Communication Strategies

Communication is an essential component of not only human life, but also animal life. Not even the most introverted or unsociable people can live normally without interacting and communicating with other human beings and elements of their immediate environments. Human beings unless dumb, deaf, or both- combine verbal and non-verbal codes of communication to pass messages. Communication experts argue that non-verbal communication codes carry more weight than words.

Researchers believe that up to 80 percent of communication is non-verbal.  Others actually argue that non-verbal communication makes up to 93 percent of all communication, meaning that verbal communication, though very important, comprises only a small fraction of all communication (Wilson, 2008). Important non-verbal communication elements include manner of dressing, the distance between the speaker and members of the audience, and body language signals which are indicated by eye contact, smiles, positioning of limbs and the head, fidgeting, and speakers movements during the presentation (Wilson, 2008). Speakers who maintain a healthy balance in their use of both verbal and non-verbal communication codes come across as better and more effective speakers. On the contrary, the absence or misuse of non-verbal communication codes renders speakers ineffective, even though such speakers may be intelligent and professional, and have a very important message to communicate. Not surprisingly, speakers who realize that they have problems when speaking in public invest in training to better their communication skills (Earls, 2004).
The manner in which a public speaker dresses makes an important contribution to the speakers message. A public speaker must always take into consideration the kind of event and audience the speaker addresses. When addressing professionals in a professional forum, smart and official dressing give the speaker a sense of authority and confidence, thereby earning the attention and respect of the audience relatively more easily. For instance, a smartly dressed professor delivering a speech to a group of students or fellow professors would appear more competent than a shabbily dressed one.
Dressing can also communicate the imbalance of power or authority between the speaker and the audience. Speakers dressed in expensive and smart attire come across as possessing more power than members of the audience. Business executives or lawyers who are meeting their clients need to bear an image of power in order to win and retain the confidence of their clients. They are therefore more likely to wear expensive attire and to carry expensive briefcases, notebooks, wristwatches and pens. This executive image is ideally meant to create a sense of inequality in favour of the business executive or lawyer.

Not all situations require that speakers dress in official attire. Relaxed or casual wear can enforce the speakers message more strongly if the environment or situation is relaxed. Suits and ties, however smart and expensive, make the speakers appear stiff and domineering and may intimidate the audience. For instance, Waller-Wise (2007) argues that a uniformed child-birth educator may influence child-birth class participants confuse the educator with a nurse. This confusion may result in the class participants taking the role of the sick instead of the learners. An intimidated audience may be unwilling to give the speaker feedback particularly in the form of questions or criticisms. This implies that the wrong dressing style has the potential of influencing members of the audience to behave in a certain way, whether desired or undesired.