim is to make the client comfortable so he or she can enjoy better the shopping. I am really appealed by the study of the infra -verbal dimension since I find it really interesting . Nevertheless, since its wide and complex nature, it is quite difficult to have a deep understanding of it in the context o f this thesis . Indeed, the unconscious analysis of such stimuli are highly dependent to the person’s characteristics. Which make the task difficult to be studied in this work . Moreover, stimuli are so many that unfortunately, a good description of them would require too much space in the frame of this thesis. Furthermore , this dimension is the hardest one to observe. It will be almost impossible for me to see this dimension in the part dedicated to illustrations of leadership. For all those reasons, I chose to not develop this dimension in this thesis and to focus more on the four others, the ones that could be easier visible. However, let us keep in mind that this dimension could represent a big part of the puz zle of the communication. It could indeed influence a person’s decision, and the most interesting is that the person will not even be aware of it. That is why I believe that the infra -verbal dimension is essential and should be studied more deeply , but not in the case of this paper . 45 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Construction of the model of analysis: step 4 46 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3. 6. THE S U P R A -V E R B A L D I M E N S I O N : D I S T I N C T I V E S I G N A L S The supra -verbal dimension concerns all the signals that you assimilate consciously. The signals are either objects that you carry on you: your clothes, glasses, watch, etc. I consider this dimension as being a specific part of the communication puzzle. This section will treat five of those signals: the cigarette, the jewelries, the glasses, the make -up, and the briefcase. Those objects are widely treated by Pease and Pease (2006) and are also evocated by James (2008). The cigarette Even though in a lo t of countries, smoking is more and more prohibited in the companies’ meeting room s, I personally still find it interesting to develop since, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world cigarettes consumption is still raising. Actually, lea dership does not only occur in offices or in meeting room s but everywhere else. Therefore I will suggest meanings – by using the literature – of what could mean the situation where you would see someone smoking. Moreover, some interpretation s about the sta te of mind of the smoker will be pointed out. It is said in the literature that a plausible meaning of smoking would be that the smoker need reassurance. Therefore smokers light cigarettes when they feel under pressure or when they feel insecure. The non smoker people are expressing the same feeling s by using other methods: chewing their gum, biting their nail s, finger s and foot taping, etc. All those gestures are suggesting the same meaning than when the smokers smokes : a need for reassurance. Another we ll known phenomenon that people use to reassure themselves is using their jewelries. People keep touching them while they feel unsecure. They actually place their fear, insecurity, lack of confidence and impatience in them. If you want to be seen as a conf ident leader, try to avoid touching your jewelries and watches or if you are a girl, do not touch your hair. If you have issues to control this, it is advised by the literature that 47 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership removing all the objects that could give a negative impression of you is a good thing to do . If you are negotiating or socializing with somebody who is smoking, it could be helpful to get some information on the person’s state of mind. A person’s attitude could actually be described by observing the way he or she exhale s the smoke. A positive attitude like confidence and superiority are usually associated with blowing the smoke up. On the other hand, a negative attitude like secretiveness or suspiciousness would be shown by a person who is blowing the smoke down. This is a interesting observation which could be useful to the leadership field. In negotiations for instance, a leader could notice whether the potential buyer is blowing the smoke up or down. If the smoke is blew up, it would suggest that the potential buyer mad e his decision and is eager to buy and vice -versa . The glasses According to Thornton (1944), people wearing glasses are rated to be more intelligent, studious, educated and honest compared to people who do not wear them. And it seems like the heavier the frame s on the glasses are, the more frequently those adjectives were likely to be used. This could find its meaning in the leadership. As a matter of fact, Pease and Pease (2006) are arguing that it is the case because business leaders who wear glasses us ually have heavier frames. In order words, heavier frames would signify power while in the opposite, lighter frame s would s uggest the image of a “nice guy” . If a person wants to be seen as a powerful leader, and if he or she wishes to wear glasses (non cor rectable glasses if there is no need to wear them), my opinion is that this leader could choose heavier frame s to assert his or her powerful status. It is also said in the literature that peering over the glasses should be avoided if you want to give a po sitive image of yourself. The perception that people have when they are looked with the eyes over the glasses is usually 48 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership that they are judged. Which could lead them to proceed to negative body languages signals such as arms and legs crossed. The power of make -up and of glasses for a women A study has been made by Pease and Pease (2006) and they conclude that for women, the ones who are wearing glasses and make -up were seen as being confident, intelligent and the most ongoing. Women who wear make – up with n o glasses have also good rating concerning their appearance but are seen as being less out going than if they were wearing glasses. In other words, if a woma n wants to have a positive and memorable impact on others , it is said by the authors that they shou ld wear make -up and glasses. My personal opinion concerning this fact is that if what Pease say is true and universal, women who feel the need to become leaders and taken more seriously should wear glasses, even if they do not actually need them, by using non correctable glasses for instance. How to choose the briefcase? The size of the briefcase is giving signals to others about the owner’s status. A large briefcase would suggest that the owner takes a lot of work on his or her house which could lead to t he interpretation that the owner is managing poorly his or her time. On the opposite, a slim briefcase would say that the owner is only concerned by the bottom line and therefore has a mor e important status. Moreover and as it will be discussed later on , t he theory also states that the briefcase should be worn on the left side, in order to leave the right hand free for handshaking. Another point developed in the theory is that a women should not wear both a hand bag and a briefcase because it would give the feeling that she is not organized. I personally found this point really interesting since it is regarding the leadership and especially the business leadership. The briefcase is actually an object that the majority of business leaders are using. Therefore I think that knowing the theoretical framework could improve the image that leaders are sending. For example, if a business women is seen as being not organized, if she is aware of this image and willing to change it, if she is wearing all the time a brie fcase and a 49 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership handbag, she could actually try to change that negative image by limiting herself by only wearing either the bag or the briefcase. Supra -verbal and leadership In a leadership perspective, if you as a leader – or a follower – want to make better sense of what you see, you should consider also the supra -verbal dimension, since it gives a lot of non verbal communication signals. The more people have accessories and use them, like touching repeatedly the jewelries and so forth, t he more you would be able of making sense of what you actually see. And on the other hand, if you – as a leader or a follower – want to modify the image that you are sending to others, you could also use some objects to help you to do so. You could for ins tance wear glasses if you want to appear more intelligent or have a slimmer briefcase if you want to show that you have a more important status. Nevertheless, for the further analysis part of the paper, I will distinguish two categories of accessories, of distinctive objects. The first category includes the essential accessories, like the clothes, the glasses, the make -up, etc. On the other hand, the second category is including miscellaneous accessories: the cigarettes, the briefcases, the watches, etc. Construction of the model of analysis: step 5 50 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.7. T H E P R E -V E R B A L D I ME N S I O N : T H E B O D Y L A N G U A G E The pre -verbal dimension is the dimension related to the whole body and to the signification of specific part of it. It is a n important part of the cluster of the final puzzle . As a matter of fact, the following parts will be dedicated to smaller pieces of the puzzle. 3. 7.1. THE HANDS Hands and arm s gestures Did you know that a hand has 27 bones which are laced together by a network of ligament and tiny muscles to move? Moreover, did you also know that there are more nerves connections between the brain and the hand than between any other part of the body? Tho se observations are scientifically and medically approved (Tubiana, Thomine, and Mackin,1998; Schmidt, Lanz, 2003; etc.). Why am I talking about anatomy facts within this work? Because it provides a n evidence that the hand gestures give somehow a powerful insight into our emotional state. Furthermore, hands are usually placed in front of our body, so people can use them – consciously or not – to give sense. Illustration 1: bones of the hand 51 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Hands are used when you shake other’s hands, when you speak or when you listen. In other words, they are constantly used when you interact with people. This section will give an overview concerning the mos t used gestures regarding hands, arms and their meaning. The explanations below are highly inspired by five exp erts in body language: Goman (2011), James (2009), Pease and Pease (2006), Phipps (2012), and Turchet (2009). However, I use my own understanding and structure to explain the concepts. Handshake Handshaking has historical reasons that I will not develop h ere. However, nowadays the handshaking practice has evolved and is used for greetings and departures, in business context as well as in other ones. Nevertheless, the impact of your handshake should not be underestimated since it is a signal that could be u sed by the other s to judge you: a handshaking can make or break a relationship. Actually, as it has been discussed previously, the first impression is rather important and if you have the chance to give a first good impression with your handshake, why woul d you not take this opportunity. This part will not give an overview of all the possible style of handshakes but rather wil l treat the following question “what is a good handshake?” . I personally think that this point has all its importance since I firmly believe that the leadership world – especially the business leadership – uses considerably the handshaking practice. Several factors are taken into consideration when you shake hands. Have you ever wondered how you shake hands? Who is the initiator? What is the angle of your hands and the used strength? To begin with, if you are not totally certain that the other person is not comfortable with you, it is better to let him or her initiate the handshake. Otherwise the other person might feel not welcomed an d obliged to shake hands in return. The angle of your handshake matter s as well and shows the concept of dominance. If your palm is up it would mean that you let the other one be more dominant and vice -versa . A good compromise is to make sure that your hand is vertical, so nobody is the dominant. In other words, if you want to be a leader who gives 52 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership a good handshaking – in order to leave a good impression for instance – it is advised in the literature tha t you sh ould keep your palm vertically and that you shou ld match the other person’s strength. Illustration 2: Dominant handshake by the person in the suit who is using the palm down position, while the other person is using the submissive handshake since his palm is up. Illustration 3 : Vertical handshake – good handshake with no dominance sign Another practice which is done when people shake hands is using the left hand to make a second physical connection. According to Hoppe (2011) touching with your left hand the elbow of the other person while you shake hands could be powerful to have better chances to get what you want. It is discussed in their article that researchers from the University of Minnesota have conducted an e xperiment which will be called “ the phone booth test ”. The astonishing conclusion of this test is that you will get up to three time what you want when you make an light elbow to uch. In other words, do not hesitate to practice a quick elbow touch (less than 3 seconds) but make sure that the context of the relationship or of the meeting allows you to do so. I 53 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership personally think that this fact could be used by leader ship actors while they shake hands. It could have a significant impact especially for negotiations . Illustration 4 : Handshaking and elbow touch – Ban Ki -Moon and Obama The use of palms, hands and arms Basically, the palms can be used in two ways: opened palm (palm up) and non -opened palm (palm down, hidden palm). The meaning of a opened palm is positive (palm up) , it gives the image of trust and honesty while a non – opened palm conveys a rather negative image and could even mean power (for instance the pal m -down handshak ing of the previous paragraph). Using the opened palm is powerful since on the one hand it shows trust and honesty and on the other hand, it could encourage the other person to be more open and honest with you as well. So, the use of the pal ms has its importance for leaders or followers who would want to improve their image by using the open palm posture. The movements or postures that you do with your hands could be classified into two categories: the good ones and the bad ones (James, 2008 ). Fundamentally, the good hand gestures are used to convey either illustrations (when you count something while presenting or when you use your hand to describe the height of a