Body Language Tips For Effective Remote Video Calls
Remote communication has its own unique challenges. In person communication helps us use our entire body to connect well with the audience, but what about video calls and remote interviews? Below are tips which you can use to make your remote communication effectively. These tips are based on how are Indian sports icons are recently motivating us all to stay safe during the lockdown era. Read below about how they are using body language for making their points heard in the right manner.
Apt facial expressions
When the frame is not clearly visible, facial expressions play a key role. For example, here Abhinav Bindra, the Olympic gold medallist used an eyebrow raise to emphasise the need to follow COVID -19 guidelines.
CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT GESTURES
Sometimes it can become effective to indicate to the audience that you are one with them. Here we can see Kapil Dev using the Namaste which resonates well with Indians – as a form of greeting as also to appeal or present a humble request.
SHOWING INTEREST
For body language to help build trust, it is important that the audience be able to see you clearly. This requires that your torso should be properly visible. In this case Anju Bobby George the Olympic athlete does not use this particular strategy. However, she overcomes the lack of proper frame by leaning in as an effective way to build a connect with her listeners. Leaning in brings one closer to the other person in a face to face meeting, and can work well if executed properly in a remote environment also.
HAND GESTURE VARIATIONS
One of the effective ways to highlight your points while speaking is by using effective and relevant hand gestures, rather than just haphazardly moving hands around to explain. Deep Dasgupta the former cricketer in this screenshot is bringing the audience attention to the need to adhere the COVID protocol. For this he looks directly at them and uses a hand gesture commonly known as a precision grip. The precision grip in particular helps to emphasize a particular point we wish to stress upon. Similarly there are a lot of such specific and universally recognizable hand gestures that one can use to make the speech more interesting, easy for the audience to understand and remember.
THROUGH ACTIONS
What better way to communicate what you wish to communicate than self-demonstration. Visualisation helps the audience understand what we wish to state precisely and clearly. Here we can see Irfan Pathan who went one step ahead than giving a mere motivational speech, and actually demonstrated to the public about what is social distancing and how to follow social distancing.
One more example is Pooja Dhanda the Indian wrestler, who urged public to take care of themselves by remaining fit. She asked them to focus on a daily routine of fitness of their choice. This she did while she herself was involved in her daily workout.
MAXIMUM BODY LANGUAGE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
The god of cricket Sachin Tendulkar requested people by using apt body language. While starting with his message, he thanked people with a genuine smile. As he is requesting people he urged them with a Namaste and looked directly into the camera. He also uses eyebrows to emphasize his point of donating plasma. He also uses effective hand gestures. That’s him using all of the tips that we mentioned above.
But his ability to communicate well does not stop there. Remote communication does not stop you from standing up tall, like he is, and stating your speech, especially if what you are going to be speaking is something really important. To show his passion for the topic, Sachin changes his height by momentarily lifting himself up and down again while stating his point. A very effective gesture to indicate that one is passionate and enthusiastic about what they are saying.
CONCLUSION
Remote communication can be challenging. You can enhance your communication through the different tips we have shared above. How you tweak your body language can depend on the situation, but remember there will be times when you might need to go out of your way and think through how you would like to communicate with your team. Especially in those situations say where you want to on-board a newly hired employee and let them get a feel of the culture of the organisation. Or as a manager you want to have a word with the team over their declining performance, and so on.
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