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We are going to begin the process of learning how to read others as well as ourselves. All
emotion is expressed through the theater of facial expressions.So it would be the first place to look if you are attempting
to discover if someone is being honest with you. Keep in mind that people try very hard to control their emotions. However
it is almost impossible to completely cover everything - especially the facial expressions. Below is one of the best articles
I have read describing this phenomena.
Learning how to accurately
interpret facial expressions isn't easy, but it can make you a more effective leader. (Or in
this case more effective reader of facial language.) Eric Goldfarb
knows that tuning into body language and facial expressions can indicate the thoughts and feelings that remain unspoken. He
also knows how difficult those nonverbal cues can be to interpret. During a budget meeting with a direct report while working
for Global Knowledge, Goldfarb noticed that his vice president kept toying with her necklace. He thought this mannerism was
an indication of her discomfort with the financial target he was proposing. He also noticed her eyes and thought they expressed
worry over the budget target. He repeatedly asked her during the meeting if she thought she could meet the budget, and even
though she consistently answered yes, Goldfarb didn't believe her. So he scheduled a follow-up meeting with her to dig deeper.
She ended up meeting the target without a problem, and Goldfarb realized that he wasted his and her precious time by scheduling
the follow-up meeting and by dragging out the first one with repetitive questions. What could Goldfarb have done differently
to more accurately size up his vice president?
This link will begin the process of you learning to become aware of other's facial expressions. As Tomkin's explained
our emotional world is expressed through our faces.
Goldfarb,
now the CIO of auditing firm PRG-Schultz International, was astute to tune into her body language and facial expressions.
However, because body language can be misleading and because facial expressions can be hard to read if you're not practiced
at it, Goldfarb needed to more pointedly probe his direct report. Instead of continually asking her, "Are you comfortable?"
he might have said, "It's really important for me to have your buy-in on this target. I don't mean to pry but I just
want to know if the discomfort you appear to be showing is a result of this budget target or something else. If it's the target,
we can work something out." Had Goldfarb taken this tack, he wouldn't have had to worry that his incessant questioning
sent a message to this individual—one of his key lieutenants—that he didn't trust her, or that he temporarily
lost some credibility in her eyes. Accurately interpreting the meanings of nonverbal communications, especially facial expressions,
can make CIOs more effective leaders and managers, says Paul Ekman, noted psychologist and author of Emotions Revealed: Recognizing
Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. Reading facial expressions is a particularly useful skill
for business executives because, so often in business settings, people don't say what they really think. If CIOs could recognize
how different emotions manifest themselves on the face, they'd be able to discern much more quickly, for example, when an
individual is starting to get angry. They'd also be able to identify when people are trying to conceal their emotions—such
as fear, contempt, disgust or surprise. This knowledge and ability can make CIOs more aware of unspoken political tensions
in board or executive committee meetings. It also better equips them to handle sensitive staffing situations such as performance
reviews. Ekman points to research indicating that managers who seem responsive to the unspoken emotions of their staffs are
more successful in the workplace than managers who don't.
"So
much of our job [as CIOs] is spent selling things—ideas, budgets, influence. Becoming sensitive to the meanings of facial
expressions, while tricky, is a way to find out very quickly who's allied with you and who might be angry with something you
said," says Goldfarb.
To find out how good you are at interpreting facial expressions, try our quizzes, "How
Well Can You Read a Face?". (The quiz online is tougher and more scientific, partly because it gives the reader a very
short time to read an expression, just as in real life.) If you want to know whether or not the smile the CEO is giving you
is sincere or whether the CFO is contemptuous of you when you make a proposal, keep reading. The truth in facial expressions While facial expressions
can be hard to decipher because they're fleeting (lasting anywhere from less than one-half of a second to three seconds) and
because people often try to conceal them, they are in fact the clearest indicator of what someone is feeling, says Ekman.
"The
face is the only system that will tell us the specific emotion that's occurring," he says. That's because each emotion
has unique, identifiable signals in the face. Emotions manifest themselves in facial expressions because, says Ekman, it became
useful over the course of human evolution to let others know when we sense danger. Facial expressions have since become automatic.
Because each emotion has unique signals in the face, facial expressions are more reliable indicators of a person's emotional
state than body language.
Ekman says you can learn the fundamentals of reading facial expressions in about an hour using
an interactive CD-ROM he has put together that's available on his website, www.paulekman.com. You can also learn to read facial
expressions in others by getting to know how emotions appear on your own face. Ekman advises individuals to look in a mirror
and remember a personal experience that made them angry, sad, fearful or disgusted so that they can see how their expression
changes as the emotion washes over them. This exercise will help you recognize muscle movements that are the clearest indicators
of a particular emotion.
Studying the photos of different facial expressions in Emotions Revealed will further help you
learn to distinguish the emotions. Captions under each photo describe the muscle movements in the face that distinguish a
sincere smile from an insincere smile, and that signal sadness, anger, surprise, fear, contempt or disgust. By studying these
photos and captions, you'll learn which facial movements are the clearest indicators of a particular emotion. You'll also
learn that if the boss doesn't contract the muscles around his eyes when he smiles at you, he's just being polite.
Use your knowledge Once you've learned to automatically and accurately recognize the meanings of different facial
expressions, you can decide whether and how to act on the information you obtain from reading faces.
For example, if you pick up on signs of anger (thinned lips, lowered eyebrows,
and raised upper eyelids) when telling a staff member that she did not get a promotion, and if you care about the staff member
and want to see her advance, Ekman suggests that you might say to her, "I know that was bad news and I expect it was
disappointing. I had the impression you were upset and wondered if it would help to talk about it," or simply, "I
would be glad to talk to you now or at a later time about how you feel about it." Ekman cautions against asking a person
in this situation if she is angry because it opens the CIO up to an attack.
If the staff member shows fear (raised upper
eyelids, tensed lower eyelids, with eyebrows raised and drawn together), Ekman says her expression may suggest that she is
concerned about her future. Ekman advises supervisors to reassure the person about her standing in the company if it's not
at risk, or to discuss the areas in which the individual needs to improve.
Ekman says that, while studying facial expressions,
it's important to keep in mind that they do not reveal what is generating the emotion, only that the emotion is occurring.
Yet, he continues, "If we are sensitive to the expressions of another person, then we know what impact we're having on
them and what emotion they might be trying to conceal." In other words, we're a lot better off when we pay attention
to and know how to assess these cues than when we're oblivious to them.
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