problem) or emphatics messages (when you gestures are showing emotions: when p eople stab or wring the hand to show anger, frustration, etc.). Those gestur es are powerful since they give visible information. They are often use d for emphasizing and are really effective for embodying messages. On the other hand, bad hand gestures 54 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership could transmit aggressiveness, stress, anxiety, etc. Worse, your hands can betray you and say the opposite of your words. If you pretend to be confident and if you can’t stop fiddling with your jewelry, do you think that your interlocutor will have the same opi nion? If you want to use only good gesture for speeches, meet ings, etc., there is no miracle and according to the theory, you have to practice. People usually think about what to say but seldom about how to say things. For instance, if you have problems wi th touching jewelries or hair (for girls) : take of f your jewelries and tie your hair. This paragraph would be more related to presentations. If you – as a leader or a follower – are making presentations, I think that this theoretical framework can bring you a lot about how to practice and how to use hands. Furthermore, I firmly believe that this statement would be useful for a researcher in leadership, using the non verbal communication. As a matter of fact, that information could be use d to better decode possible non – congruence in a leader’s speech for instance. This paragraph will give an overview of common gestures and their meaning. However, as it has been said and as it will be said within the following sections, the contingency should be taken into consideration. It is not because a man cross es his arms that it would definitely mean that he is defensive, he might just be cold. The first gesture that will be analyzed is the steeple, which occurs when the fingers of one hand are lightly pressed against the other hand’s finger s and forms a church steeple. This posture is showing confidence and assurance although it can also show arrogance. The steeple can also be extended into a shape of praying, which means even more self -confidence. If you want to look confident and having the right answer, the steeple is the perfect position , which is advised by the theory, for you. H owever , theory also states that this position should not be over use d or you risk to be seen as an arrogant. Another position which will be developed is when people hold their hands behind their back. This stance leaves the genitals without protection, which could convey confidence from the initiator of this position. Therefore this posture is often synonym of confidence, authority and supe riority. It is a posture which reminds me of 55 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership the army where the superior is talking to his subordinates. However this posi tion could be powerful when you are unsecure or under pressure since it will make you feel confident and therefore you will become mor e confident. A last hands position which will be described in this section is the hands clenched which happens when people have their hands woven together. This gesture could convey the signal of confidence but could also convey the opposite image . Actually, it could be a frustration gesture which could mean that the person is holding back anxious ness or negative attitude. Therefore I personally think – based on the reviewed literature – that as a leader, if you see somebody with t his gesture, you sh ould try to “unclench” the situation by for instance offering a beverage or by making the person holding something. Illustration 5: The steeple hand position: Nicolas Sarkozy (former president of France) Illustration 6: Hands behind back position Illustration 7: Clenched hands position The last paragraph is dedicated to the use of arms within one particular position: the crossed arms. According to the authors quoted in the beginning of this section, and especially to Pease and Pease (2006), arm crossing is a negative signal. It could convey defensive and insecure attitude, and even disagreement. Those statement s could be worse if the person is gripping his or her arms or if his or her fists are clenched. Furthermore, people with this gesture will retain less of what you are saying. If you are the speaker and you are observing this gesture in your audience , it is stated by the authors that it is advised to make the person’s arms uncrossed in order to create a 56 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership better environment for you . Same techni ques as hands clenched posture can and should be appli ed to make the situation better. The theoretical framework would suggest that you can give your audience a pen, a book, something to look at in order to make them uncross their arms. If you are the spea ker, the same recommendation is given: uncross your arm. Otherwise you risk to be seen with a defensive position. Have you ever considered why you cross your arms when you are not at your ease? When I asked some of my friends or relative s regarding this is sue, they tell me that they do that posture because it is comfortable , like it is stated in the theoretical framework . Maybe it is comfortable for you to have the arms crossed on that specific moment but if it is that comfortable, why don’t you keep this p osture when you are having fun or when you are enjoying a dinner or a comedy movie? What is probably true is that crossed arms is a comfortable position because it matches the emotional state on a specific moment. My interpretation based on the literature regarding this problematic is to avoid the arm crossing in any circumstances, except if you want to show your disagreement or if you do not want to participate in to the conversation. This paragraph is also related to leadership in the sense that the impor tance of the arms is omnipresent in social exchanges. Moreover, the specific cases exposed above are fitting the presentation or negotiation situations. Indeed, the theory could be extrapolated to those context s and give a basis to presenters on how bad it is to cross arms or to see people in the audience doing that posture . Illustration 8 : The arm s crossed position – Arsene Wenger (Liverpool football coach ) 57 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.7. 2. THE LEGS Did you know that the further we get far away from the brain, the less people are aware of their own body movements? Most people are aware of what kind of facial expression they are doing because they know that the face mirrors the felt emotions. Then people are aware, but l ess than the facial movement, of their hand gesture s, since they often have visual contact with them. In other words the more we get close to the feet, the less people are aware of the part of the body. Therefore legs are an important source to get information from. People actu ally seldom consider faking leg gestu re s since they don’t pay enough attention to them. Since this lack of attention, a body language reader could easier figure out the counterpart’s emotional state. This legs part will be dedicated to some common postures and will suggest meaning to those s tances. Therefore, this section should be considered as being an overview of the legs position and their importance within the leadership area. Most of the literature that will support this part is coming from the following authors: Ekman (1977), Goman (20 11), James (2009), Pease and Pease (2006), Phipps (2012), and Turchet (2009). However and like the previous section, I will use my own interpretation and structure to explain the concepts. Historically, legs have two main purposes: to move forward to what one want, and to get away from what one does not want. Those two basic movement s are still valid nowadays in everyday’s life. As a matter of fact, legs and feet are giving information concerning whether the person wants to stay or to leave a conversation. In other words, legs are showing the counterpart’s commitment. This commitment part will be develop in the following paragraphs. Moreover, the legs movement s could also give hints about the counterpart’s honesty. The conclusions of the psychologist Paul Ekman (1977) regarding this problematic are really interesting: there is a positive correlation between the legs movements and lies. The more people lie , the more they would tend to move their legs. Furthermore, people (who 58 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership do not have special abilities of reading body movements) would have a higher probability to spot a lie when they can actually see the other’s entire body. This conclusion could be helpful in a leadership perspective. As a leader or a follower, you could easier spot a lie if you can see th e whole body, even if you are not trained to do so since the process is unconsciously accomplished. Some most common leg positions… … while standing This part will be dedicated to legs positions you can see every day, while the observed person is standin g. Four of them will be developed : The attention stance The attention stance is the basic posture. This is actually a formal position which shows a neutral attitude. The legs are kept together and the meaning would be that the person has no intention to stay or leave the conversation. This position is usually observed in a boss -employee relationship. In the leadership perspective, official leaders can usually see this position on their followers since it is a boss -employee relationship. Illustration 9 : The a ttention stance Legs apart The legs apart is similar to the attention stance except the fact that there is more space between the feet. In the opposite of the previous stance, thi s one would clearly transmit a “no leaving intention” message. The wei ght of the person will be more distributed thus he or she will be more stable. I have personally observed this posture in a specific sport: boxing. Actually boxers 59 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership use this kind of stance when they do not want to move from their position. They enlarge thei r posture so the weight is better distributed which will make them harder to be pushed back or to fall. the meaning of t his posture is actually quite similar to the one that already has been discussed in a previous section (3.7.1 the hands) : the hands behind the back position. It is use d by dominant persons and conveys confidence. This explanations could be used in a leadership perspective in order to make more confident insecure leaders or followers. They could actually have this stance to s eem more confident and therefore they will feel and act like confidents persons. Illustration 10 : The Leg apart position Foot -forward This posture requires one leading foot on which the weight will be put. In this case, the weight is not equally distributed between the two legs like previously but rather on the first and leading foot. Information could be get by observing the foot -forward: actually the leading foot is pointing the direction the mind wants to go. It could be a specific person in a group on who the foot -forward person has a special interest, or it could be the exit door if the person wants to leave the conversation for some reason s. The observation of such a phenomenon is rather interesting in a leadership point of view since it coul d give hints on the person’s first interest and could give answers of the following questions: does the person want to stay in the conversation? Who is co nsidered by the foot forward posture the most important person in the group? 60 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Legs crossed Submissive attitude, defensive attitude, unsecure, lack of confidence, etc. all these state of mind could be conveyed by a legs crossed position. On the opposite, open legs would transmit openness or dominance. The legs crossed position could also mean for a man that he has no intention to leave the conversation but that he also is not at ease since crossed legs would protect masculinity. By crossing the legs, a man is actually preventing to be kicked where it hurts. The same comment as in a previous paragr aph (3.7.1. the hands) could be done concerning the reason of a legs crossed position. People usually say that it is because it is comfortable, it might be comfortable on the moment because this stance matches the emotional state of the moment that could b e: submissive or defensive attitude, lack of confidence, etc. Nevertheless the contingency factor should not be forgotten, it is not because someone has his or her arms and legs crossed that he or she is defensive, it might just be that the person is just cold. In a leadership aspect, the observation of crossed legs could be used for instance during an interview. If a candidate claims that he or she is confident, relaxed and if he or she has the legs and arms crossed, this could mean that the candidate is not as relaxed as pretended. The interviewer could make sense of such posture to see if the person is congruent or not. Illustration 11 : The c rossed legs position … while sitting This part will focus on legs position, but when the observed person is sitting, instead of standing. Three interesting position will be explained: 61 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Arms and legs crossed As it has been discussed in a previous section (3.7.1. the hands) , arm crossing is not a posture you want to see in your audience. The leg crossing is actuall y giving more impact on the negative attitude. The arms and legs crossed would mean that the person is emotionally out of the conversation, that it is quite futile to try convincing him or her. In business context, it is usually accompanied by shorter sentences, more rejected proposal, and less recall of details of the discussion. As a leader or a follower and if you want to be persuading, you should try to make your audience uncross their arms and or legs. The same techniques as it has been sa id previously (3.7.1. the hands ) could be used in this case: offering beverages, make the audience touching something, for example graphs or image s … And of course, the techniques should be adapted to the audience. Illustration 12 : The crossed legs posi tion – Obama The figure four The figure four occurs when a person is crossing the legs and when the w rits are on the other knee. In “Americanized” cultures, a person who would use this posture would convey a dominant attitude, but would also be seen as relaxed and youthful. Nevertheless, there is a cultural difference which is quite important. If you happen to do this posture in Asia or in the Middl e East, it will be seen as an insult since you will show the sole of your shoes, which walk in the dirt. Pease and Pease (2006) are discussing the fact that people take more final decisions when they have booth feet on the floor. Which means that in a lead ership perspective, it is more appropriate for a leader or a follower to ask the counterpart to make a final decision when the other’s legs are both touching the floor. 