When we are talking to others - either face-to-face, or from front of room, our posture, gestures, eye movements and general demeanor communicate far more than our words.

It is said that women interpret up to 80% of meaning of a conversation by non-verbal means. Men fall a bit behind and 'only' rely on non-verbal clues for about 30%. However, in either case, if you are unconsciously giving out wrong signals, meaning behind your intended message will be weakened or lost.

Body language is a vast, fascinating subject, but from a business point of view, there are several pointers that can help to strengthen your message. The aim is to match your audience's unconscious template of what makes a person trustworthy and believable.

Try out these five tips and see if they help you:

1. Personal space. Everybody has a personal space threshold. Generally, Americans and Northern Europeans prefer to stand about a meter (3 feet) apart. People from Southern European and Asian countries are comfortable a little closer. Folks who live in rural areas like a little more space. Social situations allow closer proximities than non-social.

Be aware if person you are talking to is backing up, and try not to intrude on their territory. Otherwise reaction will be defensive or hostile.

2. Eye movements. Many people are nervous about making eye contact - it is vital to overcome that fear if you want to be respected and believed. An evasive or indirect gaze sends out a strong signal of untrustworthiness.

When speaking to a room full of people, it is essential that you allow yourself to make - and maintain for a few seconds - eye contact with everyone in room, over and over.

++++++++++ True Story ++++++++++

I was recently invited to America to give a presentation to about forty business people, few of them known to me. The meeting went well and I made as much eye contact as possible. Afterwards, a guy who had been sitting off to my left came up to me and thanked me for a useful and entertaining talk. Then he said something strange: he apologized for offending me.

Puzzled, I assured him that it wasn't so, and asked why he thought so. This is what he said:

"Oh, I had a very late night last night, and after you had been talking for twenty minutes or so, I couldn't help myself yawn. After that, you didn't make any eye contact with me for rest of session, so I figured I'd upset you."

The truth was, I hadn't seen yawn. He had been sitting just outside my comfortable visual area, and I had been concentrating on eyeballing everyone else in room so hard, that I had missed him out.

I gave him a lot of attention he went away happy. But I couldn't help think that that guy might have been most important person in room and I could have blown whole trip with that stupid act of inattention.

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3. Appearance. It seems old-fashioned to talk about need to be 'well turned out', but axiom that 'you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression' is as true today as ever.

The person who tries to do it all alone will probably die trying with their business soon following. Nobody is so wise that they cannot learn or be too strong to need help.

Quick Look in Mirror: Are you Mr. (Ms or Mrs.) Know-It-All who thinks that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself? If so, no better time than present to start changing that false mirror image that you are using to so cleverly fool yourself.

A successful leader must create a Staff. Just as Captain Kirk, had Spock, McCoy and rest, so does a good business owner need his or her counselors and advisers. Every General has their Colonels. Every Colonel has their Captains and so on. No officer is left completely on their own. This is one of few wise rules of war. Every employer should have his or her own support group of competent helpers.