What to Say When Things Get Tough: Business Communication Strategies for Winning People Over When They're Angry, Worried and Suspicious of

Chapter 6

NONVERBAL MESSAGES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE CODE

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON,AMERICAN POET

 

Remember Dr. Pierce from Chapter 4? My firm helped him prepare for a television interview during which he discussed a government decision not to require insurance companies to cover a certain medical procedure. He was actually one of four experts who appeared on a panel during the interview. Although I fought against it for reasons that will become clear later, the station forced all four panelists to sit behind a table. Since I couldn’t get Dr. Pierce out from behind it, I urged him to lean forward during the entire interview, with his forearms resting on the edge of the table and his hands ...