62 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Illustration 13 : The f igure four position – Steve Jobs Figure four leg clamp This position is an extension of the figure four one. The person has the same position but in addition has one or both hands on the legs that does not touch the floo r. The literature would suggest that this is a sign of tough minded person and stubborn individu al who rejects opinions different that their own. In a leadership point of view, the leader or the follower should keep in mind that it will be hard to convince a person with such a posture. Therefore it is advised to try keeping such a person having his o r her hands busy, as we have seen in the arms and legs crossed part. Illustration 14 : Figure four leg clamp position When the mind closes, so does the body In conclusion for this legs and feet part, I would like to emphasize the fact that the body is d oing clearly what the mind really thinks. Therefore it is important for a leader or even for a follower to pay attention to this part of the body which could give a lot of information about the emotional state of mind of the observed person. If you are pre senting something and if you need the audience or even a single person approval, try to make them uncross their legs and arms and you will see that their attitudes and their 63 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership mind will follow. Your audience will retain more details, will be more opened, and will be in favorable condition to make the decision that you are waiting for. On the opposite if you are observing somebody, you can also have hints about his or her state of mind, nervousness, willingness of being part of the conversation, ect. 3.7.3. THE FACE : THE SMILE I choose one specific part of the face to develop : the smile. The reasons of this choice is that I find the smiles really interesting and impacting the leaders’ everyday life. Many other parts of the face (the eyes, the facial expr essions, etc.) could also have been developed but I firmly believe that if I would have chosen to explain each part of the face, it would have taken too much space in the course of this paper. Nevertheless, I will discuss in a later section (3.8. c ultural or univ ersal!?) the facial expressions and their nature. As it has been said in a previous section , babies “learn” to smile by themselves, it is an expression which find its roots in the human genetic capital. Babies begin to smile around the fifth week a nd begin to laugh between the fourth and sixth months . This expression is universal and would show the person’s happiness and joy, on that moment . This chapter will treat the importance of smiling and its consequences. How does it work? Without going too much into details, the French scientist Duchene de Boulogne (1849) discovered that two kind of muscles were used while people are smiling: the zygomatic major and the orbicularis oculi . The zygomatic major are the muscles which allow the mouth to be enlarged and the cheeks to be pulled back. The orbicularis oculi on the other hand are the muscles which will make the eyes narrow and cause “ crow’ s feet” . Those two type of muscles are important to understand since only one of them can be acti vated consciously. Indeed, the zygomatic major are controlled and can be used at will, which means that if somebody is faking a smile the orbicularis 64 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership oculi will not move. To make it simpler, a fake smile will only involve the mouth, while a genuine one wil l involve the mouth and the eyes. Fake smiles are not easy to spot, for regular people who are not trained to do so. However, faking a smile can be easier for actors who are trained to feel the wanted emotion and to reproduce the expression that is link to that emotion . M ore details about the impact on leadership and about fake smiles will be given in the following paragraphs . Illustration 15: Zygomatic major and orbicularis oculi Smiling is contagious The Swede professor Dimberg at Upsalla University and some colleagues (2000) conducted a really interesting study about how the unconscious has the control of facial expressions. Participants were asked to smile, frown or having a neutral face while they were looki ng at several pictures. The study showed that it was difficult for people to smile when they were looking at sad people and vice versa . When people were looking at a specific emotion, they tend to recreate the same one. The conclusion of the study demonstr ates that people are mirroring when they are facing an emotion. Therefore, it is more difficult to smile when people are looking at sad people. This statement has a huge impact. As a matter of fact, that means that if person A smiles, person B will proba bly also smile thanks to the mirror effect, even if person B does not feel like smiling. And by smiling, person B will also feel happier. When smile to someone, he or she will reciprocate by returning the smile, even if both smiles are fake ones. Therefore regular 65 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership smiling is i mportant to have in a leader’s repertoire, even if he or she does not feel totally like it. On the one hand, it will give the incentive to people to smile back at the leader which will create a good atmosphere, and on the other hand it will influence people’s attitude toward the leader, since they will feel happier thanks to repetitive smiles. Moreover, according to the experience of Pease and Pease (2006) smiling with the right timing during negotiations or sales is increasing the favo rable outcomes and the ratio of sales. Faking a smile As I argued in the paragraph “How does it work? ” the fake smile is usually not easy to recognize. One clue that we have seen is the absence of eye’s movement orbicularis oculi) , but there is actually one more clue to spot a fake smile. The part in our brain which control facial expressions is located in the right hemisphere. As you might know, the right hemisphere is responsible for the left part of our body. If I am using my le ft hand, the order is coming from my brain’s right side. Why am I explaining some functions of the brain, hemispheres and spotting fake smiles? Well, when people are using a fake expression , that expression will be more pronounced on the left side of the f ace. Actually when the smile is genuine, both sides of the brain will give the same instructions and both sides of the face will respond simultaneously and symmetrically. In other words, the theory is stating that look ing at the left side of the face of yo ur interlocutor is a good practice if you are doubting about him or her. If you are still reluctant about the theory, you can try a simple experiment which requires only a mirror. Try honestly to make a fake smile in front of the mirror and you should see that your left side of your face is more pronounced than the right one. My impression is that it might be important for you as a potential leader to have this “ looking on the left side” in your repertoire when you are doubting about the sincerity of your c ounterpart. However and as it will be discussed below, faking a smile is not automatically synonym of negative attitude : it could be a social reason smile . 66 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Illustration 16 : reading the left side of the face This is the picture of a women who is asking to the “kidnapers” of her children to give them back, during a press meeting. Actually, the truth is that it is this women who harmed her own children. We can observe that if the focus is only given to the left side of the face, the person is actually smil ing, while the right side is sad (even crying). The left side is giving the genuine emotional state of the person (the smile) and the right one is faking (sadeness) . The point of this section is to warn you about an idea that people usually have: a liar s miles more than an honest person. According to the great researcher in psychology and especially in the facial expressions Paul Ekman (2009) , this statement is wrong. His study showed that when people deliberately lie, they are less likely to smile. Liars actually avoid smiling because they believe that smiling is positively correlated to lying. Therefore and in order to lure the interlocutor, they avoid this facial expression. My interpretation regarding this issue is that if you are a “smiler”, do not res train yourself because of false perception that you have about that correlation. As it has been argued in a previous section and as it will be said in the following ones: smiling is beneficial. This statement could be extrapolated to leadership. Indeed, smiling brings a lot of positive attitudes that will be developed in the following paragraphs and as a leader – or a follower – you will probably have positive responses when you smile. 67 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Three types of fake smiles This part will be dedicated to three types of fake smiles you will probably see in the everyday life (Pease & Pease, 2006): the tight -lipped smile, the twisted smile and the drop -jaw smile. The tight -lipped smile is characterized by concealed teeth and the lips are tight and are forming a line across the face. This kind of smile could convey that the person who is smiling has actually a secret that he or she does not want to share. This is a typical smile that could occur when someone does not like somebody else but is smiling at him or her for social reasons. The tight -lip ped “smiler” will not share his or her real opinion about the other person but will smile politely instead. The twisted smile has already been explained somehow earlier. Usually, it happens when only one part of the face (the left one) is expressing the emotion. The left part will be smiling while the right one will show for example angriness. If a mirror is used on the left part of the smile, the whole face will be smiling and vice versa for the angry one (like the illustration 16 ). Th is expression is usually used by the Western world and is a conscious movement, which could show sarcasm. The drop -jaw smile arises when someone wants to feign happiness. It is characterized by a lowering of the jaw, which could convey the message that the person is playful or laughing and which is not actually the case. Illustration 17 : The drop jaw smile 68 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Those three types of smiles are likely to be faked in order to give a good message. The point here is not say that a fake smile is bad. There are a lot of reasons to feign smile s: mirroring, cheering somebody up, social reasons, protecting a secret, ect. However, if you pay attention and see one of these types of smile, it is probable that the person is not congruent ( 3.2. 93% of the puzzle: the five dimensions of non verbal communication ). As a leadership actor, you can use fake smiles since it could have a honorable reasons. And if a fake smile is spotted, you should not – based on the literature – draw quickly negative conclusio ns since it could have acceptable reasons . Why should you laugh? Laughing is an incredible activity that will affect your whole body positively . When you laugh, you will breath quicker than usual, which implies that you r lungs, diaphragm, face, neck, stomach and shoulder s will be exercised. It will also cause an increasing amount of oxygen within your blood, which helps healing, improves the blood circulation and expends some of the blood vessels. This is a reason why peo ple turn red when they are laughing. Some studies were done and were quite positive concerning the use of laughing to help the diseases to be cured and to make people feel happier. One of them is a research conducted by Dr Patch Adams 2 who introduced the l aughter therapy. The conclusions of his work are that the laughter therapy accelerates the healing progress. The consumption of pain killer is lowered while people are following this therapy. Moreover, a professor in psychology in the University of North C arolina, Arnie Cann found that the laugh can cure first signs of depression. Finally thanks to the use of EEG (electroencephalograph), Richardson professor of psychology and psychiatry showed that when people smile or laugh, even though they don’t feel lik e it, will activate the “happy zone” located in the brain. In simpler world, if you laugh, you will feel happier even if you didn’t feel like it before. 2 Laughter therapy, available online at < http://veronik2302.webnode.es/patch -adams – father -of-laughter -therapy> 69 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Those medical reasons I mentioned have to be add ed to the previous dimension: the mirroring effect. As a matter of fact, when you will laugh and smile you will feel happier and thanks to the mirroring effect, you will have an impact on your own entourage. Furthermore, it is good for your own body . In a leadership perspective , the medical reason is an addit ional reason to the previous ones that have been discussed: mirroring effect and the increase of the success rate during negotiations. Therefore, smiling and laughing should be taken seriously by leaders. Don’t people say mens sana in corpore sano ? Be sm iling and not … morose I praised in the previous paragraph the positive power that you will have on your entourage by using smiles and laughs. This section will treat what would happen if you do the opposite of smiling. As a matter of fact, the mirroring e ffect works in both ways. If you seem depressed you will have an effect on people around you and vice versa : it is also unpleasant to work in an environment in which you can feel a negative vibe. It is actually a vicious circle. An unpleasant work environment will make people unhappy, which will lead to an even more unpleasant environment. Moreover, if you ar e regularly in a morose state of mind it can affect your face and be printed on it. That what is call ed the permanent down -mouth. Instead of going up, the corners of your moth will go down. Indeed, repeating an emotion again and again can be printed on you r face and be seen even if your face is in a “neutral” position. According to studies that Pease and Pease (2006) refer to , the consequence of such a permanent expression is that people will avoid this kind of person and giving them less eye contact. So if you want to avoid frightening little children, the theoretical framework is stating that attention should be paid if you have some “symptoms” of th e down -mouth. The previous paragraphs stated why leader s and followers should smile and laugh. This one is a ctually arguing about why leaders and followers should not be morose since it could lead to a down -mouth 70 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership permanent expression . This expression could also impact negatively the first impression that people are having . Illustration 18 : The down -mouth expression 3.7.4. THE POSTURE Are you short? Tall? Thin? Overweight? Do you wonder if the physical appearance matters for a first impression? This section will treat those question s and the aspects of the shape, the height