Sunday, February 12, 2017

Evaluating Listening Skills & Nonverbal Behaviour

I have always found it intriguing to observe people during conversations as a group of friends usually consist of a perfect blend of DISC personalities.

When a group of friends first sit around the table at dinner, it is usually the I personality who will initiate and carry the conversation through his animated gestures, sincere eye contact, and an upbeat tone.

An interesting effect then takes hold of the group. It is as if someone had just lit a match on one side of the table, and now the fire is quickly spreading to the others, from the person closest to the speaker, to the one furthest away. Proximity is actually an important determinant of interest, since it affects verbal, para-verbal, and non-verbal factors in communication.

The different personalities will then come into play to perpetuate the conversation in nonverbal ways, each at different points of the conversation. The D personality will almost certainly cut to the chase with the topic at hand, sitting upright and looking exclusively and directly at the speaker. D people will also tend to hurry the initiator with rapid hand gestures to keep the pace of the conversation. S people are often go with the flow and prefer a non-hurried conversation. They display their stance by sitting back in a relaxed manner, glancing at the each of the participants for their reaction and subtly nodding in agreement. The C people are the wildcards, they may or may not agree with what is being said but tend to keep it within themselves until the conversation has ended before approaching the speaker. During the conversation, they will seem distracted, looking at their food, but in reality are deeply engrossed in processing and scrutinizing the information that they have received. This can be observed from a blank expression and eyes that glance upwards occasionally.


The principle or group dynamics could be the primary reason to their cohesion, like a set of well-oiled cogs, each strength is appreciated and every weakness covered.

[Update]
Read and commented:
Cheng Wei
Wan Ling
Wei Kai

1 comment:

  1. Hi Chyi Yang,

    I like the way you describe every single non verbal action that the DISC personality will show. Generally I agree with every single small details that you have placed in your blog post. I do agree that each strength compliments one another in the area of conversation.

    ReplyDelete