BODY LANGUAGE

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo vehemently queried Mr Fix it for not supporting his third term agenda and when the latter retorted that the former president did not inform him of his ambition, the general asked if he did not understand body language. Body language is a non verbal means of communication that reveals more than you are saying. Like listening, it takes patience and training to understand body language. It is not a skill that is available to an impatient person.

By virtue of my background and upbringing; I understand body language, you cannot grow up with my kind of mother and not be flawless in body language. Add that to the training and several workshops that my stint in the hotel industry exposed me to and you have in me an almost perfect student of body language. Though, we were told that it was disrespectful to stare at elders when being spoken to but research over time has shown that the much can be learned from the movement of the eyes alone.

In the hotel industry, you are at a world stage playing host to several guests from different culture, education and traditions. With the exception of some certain peculiarities, body language is the same thing all over the world. Without understanding one word in Chinese language, you can tell when a Chinese is either happy or sad, I mean smile or laughter is the same all over the world. Similarly, you do not have to be a linguist to tell when a Crimean is crying. These body languages are easily discernible because of the extreme emotional accompaniment, but where most people have language block is with those silent and vague body languages.

And this is where your skill in body language or lack of it is exposed. Let’s take some few examples- you can know when a guest is fed up with your incompetence while attending to him, when he rolls his eyeballs upward. A guest that spells his name so slowly to you is accommodating your dumbness while you think he is being help full. An impatient guest drums on the table with his fingers is indirectly telling you to hasten up. A smile that disappears as soon as it appears on a guest's face is called a plastic smile and it does not in any way approve of your service delivery.

The list is endless and cannot be covered comprehensively on this page. What is important is that body language is a skill that can be taught and learnt. This is a key skill for staff that will be working in guest contact areas of the hotel. Just like a kid learning how to talk, body language can similarly be expressed and you can have your body language vocabulary improved with practice and expression.