and the size that people have. Moreover, some consequences of the body type that people have will be discussed as well. Finally, some advices will be given in order to adapt to particulars situations. All the follo wing ideas are highly inspired from Pease and Pease (2006) and from Phipps (2012). Body type As a matter of fact, the question of the physical appearance and the first impression stated above will be considered immediately. It does make sense that of cour se the physical appearance will influence others. Actually, physical appearance is the first thing that the world will see, therefore it will influence the perception that people have of you. People will make assumptions of your traits, characters, etc. ba sed only on their perception that they have of you: this is called stereotypes. If you are overweight, majority of people will assume that you are unfit and lazy. If you happen to be very thin, people will think you have eating problems. If you are really tall, people will be intimidated even if you haven’t said a word yet. On the opposite, if you are short, people will have the impression that you are a kid. Those standards are made in comparison with the average. If the difference between a person’s chara cteristic and the average is big, he or she will be 71 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership classified into one of these four categories. According to an NHS study in 2009, the average English man is 83.9kg for 1.75m and the average English women is 70.2Kg for 1.62m. Those numbers and the classi fication into categories depend on the location. The standards are not the same for the whole world. The body type is mainly determined by the genes, the alimentation and the physical exercises. Moreover people cannot always change their shape, except may be for the weight. Politicians who are rising and becoming more powerful and more famous are sometimes doing diets, in order to lose the image of lazy ness that has been said in the previous paragraph. Otherwise, it is quite impossible nowadays to get or lo se 20 cm. Thus, there is not much things that can be done in order to change the body type. However, things can be done to control some messages that you are sending through your posture, size, shape and height. Those aspects will be discussed in the follo wings paragraphs. Highness and power Historically, the height has always been linked to status. For instance, when people refer to a king or a queen, the words “Your Highness” are usually used. The judge sits higher than everyone else in the court, the Ol ympic gold medal winner stands above the silver and the bronze medal winners, and some cultures divide their social classes into “upper classes” and “lower classes”. One can already sense that people who are physically or metaphorically higher than others have more power, a higher status. The height of the body is also linked nowadays to a superior – subordinate relationship. When the superior is not satisfied of a subordinate, he will tend to be the highest possible while the subordinate will probably lo ok smaller. In extreme cases, the superior will stand right, will have his or her shoulder wide and his or her face directed at the subordinate, while the subordinate will have the shoulders collapsed inwards and the head slightly lowered. I actually perso nally experienced those postures during my current program. 72 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership A guest lecturer proposed us an experiment while person A was the superior – the rich and powerful owner of the house – and person B was the subordinate – the gardener who made a huge mistake. Per son A had to be really firm and criticize the work of person B and even if the experiment was not true, since the students were acting the situation, I could actually observe all what has been said above. The relationship superior – subordinate was obvious just by observing the postures and how people acted to look higher or smaller. In other words, if you aim to be dominant, try to look taller and vice -versa . The “how to do” will be treated in the last section. This paragraph could actually be helpful conc erning a leadership perspective since the relationship official leader – employee is similar to a superior – subordinate one. How to look taller? As it has been discussed, if you look short you will not be seen as dominant. However, you are also more likely to be interrupted by men. It has been argued in the literature that smaller people cannot finish their sentences more often that taller ones. If you want to be seen as taller and to gain some dominance and be taken more seriously, this section will describe what has been said in the theory . If you are often interrupted because of your height and if you want to be taken more seriously when people are sitting and having a discussion, find an excuse and stand up. You can grab a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom or whatever, but you will see how efficient this technique is. However, this tip is quite difficult to put into practice in an everyday lif e. If you are sitting on a chair and cannot stand up at your will, try to have a seat that you can make taller, it can always help. Moreover, you can try the posture of having your arms on the chair’s armrest. It will give the impression that you are talle r and more imposing. If you are presenting something behind a lectern, you can try to have it smaller, so it will show that the distance between your chin and the lectern 73 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership is higher. This technique is usually used by politician s when they have to make a s peech and they are not that tall. Talking of politicians, some are using soles to seem taller (Sarkozy for instance). Finally, try to be assertive and to perform strong performances. It has been studied and proved that assertiveness make us see people tall er, especially through television. Taller not always better That is true that being taller can be considered as an advantage. However, being tall has its downsides as well. It can show too much dominance and too much aggressiveness. It is the case when the tall person need to talk on one -to -one and on the “same lev el”. But there are some tips as well if you want to reduce that negative image. If a customer is angry and let you know the facts, and if you know that you are wrong and want to apology, try the following method. First of all try to reduce the barrier. If you are behind you r desk, or behind a store counter, give up that position and gain the customer’s side. If you are seated, then put your elbows on your laps, next to the armrest: it will amplify the fact that you look smaller. In addition of that, you can practice the open palm position to calm the customer. You can also try to do the opposite of what have been said in the previous section to be seen smaller, for instance be seated while you are talking to a coworker, which will give the height advantage to him and which wi ll decrease your dominance status. Construction of the model of analysis: step 6 74 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.8. C U L T U R A L O R U N I V E R S A L? This chapter has all its importance since it will provide insights on whether non verbal communication can be extrapolated and be inter -cultural or not. To link this concept to the puzzle of non verbal communication, I would refer to the question of universality of non verbal as being directing a piece of the puzzle. Indeed, a piece could be oriented in many ways (four if the puzzle is rectangular). The orientation of the pieces, in this metaphor is depending on the contingency and for this specific example, on the culture. If non verbal communication is universal, there is only one way to put the piece in the puzzle. If non verbal is culturally defined, the piece would suggest different meaning depending on its orientation. The orientation of the piece will refer to the location , to the culture . As it will be discussed below, if you make an “OK sign”, depending on the location (the or ientation of the piece) it will have a different meaning. Is non verbal communication universal or cult urally learned? This questions ha s been divi di ng the scientific community for a while. As it has been stated in the introduction, some evidence would suggest that the non verbal communication is universal. This section of the thesis will treat deeper this aspect and the fundamental question of the universality of non verbal communication . It is following the previous section s so that now you have the th eoretical materials to have your own view on the question . Nevertheless, I will give you my interpretation – based on theory – about the question. As it is discussed in the emotion part (3.1 . emotions and emotional intelligence ), emotions are the underlyi ng cause of non verbal communication. The non verbal communication of a person is somehow showing the emotions he or she is feeling. In this section, the emotions will be the studied variable. The question “is non verbal communication universal of cultural ?” is actually in this part “are emotions universal or 75 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership cultural?”. The answer to the second question is actually giving an answer to the first one since both are positively correlated. If the emotions are universal, non verbal communication (which is used to show those emotions) is also universal. This question is primordial for a leadership perspective. As a matter of fact, all information that could be gathered about the non verbal communication is important. This one is essential since it would give a preview on the universality of the non verbal communication applied to leaders. Are all the leaders expressing themselves in the same way, when they are feeling a common emotion s? And you, as a plausible leader and non verbal communication reader, is it a good thing to make sense in the same way on what you are seeing in two different person s (coming from significant different cultures)? Concretely, if a Japanese and a Brazilian are doing the same facial expression, does that mean the same? I personally thi nk that this problematic is really interesting and is necessary to be better understood, in order to have a deeper understanding of leadership. This part of the thesis is highly inspired by the well known Paul Ekman (2004). Ekman is actually a psychologis t, expert of facial expression s and he has studied for more than forty years emotions and their expressions. He did cross cultural studies of facial expression s and his findings will be developed in the following paragraphs. I chose Ekman’s point of view t o develop the concept since I personally agree with his ideas. Moreover, I think that he has a good balance within the question of universality of emotions. He also uses a lot of authors and experiments to make his point stronger and on the other hand, he is humble and explains quite well the point of view of the counterpart. Nevertheless, in addition with Ekman’s way of thinking, many other authors which agree or not with his ideas will be quoted below. The context The question of the universality of emotions is raised mainly by Darwin (1872). He actually was convinced that emotions are universal. Since then, 76 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership many authors totally disagreed with Darwin’s conclusions. Indeed , according to Ekman (2004, p.13), authors li ke Mead, Bateson, Hall, Bridwhistell and Osgood seem to think differently than Darwin. Those authors, coming from different areas (psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc.) are indeed believing that emotions are socially and culturally learned. Their way of thinking is the following one: emotional expressions are the product of learning, and therefore are different in each culture. On the other hand, one author – in addition to Darwin – was doubting the statement that emotions are culturally learned. Silva n was in fact firmly believing that emotions were universal. Ekman, had the opportunity of going deeper in this question. First, he was on Hall’s and others side, he thought that emotions were not universal. Therefore he tried to prove this statement and he actually found the opposite of what he wanted to prove. Isn’t it an ideal scientific finding? Universality of the emotions and display rules In order to go further in this research question (emotions: universal or cultural?), Ekman (2004) ran several experiments. His first study concerning this problematic was done in five different cultures (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and United -States). He used pictures which showed specific emotions to those different people. The conclusion was that they were all able to interpret those emotion in the same way which would suggest that emotions are universal. This statement is reinforced by another study done quite simultaneously by Izard (1971). Izard is a psychologist and ran quite the same experience as Ekman and had the same conclusions. However, why many other respected authors think different from Darwin and from the universality of emotions. For e xample, the well known anthropologist Birdwhistell (1970) specialized in gestures and expressions stated that he stopped to agree with Darwin’s ideas when he found out that in many cultures, people smile even if they are not happ y. Ekman reconciled 77 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership the uni versality of the expressions and Bridwhistell’s observation and he came up with the display rules. According to Ekman (2004, p.4) the display rules are “socially learned, often culturally different, rules about the management of expressions, about who can show which emotion to whom and when they can do so. […] These rules may dictate that we diminish, exaggerate, hide completely, or mask the expression of emotion we are feeling”. In other words, emotions and expressions are universal but the management of them are culturally defined. To make his point stronger, Ekman ran the following experiment. He showed to Japanese and American persons a movie with surgeries and incidents. When the person s were sitting alone in front of the television, they were expressi ng the same emotions. On the other hand, when a scientist was sitting next to them, Japanese persons were more smiling than American’s one. Japanese were actually masking the negative expression with a smile, when they were not alone. The conclusion to thi s experiment is that the management of emotions is not the same for people issued from different cultures. In this case, the expressions were innate in private and managed in public, especially for the Japanese persons. On the other hand, Ekman is contrast ing his concept by saying that symbolic gestures, such as the nodding, the head shake no, the OK gestures, etc. are culturally defined. More information about that area will be developed in a further paragraph. In order to reinforce even more his point, E kman decided to run another experiment, by controlling better the environment. He chose an isolated