Towards a successful staging
The success of a staging is reaffirmed in the effectiveness of the transmission and understanding of the sender's message to the possible recipients or interlocutors. The maturity of research on topics of “quasi-scientific” category, regarding the study and analysis of personal competences and the management of emotions, have opened many possibilities in the field of human sciences and education.
Can we, then, educate emotions? Is systematic training possible in the areas of individual and interpersonal development? Are there social competences?
Emotional Intelligence and the management of interpersonal relationships, according to the theories raised by Goleman (1996, 1998) (1) strengthen the theoretical body of the importance of the control of intangibles, such as self-esteem, communication (verbal / non-verbal behavior), empathy or the own development of others that make up personal assertiveness and the need to behave as beings capable of controlling and modifying, as necessary, our social behaviors.
The world of human resources and the development of people, in terms of the work environment of companies, is increasingly in need of nourishment from these trends that shed light on the integration of all dimensions of the socio-labor and organizational climate.
Leading with non-verbal behavior (CNV) means controlling all those aspects that Mínguez Vela (1999) calls “the other communication”, non-verbal language, and which are of great importance to those people whose professional status implies interpersonal communication relationships in those that act in equal parts mind and body, being the development of formative actions one of the clearest examples of these situations.
Leading with the CNV: the teaching style in training
The styles of leadership, studied and developed in different analyzes and scientific studies, reveal various perspectives, depending on the point of view of the discipline for which they have been analyzed. The attitudes of the issuer with status of control and predisposition on the group of people who follow the initiatives of this one, can vary depending on the situation and especially on the objectives of management and task that this one proposes at a certain moment.
Body language is a sphere that many people have used to establish guidelines for action at any time or a line to follow in certain scenarios, be they daily, work or social.
The progression of behaviors and adequate training can make us feel much more sure of ourselves in situations for which we have been trained, and even generate mechanisms of a non-verbal nature at unforeseen moments that communicate to our interlocutors what we want to transmit to them.
Variables of non-verbal communication in the development of training actions
“Success in communication depends on the correct and adequate functioning of all the components of the communication system (…) We start from the conviction that being understood by a small or high number of people is an art that can be learned. Insofar as a series of resources are known and put into practice by the sender, in this case the monitor, the transmission of the message and its correct assimilation by the receivers will be favored ”(Marín, MA 1993). (two)
Certainly, speaking to a group of people naturally and fluently is not easy. It is not enough to use the terms and resources of colloquial language, but it is necessary to use a series of strategies that reinforce and complement our discourse, while at the same time attracting and maintaining the attention of the interlocutors.
At the same time, controlling these strategies can help us control that public speaking panic or stage fright that is often difficult to hide; our voice trembles, we do not know where to put our hands, awkward body movements (arms and legs), hoarseness, paleness, dry mouth and throat, the mind is clouded… these are symptoms that sometimes more and others less we can control taking into account the elements that influence the communication process, not only those related to verbal language but also to the aforementioned non-verbal communication.
Following Gómez Jacinto, L and Canto Ortiz, JM (1995) (3) language or non-verbal behavior can exercise different functions from the social point of view. On the one hand, and through these non-verbal behaviors, an affiliation function can be given, this affiliation being understood as the expression of affection. Thus, non-verbal language provides a lot of information about the teacher's state of mind: joy, anger…; now, this affiliation function can take a positive character - positive affiliation - (increased proximity), directing the gaze more frequently, maintaining longer eye contact, physical contact, open postures… or also a negative affiliation through physical distancing, closed postures, intimidating looks, etc.
On the other hand, with non-verbal behavior or communication, a control function can be developed consisting of "making one feel the influence on others, in order to modify their behavior." From this perspective, the social function of controlling non-verbal language is manifested through status, power and dominance over others; all this with our looks, the physical contact that we maintain, the persuasive power of this language, the control that we can exercise with feedback and reinforcement, with deception (for example, it is said that a person's tone of voice usually increases with deception), etc.
Non-verbal behavior or language can be classified into:
Kinesia: "study of body posture and movement, tactile behavior, effect of physical appearance, clothing, artifacts, as well as gestures and expressions and visual behavior." (p. 314).
Paralanguage: everything that accompanies language, such as tone of voice, vocalization, intonation in speech, speaking slowly or quickly depending on the moment,…
Proxemics: distance or personal space, human territorial behavior, that is, the physical space of each person.
Once the term has been conceptualized and the relevant classifications have been made, it is of utmost importance to know what variables to take into account so that we can get to control them, which is why we analyze them below:
The look: Maintaining eye contact with the audience must be the base in the communication process. Certainly, visual contact is established before auditory contact since, for example, only with our clothing we are already giving valid information to our audience. Therefore, before a group, large or small, we must try to maintain eye contact, both when starting to speak and throughout the training session. We have to make sure that at least we have looked at all the students once and make slow sweeps with our eyes towards the whole group. All this will help us to exchange impressions with our students, check through gestures and looks to see if the message is being captured, locate perplexing impressions, avoid losing attention to the learning objective (s).Having a long gaze or looking down at the floor or towards the ceiling are non-verbal behaviors that can disturb the communication process, since the necessary teacher-student eye contact will be lost and situations of confusion and decrease in teaching leadership (credibility) causing a consequent loss of group control.
The posturethat we adopt in front of our audience must be in accordance with our discourse, that is, we must try to adopt a posture that adjusts to the circumstances, the context of the classroom, the characteristics of our students, in short, the posture That the teacher takes in the classroom will depend to a great extent on the learning climate that has been generated (or wants to be generated). In general, this posture must be natural, as long as the teacher must be comfortable, without postures that cause tension… variable, in the sense of not always maintaining the same position that can lead to boredom, distraction, etc. (for example, sitting behind a table during our entire intervention may be monotonous or may indicate a lack of openness towards the group, inflexibility, etc.); and respect for the group,not losing sight of who the teacher is, even though a friendly atmosphere has been generated.
The gestures accompany the verbal expression. In our speech and in front of a group of people we express ourselves with our whole body, although fundamentally with our hands, face, arms, head and shoulders.
The gestures must be, on the one hand, visible, that can be seen by the entire audience; open, that the whole group can grasp the meaning of these, and above all selective, because both an excess and a defect in gestures can disturb the message and its communicative sense.
Motivation is achieved, as we have indicated in all the previous sections, with a contextualization of the topic, a variation of stimuli throughout the exposition and a clear presentation of correctly formulated objectives.
Of course, the control of all the elements of verbal and non-verbal language will facilitate the motivation process of our students.
Control of all these elements and their management and training will facilitate the possibility of maintaining a more relaxed teaching style, which will outline the teacher with an image of leadership and credibility with the group.
(1) Goleman, D. (1998). Emotional intelligence applied to the company. Kairos Publishing House. Barcelona.
(2) In Cabrera, F., Donoso, T., Marín, MA (1993). Basic training manual for trainers. PPU. Barcelona (p.112).
(3) Gómez Jacinto, L y Canto Ortíz, JM1995. Social psychology. Eudema Library. Madrid.
