B is for Body Language
“What are they thinking?”
This is a key question in many business contexts; meetings, presentations, negotiations, sales, interviews and decision making. Body language can hold many clues to answering this question. Therefore, it is critical to understand body language and cultural differences. In other words, how the cultures in your setting (including your own culture) use body language to communicate different messages.

One example of body language and cultural differences is “the space bubble” (as Richard Lewis describes it). All cultures have different levels of tolerance for how close you need to stand to each other in a given context. If you get it right, it maintains trust in the scenario. If you get it wrong, you may end up communicating the wrong message and eroding trust.

Now that you’re aware of this, you can harness this as a tool in your next negotiation. Do some research on the cultural differences in personal space of the participants of your next meeting. Practice beforehand with people from that culture who can give you feedback about how your approach to personal space is either building or eroding trust.

A-Z of Cross-Cultural Awareness
This blog post is part of a series of short posts on cross-cultural awareness. Keep an eye out for the rest of the series.