culture, where people were not influenced by movies, televisions, magazines, and even people from other cultures and he shown the same pictures as his previ ous study in f ive different cultures. T he Papua New Guinea was chosen to conduct his experiment. His conclusion s were the same as previously, people from Papua New Guinea were using the same expressions when they were expressing themselves. Furthermore, th e meaning that people made of the facial expressions were the same. This point was demonstrated by showing somebody else (from America) close -up expressions, with no context. People were able to find the showed emotion without knowing the 78 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership context, they jus t had a picture of the facial expression. If emotions and expressions were culturally learned, people from Papua New Guinea should have their own way of expressing themselves. Moreover , if emotions were not universal, how was it possible for Americans to d ecode emotions from another culture, that they have never seen before? Sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness Ekman is still humble even though his findings are impressive. According to him, at least some facial expressions are universals. Those expressi ons would be the sadness, disgust, anger, and happiness. Those expressions would be the one that people can decode universally. Fear and surprise on the other hand, are not distinguished from each other. Despite his researches, other authors are still thin king that emotions – and even basic ones as it is described above – are culturally defined. Nevertheless, somebody else actually helped to reinforce Ekman’s ideas. Heider (2006) ran the same experiment in another isolated culture because he wanted to prove that Ekman was wrong. Heider finally found out that Ekman was not wrong concerning those emotions. He even reached the same conclusions concerning fear and surprise. Illustration 19: Disgust (upper left) – enjoyment (upper right) – sadness (lower left) – anger (lower right) 79 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Gestures culturally defined As it has been stated in a previous section (3.3.the peri -verbal dimension ), the peri -verbal dimension is culturally defined. In addition to that, some symbolic gestures are also not universal. Some of the differences in the body language are listed by Pease and Pease (2006). For instance the “OK” sign with the hand have several meanings depending on the c ulture. To a westerner, it means ok; for a Russian, Brazilian or Turks, it is an insult; for a French, it could mean zero, worthless; and for Japanese, this gesture means money, coins. The same could be done with the “two gesture” which could mean “two” fo r an American, “victory” for a German, and be an insult in Britan. Furthermore, greetings also depend on the culture. People shake hands in westernized countries; after the handshaking Saudi men are used to hold the other’s hand in public to show respect; on the other hand, Japanese don’t shake hands since it is considered as being impolite. In Japan, handshaking and kisses are not common. Japanese people bow when they meet and the person the most important bows the least while the less important bow the mo st. Illustration 20: The OK sign – Tony Blair Even universal signs like the head nodding does not have the same signification everywhere. In Bulgaria, the nodding means actually “no”; in Japan it does not mean “yes, I agree with you” but “yes, I heard you”. In my opinion, being aware of those cultural differences really matters, especially in the leadership area. Business leaders for instance have to make their client comfortable while they are doing business and it comes down to sincerity and good man ners. Therefore efficient leadership actors might take 80 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership into consideration the foreign culture while they are dealing with cultural differences. Universal or cultural? Why does it matter for a leadership perspective? In my opinion, this problematic is really important and is should be developed in the context of leadership and non verbal communication. As a matter of fact, leadership’s actors are dealing more and more with the multi – cultural environment. Our soci ety is indeed more and more mult i-cultura l. People are working on a daily basis with different person s from different cultures. Moreover, thanks to the globalization, the economy is becoming more and more wide. Those stat ements indicate that leadership actor s are confronted to cope with several c ultures. Therefore, a better understanding of what is universal or not is important to be developed. Basic emotions tend to be universal (Ekman, 2004) even though the management of them is culturally defined (display rules). Furthermore, as it has been sta ted above, there are a lot of cultural differences which are depending on frame of references (Weick, 1995) . Gestures do not automatically have the same meaning for people from different cultures. In order for you, as a plausible leader, to decode better the puzzle of communication, a better understanding of what influences the pieces of the puzzle is needed. Indeed, the pieces of the puzzle are influenced by the culture. A piece could for instance be a “OK” sign and be interpreted as being an insult or a s “everything is ok”. This statement has also all its importance for a leadership researcher who would study leadership through non verbal communication. The cultural factor is indeed an element of contingency and the literature is stating that conclusions should not be made quickly but should rather be considered in their cultural environment. 81 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.9 . D E C E I T S I G N A L S In this chapter, I will treat the deceit signals. Those signals are a clear sign s of non congruence. If somebody is often displaying the deceit gestures that will be developed below, it is likely that this person is non congruent, that he or she does not believe what he or she is saying. To link this concept with the puzzle of non verb al communication, I will refer to the deceit signals as being black pieces in a colorful puzzle. Indeed, if you see a beautiful and colorful puzzle but with one or several black pieces, you will probably think that the puzzle does not make sense, that some thing is wrong. It is the same for non verbal communication , if a person uses non verbal signals but then is using deceit signals – and if you are able to spot them – you will know that what the person says does not make sense since the person also uses de ceit signals. This chapter will provide you – among other things – information so you can spot easier the black pieces in the puzzle of non verbal communication. “You are a liar. So am I. Everyone is a liar” – Godin (2005). Such an assumption chocked me a bit, when I first read it. But after proceeding to some researches, I found that even numbers were going on the same way as this statement. Indeed, James Patterson – writer of “The Day America Told the Truth ” – did a survey on a impressive sample (2000 persons) and found out that 91% of the sample lied regularly at home or/and at work. If you are not a naïve person, you might have considered the fact that lies are also occurring and part of the leadership wor ld – especially concerning some specific areas that I will not develop further. But as I have argued above, human s are liars and since leadership actors are human s, I assume that they might lie as well. Therefore in this section, I will treat some common s ignals that liars are likely to display. 82 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Three wise monkeys Have you ever seen the image of those monkeys? The one where the monkeys are covering their e ars, their eyes and their mouth ? Well , those monkeys are in fact a good representation of the following sentence: “hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil”. As a matter of fact, their simple “hand to face” gestures are forming the basis of the human deceit gestures. In other words, when p eople are speaking, seeing or hearing lies, they tend to cover their mouths, eyes, or ears with their hands. This statement is reinforced by the researcher Morris (1994) whose conclusion are the following: lying persons are increasing their hands to face g estures and they are tending to gulp their saliva more often. The following paragraph s will give deeper explanations about common liars gestures (inspired by Pease and Pease 2006). Nevertheless, I want to emphasize it one more time since its importance: d o not forget the contingency. Indeed, conclusions cannot be made if you see someone covering his or her mouth without knowing the clusters and the context. There is no causality link in the following paragraphs. One of the following gesture below do not ha ve as a consequence that the person is lying. But instead, a lying person is likely to show some of the following gestures. Illustration 21 : the three wise monkeys 83 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The mouth cover “Say no evil”. You might see this gesture when the person is using a part of his hand – or the totality of it – to cover the mouth. Indeed, sometimes this gesture might be only several fingers but could also be the fist, the meaning remains the same. People sometimes try to hide this gesture – consciously or unconsciously – by making a fake cough. Illustrations 22 and 23: The mouth cover (Barack Obama for the Illustration 23) The eye rub Have you ever witnessed a scene in the real life or in a movie where a person – who might even be yourself – covers the face and esp ecially the eyes with the hands ? This would refer to the “see no evil” that is discussed in a previous paragraph. This gesture would suggest that the brain is attempting to block the deceit it thinks it sees. Therefore people would be tempted by rubbing th eir eyes or looking away while they are lying. Illustration 24: The e ye rub – George Bush 84 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The ear grab This gesture would refer to the “hear no evil” discussed previously. It consists in grabbing the ear, rubbing the back of it, or simply, a quick touch of it. This gesture would suggest that the person does not want to hear what is said and could even be transformed in an anxiety sign. Illustration 25 : The ear grab The nose touch Did you know that the human nose actually expands with blood when people lie and that this phenomenon is called the “Pinocchio Effect” (Pease and Pease, 2006)? Furthermore, did you know that chemicals (catecholamines) are released when a person lies and is causing the tissue inside the nose to swell? Unfortunately, one could not see this swelling on the naked eye but instead, one could observe the consequences: the nose touch. This might explain why people are rubbing or touching their nose while they are lying. Illustration 26: The Pinnochio effect Illustration 27: The nose touch – McCain 85 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Nudging the arm Well, this gesture would also be a sign of lying. Nevertheless, it could also signify that the person is not believing what he or she is saying. The gesture happen s when one of the arm is nudging while the other one stays in the same position. In other words, one of the arm and shoulder will be elevated for short moment while the other one does not move. Deceit and leadership As it is alre ady stated above, it also happens that leadership actors lie. The legitimacy of lies will however not be discussed here. This section is just emphasizing the fact that people lie, but do not argue about the fact that it is a good or a bad thing. Neverthele ss, I do believe that this results and those gestures could be useful for the leadership research and especially concerning the “authentic leadership”. Indeed, the authentic leader is supposed to be congruent and to have his communication in harmony. In ad dition to that, the authentic leader is supposed to say the truth. Well, th is chapter exists – among other things – to verify the authenticity of leaders. Construction of the model of analysis: step 7 86 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 3.10 . MO D E L O F A N A L Y S I S : P U T T I N G T H E P I E C E S O F T H E P U Z Z L E T O G E T H E R The proposed scheme of my model of analysis is actually exactly the same as the one presented in the previous section. Indeed the last section was the last step in the construction of the model. The model of analysis is separated in two part. The first one is a visual summary of the literature review. The communication is basically divided in two parts: the verbal and the non verbal. As it is stated in the introduction, I chose the focus of non verbal in the context of this paper and especially of its components – the five dimensions – the big parts of the puzzle. The second part of the scheme is actually constituting the questions that I will ask myself while I will observe and analyze the videos. This model will be the basis for the understanding and analysis of the part “Empirical Illustrations an Analysis”. Nevertheless, the videos will not 87 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership probably treat all the questions from the scheme. Indeed, finding a video that will illustrate all the aspects that were treated in the literat ure review could be a really hard task. However, I will chose a certain amount of video s so at the end, I will try to cover all the aspects examined in the literature review. The questions that are presented in the scheme were elaborated so they will be q uite wide. Indeed, non verbal communication is more about reading the whole sentence instead of reading each word separately. Therefore I preferred to have a broader approach: I used substantive s instead of questions such as “are the arms crossed? Are the arms behind the back? Is the speaker using the steeple position? etc.”