Communication is not just verbal. According to experts, about 90% of all communication is non-verbal with messages being conveyed through facial expressions, tone of voice, eye contact, and body postures and gestures. It is not limited to such gestures alone; time, space, and volume also play an important role in the conveying of messages.
Generally, it has been observed that women are more comfortable with closer contact with each other than men. Women do not mind other women invading their personal space, whereas men are very uncomfortable with close contact with others of the same sex. Apart from this, men tend to speak louder than most women, maybe due to girls being conditioned to behave like a lady from a very young age.
Facial Expressions
Women are more expressive when it comes to facial expressions than men. Men are often stone-faced, whereas most women are more expressive with non-verbal communication like the eye expressions, eye contact, head tilting and nodding, smiling and other positive and encouraging gestures.
This also helps them to be more in touch with their emotions and more discerning when it comes to gauging others' emotions and expressions. While in a professional environment, a woman's instinctive reaction by way of nodding or smiling can be misconstrued as agreement to the issue being debated; and conversely, a man's non-committal expression can be mistaken for disagreement or disinterest. Such inadvertent communication is called ‘leakage' by psychiatrists who are trained to read facial expressions and body language, which is a nascent field now with the growing threat of terrorism.
Body Alignment
Men seem to prefer an angled or side-ways approach while approaching someone to discuss a point, whereas women seem to prefer a more direct frontal face-to-face approach. According to the author of the bestselling book ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,' John Gray, women find a man's angled approach to be aloof and disinterested while men perceive a woman's toe-to-toe approach as aggressive and confrontational.
It has been generally accepted that men use communication to solve problems and discuss or transmit data, while women use communication to achieve emotional intimacy or to connect on a personal level.
Physical Contact
Men associate physical contact with sexual intimacy whereas women use physical contact to get closer emotionally. So, while a woman might be more comfortable in physical contact with other women like hugging or patting or holding hands, a man might shy away from physical contact with another man unless in a masculine setting like contact sports or at a game cheering their team. Women are more tactile than men because women use touch to express concern and solidarity.
Eye Contact
Men are less likely to make eye contact than women because while men prefer to be unaware of the other person's emotional well-being, women actively seek the reassurance of the well-being of others, both physical and emotional, maybe as a result of being the natural nurturers of the young ones. So, men are less comfortable with eye contact than women in both the work place and in their social lives.
Time and Space
Generally, women believe in giving equal space and time to all. In the modern workplace, where both the genders work together, it has become very clear that the differences in the ways that the genders communicate are more profound than was thought earlier. Men tend to talk louder than women as well as give them lesser time to speak, interrupting them while they speak. This may be because men are more dominating naturally.
Women tend to ensure that everyone gets a chance to air their views, and they are also better listeners than men. Women tend to be more patient in listening to others' point of views, while men are more dominating and can even affect adversely the group dynamics and inter-personnel communications in the work place.
In conclusion, women are better communicators than men in most cases and most circumstances while men are better at brainstorming and problem solving. There is a marked difference in the way the genders communicate between the sexes and even amongst themselves. Generally, men are more dominating and loud, while women tend to be patient, tactile, and good listeners. Men can be quite hard-headed, while women can be very emotional in the work place.
