As many of you know, I’m from the Netherlands.

What you might not know is that a significant part of The Netherlands is as low as 7 meters below sea level.

Yep, seven meters.  That’s 21 feet.

The Dutch don’t notice any of this. Many pumps are operated day and night to make sure that the water doesn’t flood the land.

The Dutch have been doing this for centuries. And one site that testifies to this historic water management is Kinderdijk. This UNESCO World Heritage consists of 19 authentic windmills created in the 18th century.

What is so interesting about these windmills is not only their water function but also that these same windmills were used for “mass” communication.

For communication?

I know. Communication? How does that work?

By rotating the sails of the windmill to particular positions the community was able to communicate for example Joy (birth or wedding), grief (death), or sad events like a funeral.

Isn’t it amazing what a community could communicate through positioning windmill sails?

It reminds me of body language. There we communicate by positioning our moving parts like arms and legs into certain postures.

That body language is crucial for getting across the right message. So to answer the question asked in the title of this article, leaders and windmills have in common that they use their moving parts to get a message across.

However, most people are not deliberate about their body language.

Here are some tips:

 

1 – Reprioritize

Most of the time we prepare for an important conversation with what to say but without thinking about how to say it. Instead, think about what your intention is for the meeting. Who are you going to be? Then align your body language with that. For example, if your intention is listening. Think about what body language signals that you’re listening.

So, instead of starting with what exactly you’re going to say reprioritize and start with your intention and your body language.

 

2 – Use mirroring

Some people use their body language very deliberately. One way to do so is called mirroring.

The best thing is when mirroring happens naturally. You might have been aware of this phenomenon. You’re having a great conversation, for example, with a friend and suddenly you realize that you are mirroring each other’s body posture.

Mirroring also happens when you yawn or smile. You yawn in a meeting directly after lunch, and within seconds another person will start yawning as well. You meet someone in the hallway of your office, you smile, and that person smiles back.

A strange thing happens when that person doesn’t smile back. Then you might react by thinking, “I don’t like that person.”

By mirroring body language you are communicating that you are alike and that you feel the same.

In below picture you see an example of mirroring behavior. Both the man and the woman’s legs and arms are almost in identical positions.

Legal Professionals on Steps

Mirroring can work but it’s not a tool that you start implementing whenever you want and in every situation.

When we think about communication we often think of talking and listening. But there is much more involved in communication like listening sounds for example “HmmHmm”, “Interesting”; or “Go On”, your tone of voice, and your body language.

Focus this week on your body language and please let me know how it went.