. The broader approach will allow me more freedom so I can use my interpretation and can make more link with the whole non verbal communication. Finally I also added, to the dimensions which will be observed, the question of the congruence. Indeed, thanks to the deceit part (3.9. deceit signals) developed in the literature review, I can also inspect and interpret the speaker’s congruence. All the videos illustrations will be interpreted by me, my personality, and my frames of references. Therefore the conclusions could be quite different for somebody else, who could watch the same video but having another point of view. Nevertheless, my int erpretation is also highly influenced by the literature review that I have been composing . My vision is not only based on me and my personality, it is also rational since I will use scientific facts to draw conclusions of what I see. 88 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . EMPIRI CAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND ANALYSIS I will describe this section by answering the three following questions: what is it made of? How am I going to proceed? And why am I doing this? The empirical illustrations and analysis part is made of videos displaying leadership situations and their analysis. Those analyse s will contain first a description of the scene, of what is happening in the video. It will include the context and non verbal communication signs. Those signs will be int erpreted and some meaning of them will be proposed. How will this analysis be proceeded? Regarding the description, I will base it on my own interpretation . On the other hand, concerning the analysis, I will base it on the model of analysis developed in t he section before. I will indeed apply the model of analysis in order to dra w conclusions from the videos which will illustrate situation where leadership is exposed . In other words, I will use the puzzle of non verbal communication to better understand a leadership situation. The reason of this procedure is to provide a better understanding of the theoretical concepts mentioned in the literature review. Indeed, the u se of concrete and visual examples should highlight the importance of understanding leadership by using the puzzle of non verbal communication . Nevertheless, please keep in mind that all the interpretations that will be made could be wrong. Indeed, it is a human science, nothing is 100% sure when it comes to non verbal communication. Therefore, assumption s that I will make could be right, or totally wrong. 89 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4.1. I L L U S T R A T I O N 1 : C L I N T O N A N D T H E L E W I N S K Y S C A N D A L Who : Bill Clinton – Former president of the United States Leadership field : Politician leader Description : Bill Clinton is testifying in the Lewinsky scandal at the council Title of the youtube video : Clinton testify Length of the video : 2 minutes 6 seconds URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfpG2 -1Bv4 > Accessed on 06 May 2013 Description of the video In this video, Clinton is testifying and defending himself concerning the Lewinsky case. The “interviewer” is asking the former president questions regarding the possible sexual relationship that he would have had with miss Lewinsky . If the video is not watched but only heard, one could tell that Mr . Clinton could tell the truth . However, whe n more attention is paid to his tone of voice, to the repetitions that he is making, to his body language and to his facial expression s, doubt could emerge about his honesty. Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals In this video, only few thing could be said concerning the distance that the president is using. Indeed, he is only changing the distance by leaning forward when he is talking (example: 00.11 minute) . I did not find any significant changes in his tone of v oice , except some hesitations and some words repetition . Regarding the supra -verbal dimension – the distinctive signals – one could easily see that he is well dressed (which is kind of normal in this situation) and the fact that he has his wedding ring. Nevertheless, there are quite a lot of interesting facts to say about his body language and about deceit signals . Before even starting the video, the very beginning draw my attention. Here is a print screen of the video at 00.00 minute: 90 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The position t hat Mr . Clinton is using at this moment is indeed including a lot of non verbal communication clues. The first one is the steeple – his fingers of one hand are lightly pressed against the other hand’s finger and forms a church steeple . In addition to that, the steeple is covering his mouth and touching his nose. The steeple gesture is conveying assurance and confidence. He will use it also a t 00.31 minutes. This gesture could suggest that he is prepared and feeling confident about his a nswers. Nevertheless, he will not use it after. Even if the hands are not always visible on the video, one could tell that he is holding them together: he will use the hands clenched position. This position would mean that Mr . Clinton is not confident anymore but rather frustrated and anxious . Concerning the mouth cover, it could be seen as a deceit signals which could mean “speak no evil”. This deceit signals would signif y that Mr. Clinton lie s or that he know s something but he is restraining himself in order to not to say it. Moreover, the nose – the part of the body that becomes itchy when 91 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership people lie – is also touched. Those are two strong elements in the favor of the lie possibility. After the first question , “would she be lying?” (00.08 minutes), the steeple position is abandoned and he is using the hands clenched position instead. The same change but intensified is also observable between the 00.34 minute and the 00.40 minute . Another gesture that he is doi ng at the end of the video (1.48 minutes) is that he is drinking. Is there a meaning in addition with a plausible thirstiness? Well it could be I think. First, it could prove that he has his throat dry. Second, it could also indicate a barrier that he woul d put between him and his interlocutor. A physical barrier that he would have used to feel more secure. But once more, like the rest of the analysis, this is only assumptions. Before the general impression part, I would like to mention two images that I obtained by freezing the videos. Those two images are showing expressions, or in the jargon: micro -expressions. 92 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The first image is appearing at 01.06 minutes. One could say that this expression is rather negative and that it could express anger or disgust. The second one is appearing at 01.13 minutes after a question quite surprising. Emotions that could be interpreted from this question are fear and surprise, he is probably wondering how the “interviewer ” know s that element. General impression By watching the whole puzzle of the communication that Mr. Clinton is displaying , one thing is emerging quite obviously from the image : he is not at his ease. Indeed, even though that confidence is the image that we would want to show at the beginning (by using the steeple gesture), this state of mind is diminishing all along the video. Instead, hands clenched, anger, disgust, fear and surprise are replacing mo re and more the confidence of the former president. Concerning the deceit signals, he is using the cover mouth and the nose touch, two strong indicators of lie. But as it has been said and said again, nothing is sure in the art of the observation of non ve rbal communication. In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are th ose within frame s (scheme above) . 93 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 2 . I L L U S T R A T I O N 2 : B I L L G A T E S A N D T H E I P A D Who : Bill Gates – CEO of Microsoft Leadership field : Business leader Description : Bill Gates is commenting the iPad Title of the youtube video : Bill Gates on the iPad Length of the video : 55 seconds URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLUSnPB08kc > Accessed on 07 May 2013 Description of the video In this sh ort video, Bill Gates is asked two question s concerning the iPad. The questions are mainly “what do you think about the iPad” and “whether Microsoft is catching Apple innovations”. Bill G ates will answer that the iPad is not an innovation and that Microsoft has been ahead all the way. He also says that all the touch screen tools is a window’s phenomena. The fact is that is body language might convey a totally different meaning. Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals This video is not displaying anything special about the distance. Moreover, the para -verbal dimension – the tone of the voice – is quite normal without variation that I could notice. Concerning the distinctive signals, Mr. Gates is dressed correctly, is wearing a wedding ring, and is wearing glasses. As it is discussed in the literature review, the glasses have in general positive impact and give the impression that people are more in telligent. The use of light frame could also convey that Mr. Gates is conveying the image of a “nice guy”. Concerning his body language , it is clear that Mr. Gates has his legs crossed. It is indeed visible at the 00.14 minute and all through the video. The legs crossed position could mean a defensive attitude . Concerning his hands and 94 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership his arms, Mr. G ates is keeping them opened. Which is a quite good signals since it would mean openness . This posture is the opposite of the crossed arms which would have co nveyed a rather negative signal and would have meant that he put a barrier between him and his interlocutor – which is not the case in this video . However, despite his openness, I found quite interesting the fact that he is holding almost all the time the armrest of the couch. Besides, I found really fascinating a specific part of this body language: his face. Indeed, he shook his head mainly twice during this video. The interesting fact is that he shook his head while he was claiming two things. First h e says (00.24 minute) by talking about the phenomena of this new technology : “Microsoft has been ahead” and then (00.32 minute) he says: “that is a window’s phenomena”. But while those words are coming from his mouth, his head is saying no. Which could me an that he does not really believe what he is saying. Finally, Mr. Gate’s body language is also repeating quite a lot the following gesture : the arm nudging. He is displaying this gesture for instance at the 00.31, 00.34 and 00.38 minutes. It is indeed visible that his left hand is elevated for less than a second each time. This gesture – as it is developed in the literature review and in the model of analysis – is a deceit signals which could mean Mr. Gates is lying or does not believe wha t he is saying. 95 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership General impression This second illustration of the well know business leader – Bill Gates – is the opposite of the previous one with Bill Clinton. Indeed in this video, Mr. Gates is smiling at the end, and he keeps a opened position duri ng the whole video, which is clearly not the case with Mr. Clinton. Nevertheless, I could mention that Mr. Gates is not totally at his ease since he has his legs cro ssed and says that he does not want to comment further the question. However, I doubt his credibility since he is shaking his head while he maintain s the fact that the iPad is not a innovation and that Microsoft is ahead. Moreover, deceit signals are also clearly visible with his repeated arm nudging gesture . The only question is, are those sig nals enough to interpret those signals as conveying lies ? In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within frames (scheme above). 96 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 3 . I L L U S T R A T I O N 3 : M S . C L I T O N A N D M R . M I L I B A N D – P R E S S C O N F E R E N C E Who : Hillary Clinton and David Miliband – Politicians Leadership field : Politician leaders Description : Hillary Clinton and David Miliband in a press conference in July 2009 Title of the youtube video : Secretary Clinton meets U.K Foreign Minister David Miliba nd Length of the video : 24.40 minutes URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AfVh2j -Z4 > Accessed on 07 May 2013 Description of the video This video is a transmission of a press conference held on the 15 th July 2009. The video lasts 24 minutes and includes questions from journalists and answer s from both politician: Hillary Clinton (secretary) and David Miliband (foreign minister). Since the length of the video and the fact that there are two leadership actors to examine, I will separate the analysis. The first part will be dedicated to Mr. Miliband while the second will concern Ms. Clinton. Description and interpretation of non v erbal communication signals The distance is not significant in this context, both of politicians are standing behind their lecterns. The tone of the voice of Mr. Miliband is, according to me, quite neutral during all the video. He has no specific distincti ve signal. However, some things should be said concerning his body language, especially about his hands and his facial expressions. The impression that I get from him is that he is really confident. He nearly never look s at his notes, he is always making eye contact with his audience. Moreover, he uses really often and for a long time the steeple position, which 97 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership would signify assurance and confidence (example: 02.46 and 08.00 minutes). However, his face was surprising when Ms. Clinton took the voice. Indeed, when she began to speak and to express her gratitude towards the British government, which provided a great leadership, Mr. Miliband had the following micro expression (00.52 minute): His face is for me clearly reflecting negative feelings. It seems like it is anger and /or disgust toward Ms. Clinton or towards what she says. This micro expression is also appearing later (09.09 minutes) , when he is looking at her. At the very end of the video, a journalist is asking Ms. Clinton about the publish ing of a certain document. Mr. Miliband is at that moment not comfortable, indeed he is touching his button (20.45 minute) and his wedding ring just after (20.48 minute) . Thi s uncomfortable moment is verbally demonstrated right after since Ms. Clinton says that she will not answer the question. The fiddling with the ring gesture also happens at 98 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 15.00 minutes where Ms. Clinton is asked about political prisoners. More details wi ll be given about that question in the coming paragraphs. Concerning Hillary Clinton’s body language, one could tell that at the beginning of her speech (01.00 minute), she is really relaxed. She describes a situation and she uses her h ands to illustrate and punctuate her verbal communication . She is confident and prepared, she looks quite often at her notes . At the 07.18 minutes, the journalist is asking Mr. Miliband if he is confident about getting enough support from the population. Her reaction was the following eye touch gesture. As it has been developed in the literature review – and summarized in the model of analysis – the eye touch belongs to the deceit signals category. This gesture would mean “see no evil” and would happen when the brain tries to block the deceit it thinks it sees. By considering that fact, Ms. Clinton is somehow answering the question that is asked to Mr. Miliband. 99 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership The image above (15.14 minutes) is illustrating the facial expression that she has when she hears the question about a possible abuse of political prisoner. This facial expression is a smile. A reason for this smile could be that she knows in advance the answer to that question and she expresses it by using this smile. Her para -verbal dimension – her tone of the voice – is quite regular and confident until the 16.20 minutes. After that moment, she is hesitating quite often on what she will say. The hesitation is conveyed by the “ahh” and “hum” that she says. This could mean that for a specific reason, she is not sure anymore of what she is talking about. At 17 .21 minutes, she evocates the fact that political prisoners should be released and treated with respect. However, here is the gesture that she uses: She touches her right ear. At the 17.23 minutes, 2 seconds after her ear touch, she tries to cover the gesture by putting her hair beside her ear. The ear touch gesture belongs to the deceit signals and would mean “hear no 100 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership evil” which could signify that she does not believe what she actually hears. In other words, she is not thinking what she is saying: she is lying. At 18.0 4 minute s, she is affirming that she was concerned by the problematic. Her body language at that moment would say rather the opposite. Indeed, here is the gesture that her body displays at 18.09 minutes: She is indeed touching her nose, which is another strong de ceit sign. As it has been stated in the literature review and in the model of analysis the nose would expand when a person is lying (the pinnochio effect) and therefore, this part of the face is becoming itchy. That could explain why Ms. Clinton is touchin g her nose which would mean that she is lying. Another deceit signal that could be observed is when she is nudging her arm. This gesture is, like it is developed in the deceit signals part, occurring when one arm (her left arm on the video) is elevated for a very short moment. Since it is a movement, I cannot show it by using screenshot. However, for the curious, you could spot it by using the link (you should focus because it is not an easy one to detect) . It is happening around the 18.02 minutes just afte r she says the word “deported”. This gesture is somehow reinforcing the two others deceit signals that I mentioned before. 101 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership General impression My general impression, after this third illustration, is that this is a really good example of uncomfortable situation . Despite a good beginning from both politician (assertiveness, steeple position, etc), the situation turned more negative for them . Indeed, signs like hesitations in the voice , use of deceit signals (Ms. Clinton) , and the “fiddling the button and ring” movements (Mr. Miliband) began to appear and to convey the fact that they are not at their ease anymore. Moreover, Ms. Clinton is displaying a lot of deceit signals. Finally, one could wonder about the real relationship between Mr. Mil iband and Ms. Clinton since the face that Mr. Miliband displayed when he was looking at her. In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within frames (scheme above). 102 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 4 . I L L U S T R A T I O N 4 : M A R I S S A M A Y E R – O P E N I N G S P E E C H Who : Marissa Mayer – CEO of Yahoo Leadership field : Business leader Description : Marissa Mayer is performing an opening speech Title of the youtube video : Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer Opening Speech | TechCrunch 2012 Crunchies Highlights Length of the video : 1.29 minutes URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxUoBKBHMY > Accessed on 08 May 2013 Description of the video This video clip is presenting Marissa Mayer while she is we lcoming people and thanking them for their innovative work. The video lasts 1.29 minutes and is displaying rather good non verbal communication signals. This fourth illustration will highlight good hands posture s and good facial expressions to have when leaders address an audience for this kind of situation. Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals The first impression that I had by looking at Ms. Mayer is that she is well dressed : a nice top, a watch, earrings , and some make up for the occasion (essential and miscellaneous accessories) . This representation of her is conveying the fact that she takes care of her image. Her body language is also sending a lot of information. She is smiling and laughing quite often (for example: 00.09 minute, 1.25 minutes , images below ). Those smile expression s are powerful. As it is said in the literature review, the smile has basically two positive aspects in this situation . It builds a better image of the leader. And thanks to the mirroring eff ect, the audience will have the tendency to smile back , which put them in a better state of mind. Moreover, the smile is a useful for negotiations as well. Even though this opening speech has nothing to do with negotiations, she is saying (1.20 103 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership minutes) th at her company is hiring and is laughing just after the proposition. I also would like to emphasize he r hands gestures. She is indeed using her hands from the beginning to the end of the video clip. She is using them as illustrative movements since she is waving them to punctuate her verbal communication. For example, you could see this illustrative movement between the 00.20 minute and the 00.25 minute. She uses the gesture also at the end when she is saying “we are hiring” . Indeed, she does the gesture (1.10 – 1.13 minutes) of bringing people towards her with her right arm. In addition to illustrative gestures, she is using the steeple position. She is using it often but very briefly, she is not staying more than half a second in that position. She is using the steeple position at the 00.25 minute, the 00.27 minute, the 00.31 minute (image below) , the 00.33 minute and the 00.48 minute. In other words, she is using five times this gesture which is conveying the fact that she is really confident and at her ease on stage. This confidence is also demonstrated by the fact that she knows what she is saying, that he prepared her speech, she is not reading any reminder. 104 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Finally, she is using the open palm posture . This gesture is often displayed during the video ( for instance: 1.10 minutes, 1.13 minutes) . As it has been discussed in the literature review, this gesture signifies trust and hone sty. Her audience can trust her because she is not a threat, she is not keeping the down palm position. Here is an example of her open palm position (1.10 minute): 105 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership General impression In my opinion, this video is a great illustration which answer the following question: how to use the hands while speaking ? Indeed she uses her hands in a good way, on the one “hand” she is illustrating what she is talking about and on the other “hand” she is displaying trust and honesty by using the open palm position. Furthermore, she is smiling often which is pleasant. She looks friendly and at her ease, she even makes jokes . Besides, her para – verbal dimension is in harmony with the context. Her accessories are perfectly fitting the context. I deeply believe that this video is a good example of congruence and of good use of non verbal communication. In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within frames (scheme above). 106 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 5 . I L L U S T R A T I O N 5 : R A Y L E W I S – I N S P I R A T I O N A L S P E E C H Who : Ray Lewis – Coach of Stanford Basketball team Leadership field : Sport – Basketball Description : Ray Lewis is performing a inspirational speech to his team Title of the youtube video : Ray Lewis Inspirational Speech: Stanford Basketball @NIT Length of the video : 2.22 minutes URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07fhOVQ9wEA > Accessed on 08 May 2013 Description of the video This video of 2.22 minutes is displaying a sport leadership situation. The basketball coach, Ray Lewis, is performing an inspirational speech in order to motivate his team. The speaker, Mr. Lewis will demonstrate his engagement through non verbal communication. This illustration wi ll highlight – among other things – the importance of the peri -verbal and para – verbal dimensions. Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals The video mainly illustrates how the distance and the tone of the voice variables are utilized by Mr. Lewis. Nevertheless, he is also using his body language to add more meaning to his verbal communication : his body language illustrates his verbal communication. For instance, at 00.40 minute, he is shaking his head when he says “forget any thing else”. Moreover, his body language in the case of this video is really emphasizing his enthusiasm , his energy, his motivation. In addition to that, Mr. Lewis is high and his shape is impressive which conveys more power . He is performing a lot of gest ures like clapping his hands (image below: 1.56 minutes) , waving his arms, pointing his fingers down to show the present moment ( image below: 2.06 minutes) and so forth to convey motivation. 107 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership In addition to his body language, he also uses his tone of the voice to inspire and motivate people. Indeed, his voice is not a quiet one, his tone is actually full of energy, he is not speaking morosely. Besides, his tone increase s when he is emphasizing important facts. For instance, he says “let’s do what we do, tonight ” (2.06). The second illustration (with the fingers pointing down) is an image when Mr. Lewis is pronouncing “tonight”. One the one hand he emphasize s the moment with his fingers, and on the other hand, his uses his tone of voice to reinforce his statement. He is speaking for tonight, not tomorrow, not in one year, but for tonight’s big event. Besides , a lot of non verbal messages are emerging from the para -verbal dimension, from the distance. In the beginning of the video, he creates a physical contact with his players. He touches them by clapping into their hands. He enters into their intimate zones. He is close enough with his team to touch them and transmit them his motivation. The image below is illustrating this entrance into the players’ intimate zone (00. 19 minutes). 108 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership In addition with the physical contact, we can observe that the coach is also making eye contact with the players. This fact is also the case for the whole video, he constantly keep eye contact with all his players. He is addressing them directly, he is talking and motivating all of them. This is a consequence from his distance management. The distance does not only c over the physical distance that separates the actors in this video but includes also the angle that the speaker is taking : towards which direction he is speaking. At the 00.36 minute, he is looking at his left side, and at the 1.11 minutes, he is looking a t his other side ( image s below). He will alternate his eye contact during the whole clip. Finally, he is managing his spatial zone. He walks and move from a place to another one. He steps forwards and back, goes to the left side and then to the right one. He become s closer to everybody by shortening the distance and by managing the spatial zone. This management would suggest that he is including everybody in the speech. It reinforces somehow the eye contact since he tries to include and motivate the wh ole team. In conclusion, he uses non verbal communication channels to motivate his team. He is displaying a motivated attitude and thanks to the mirroring effect, he is trying to transfer his motivation to his team. This video has the advantage of also sh owing his audience. His audience is focused, some players are nodding, and their facial expressions illustrate seriousness and motivation. At the end of the video ( image below: 2.18 minutes), they are all – 109 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership coach and players – making physical contact s. This could be a symbolic that they are all sharing the same spatial zone: they are a unit, a real team. General impression I find this example really fascinating. I think it is a perfect example to illustrate how to support verbal communication with the adequate non verbal communication. Indeed, the coach is supporting his rhetoric with the non verbal dimension: he is congruent. The different parts of the puzzle ar e in harmony. What he says and how he says it are in total harmony. When he speaks, he is making eye contact, powerful illustrative gestures, and is managing the distance. Moreover, he is creating a special link with his players since he uses physical contact with them. Thus, I believe that this example illustrates perfectly the congruence on the one hand, and the para – verbal and peri -verbal dimensions on the other hand . In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within frames (scheme above). 110 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 6 . I L L U S T R A T I O N 6 : T H E P O P E F R A N C I S – H I S F I R S T S P E E C H Who : The Pope Francis – Jorge Mario Bergoglio Leadership field : Religious leader Description : The Pope is giving his first speech Title of the youtube video : The new Pope gives his speech 3/13/13 Length of the video : 4.53 minutes URL of the video : < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZCDBnaL90 > Accessed on 08 May 2013 Description of the video This 4.53 minutes video is a transmission of the first speech of the Pope. The speech is in Italian, and since I do not speak this language, I will give all my attention to his non verbal communication. This video will highlights the importance of the supra -verbal dimension: the distinctive signals. Description and interpretation of non verbal communication signals In this interpretation of non verbal communication, I will focus on two aspects, the peri -verbal dimension (the body language), and the supra -verbal one (the distinctive signals). Concerning the body language, the pope is using mainly three hand gestures: the steeple, the open palm , and the clenched hands . The steeple would suggest the assurance and the confidence of the pope (image below: 2.04 minutes) . On the other hand, the open palm gesture would show trust and honesty (image below: 0.35 minute) . And finally, due to the contingency, I will not suggest that the clenched hands position is signifying frustration . In this specific case, the religion has a huge role. The hands clenched position is also a praying position in this case (3.18 minutes) . In other words, this gesture is symbolic, it does not represent a state of mind of the speaker, it does not give clues about the speaker’s emotions. It tells us that the gesture is symbolic. Indeed this gesture is also visible at the 3.18 minute 111 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership when we can see that they are praying. This is something that I figured out only thanks to the non verbal signals , since I do not speak the language. Nevertheless, the non verbal communication channels imply that what I see at this moment is actually a prayer. The steeple The open palm The hands clenched In addition to the hands gesture, I would like to emphasize an important channel, especially in this contex t: the distinctive signals. The essentials signals on this picture are the clothing of the pope, his necklace, and his ring . Without those signals, how could people know that he is the pope? If he were wearing the same clothes as the other persons on the balcony, how could people differentiate him from the others? All those essential accessories and clot hing a re conveying the meaning that he is the pope. The clothing are actually symbols that are differentiating the pope from others (image below: 1.51 minutes) . 112 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership General impression My impression on this case is that the distinctive signals are primordial in this context. Indeed, in the religion and in this context, s ymbols are used to indicate the pope. Besides, the pope is using another symbolic gesture: the hands clenched gesture which implies the prayer. Nevertheless, the pope al so displays other “normal” gestures to support his verbal communication, such as the steeple and the open palm position. In this illustration, the essential channels of communication are those within frames (scheme above). 113 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 4 . 7 . I L L U S T R A T I O N S : SU M MA R Y The illustration part displayed leadership situations. Six illustrations were described and analyzed: two of business leadership, two of politician leadership, one of sport leadership, and finally one in religion leadership. The purpose of this part was to give concrete examples of each part of the puzzle. Indeed, thanks to this six illustrations, I could observe and analyze the congruence and all the dimensions , except the infra -verbal (explanation in the section 3.5. the in fra verbal dimension: subliminal information) Below, you will find the model of analysis completed with the illustrations. Sometimes, several illustration were treating the same channels , that is why several frames are linked to each others. The numbers i nto brackets refers to the number of the illustration. 114 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 5. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this thesis highlights the importance of c ommunication. Or more precisely a component of it: the non ver bal communication. Despite the significance of non verbal communication – which is reaching each of us, durin g our whole life, and every day – this thesis treats a specific focus: leadership. As a matter of fact, this paper provides knowledge , which will be useful to gain a deeper understanding of non verbal communication. By reaching this deeper understanding, this work explains and makes links with leadership in order to improve the comprehension of relatively unknown facets of non verbal com munication concerning leaders, followers, and the link between them. Since those facets of leadership are moderately unknown, I chose the second part of the title as followed: Towards a new aspect of leadership. Moreover , the metaphor of the puzzle of non verbal communication is displayed through the whole thesis. I deeply believe that the metaphor facilitates the comprehension and illustrates the concept of communication and non verbal communication properly. First, the puzzle is explained, cluster by clu ster, piece by piece: several channels of non verbal communication and their component s are developed one by one . Then, elements that could influence the puzzle – the contingency’s variable – are described. Finally, by assembling the pieces of the puzzle, a model is created. This model will be the basis and will support the observation s of empirical illustrations . The continuous use of the puzzle metaphor all along the thesis gave me the incentive of using it in the first part of the title: The puzzle of non verbal communication. At the last step of the composition of this thesis, I get to the conclusion that: yes, leadership can be explained and understood through non verbal communication. The non verbal communication model fits relatively well to the r eality and to the leaders’ empirical experiences. By observing the non 115 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership verbal channels, I could make more sense of the situations than if I were reading the transcript of the video. Indeed, if I would have analyzed the videos without looking at them (just by reading or listening) I would have missed important channels of non verbal communication and I would not have been able to make totally sense of the leadership situation. In addition to that, if I would have analyzed the whole videos without the theoret ical framework (through the model of analysis) I would not have been able to fully interpret non verbal cues. Therefore non verbal communication definitely adds is an important step in order to better understand leadership. Furthermore, three additional reasons will be given in order for leadership actors to consider non verbal communication seriously . First, a better understanding of non verbal signals will provide leadership actor s with a better control of their own communication. Thanks to this control , it is more likely that they will be congruent. Second, leadership actors are affecting their audience with non verbal signs; with a better comprehension of them, they could convey the emotions and feelings they want in a better way . Third, the non verbal communication can be used by an individual to be perceived differently: if you want to be a leader, act like a leader and you will become a leader. Those three reasons are highlighting the importance for a leader actor to control his or her non verbal com munication. I agree with Plöbst (2013) when he argues (based on Plato’s research) that the art of leading others comes from the art of leading oneself. I deeply believe that in order to lead oneself and to be able to communicate it to the followers, leaders have a control of their non verbal communication. If one cannot use non verbal communication in a proper way, how can he or she send the message to others that he or she is able to lead him or herself ? Nevertheless, this research has its limits. T he paper provides an overview about leadership and non verbal communication. However, t here is much more to understand about the puzzle of non verbal communication. In the course of this thesis, the scope could be narrowed in order to have a deeper underst anding of the presented concepts. Therefore I believe that this topic 116 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership could be completed and improved in the future . In addition to that limit, I want to emphasize the importance of contingency. I considered in my thesis rhetoric as being the verbal commun ication. I chose to not focus on this part, since its small importance (7%) – Mehrabian (1972). Nevertheless this number is valid in face -to -face communication. What about non verbal communication when it is not a face -to -face one ? Indeed, non verbal communication has no impact when there is no visual contact. Stodell (2013) demonstrates the importance of the rhetoric in her work. Leadership situations occur as well through resignation letters, shareholder letters, etc. In those written fo rm s, the only dimension of communication represented is the verbal one ; non verbal communication has no impact in this kind of situation. Therefore the numbers of 7% of verbal communication against the 93% of non verbal communication are becoming 100% for v erbal communication and 0% for non verbal (with the hypothesis that one considers the verbal communication treating the psychological aspect and all the other aspects hidden behind written words). Thus, contingency has to be taken into account: non verbal communication is not omnipresent. As I am typing the lasts words of this thesis, I would like you to just remember this: no matter if you think non verbal communication is important and no matter if I managed to convince you of its magnitude in our everyday life; non verbal communication achieves what verbal communication just fails to do: providing contextual meaning. To those who have good eyesight but who cannot see the whole puzzle… Well, I hope that after reading this thesis, you will able to better see the whole puzzle… 117 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 6. REFER ENCES Arbnor, I. and Bjerke, B. 2009. Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge . London : SAGE Publication Ltd. Birdwhistell, R. L. 1970. Kinesics and Context . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Corbin, J. and Strauss. A. L. 1997. Grounded Theory in Practice . London: SAGE. Corbin, J. and Strauss. A. L. 2008. 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Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications. Phipps, R. 2012. Body language: It’s what you don’t say that matters . John Willey&Sons Ltd, West Sussex. Plöbst, S. 2013. Leading Oneself . Sweden: Linnaeus University Quinn, M. 2002. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods . Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Rose, G. 2007. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials . Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Schmidt, H.M. and Lanz, U. 2003. Surgical Anatomy of the Hand. Stuttgard : Georg Thieme Verlag. Strauss, A. L. 1987. Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientist . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stodell, S. 2013.What Say You? A Rhetorical Analysis of Business Leaders. Sweden, Linnaeus University. Thornton, G.R. 1944. The Effect of Wearing Glasses upon Judgments of PersonalityTraits of Persons Seen Briefly. Journal of Applied Psychology , 28(3), pp. 203 -207. Tubiana, R., Thomine, J.M. and Mackin, E., 1998. Examination of the Hand and Wrist . 2nd ed. London: The Livery Ho use. Turchet, P. 2009. Le langage universel du corps . Montréal: Les Editions de l’Homme. Weick, K.E., 1995. Sensemaking in Organizations . Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications, Inc. Zuckerman, M., Larrance, D. T., Spiegel, N. H. and Klorman, R. 1981. Controlling non verbal cues: , Facial expressions and tone of voice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, pp. 506 -524. Zuckerman, M., Amidon, M.D., Bishop, S.E., and Pomerantz, S.D. 1982. Face and Tone of Voice in the Communication of Deception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . 43 (2), pp. 347 -357. 121 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 7. ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 7 . 1 . I M A G E S ( L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W) Illustration from the introduction: [Obama – end of war] n.d. [image online] Available online at: [Accessed 05 March 2013] Illustration 1: [Bones of the hand] n.d. [image online] Available online at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 2: [Dominant handshake] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 3: [Handshake] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 4: [Greeting Obama and Ki -Moon] n. d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 5 : [Hand gesture steeple] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 6 : [Confidence] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 7: [Clenched hands] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] 122 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Illustration 8: [Wenger] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 9: Attention stance] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 10: [Model legs apart] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 11: [Legs position] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 20 13] Illustration 12: [Dalai Lama and Obama] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 13: [Crossed leg position] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 14: [Leg Posture] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 15: Bucklin, L. Human Anatomy – Muscles. Available online at : [Consulted in Phipps’ book (2012)] Illustration 16 : reading the left side of the face : Illustration from Truchet’s book (2009, p. 57). Illustration 17: The drop jaw smile : Illustration from Pease and Pease’s book (2006, p.78) Illustration 18: The down -mouth expression : Illustration from Pease and Pease’s book (2006, p.78) 123 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership Illustration 19: [Ekman faces] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 20: [Tony Blair] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 21 : [The three wise monkeys] n.d. [Online Imge] Available at: [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustrations 22: [Mouth cover] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 23: [Obama] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 24: [Eye rub] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 25: [The ear Grab] n.d.[image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] > [ Accessed on 01 Mai 2013] Illustration 26: [Pinnochio] n.d. [image online] Available at: [Accessed 01 Mai 2013] 124 Mehdi Mokhtari The puzzle of non verbal communication : Towards a new aspect of leadership 7 . 2 . V I D E O S (E M P I R I C A L I L L U S T R A T I O N S A N D A N A L Y S I S ) Illustration 1: Clinton and the Lewinsky scandal [Bill Clinton is testifying in the Lewinsky scandal at the council] Available at: [Accessed on 06 Mai 2013] Illustration 2: Bill Gates and the iPad [Bill G ates on the iPad] Available at: [Accessed on 0 7 Mai 2013] Illustration 3: Ms. Cliton and Mr.Miliband – Press conferenc e [Secretary Clinton meets U.K Foreign Minister David Miliband] Available at : [Accessed on 07 Mai 2013] Illustration 4: Marissa Mayer – Opening speech [yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer Opening Speech | TechCrunch 2012 Crunchies Highlights] Available at: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRxUoBKBHMY > [Accessed on 08 Mai 2013] Illustration 5: Ray Lewis – Inspirationa l speech [Ray Lewis Inspirational Speech: Stanford Basketball @NIT] Available at: [Accessed on 08 Mai 2013] Illustration 6: The pope Francis – His first speec h [The new Pope gives his speech 3/13/13] Available at: [Accessed on 08 Mai 2013] Linnaeus University – a firm focus on quality and competence On 1 January 2010 Växjö University and the University of Kalmar merged to form Linnaeus University. This new university is the product of a will to improve the quality, e nhance the appeal and boost the development potential of teaching and research, at the same time as it plays a prominent role in working closely together with local society. Linnaeus University offers an attractive knowledge environment characterised by hi gh quality and a competitive portfolio of skills. Linnaeus University is a modern, international university with the emphasis on the desire for knowledge, creative thinking and practical innovations. For us, the focus is on proximity to our students, but also on the world around us and the future ahead. Linnæus University SE-391 82 Kalmar/ SE-351 95 Växjö Telep hone +46 772 -28 80 00