Body Language At Work: Read the signs and make the right moves
Peter Clayton
Publisher: Hamlyn
ISBN: 0600608026
Price: £12
Body language skills are essential if you want to avoid offence while travelling. In Islamic countries, you should use only your right hand while eating and presenting gifts; the left hand is used solely for hygiene purposes. Meanwhile, in Hungary, men should not offer to shake hands with women unless invited.
However, as Peter Clayton demonstrates, body language can be just important between people of the same culture, especially if one gets it badly wrong. His comprehensive, well-illustrated guide covers foreign faux pas and the less obvious, but equally damaging, mistakes we make in everyday business situations in the UK.
Clayton explains that you can ruin a deal by standing too close to someone and can blow your credibility as a manager by using the wrong body language with your staff. He includes sections on how individuals can pitch successfully to small groups and how seating plans can make a difference to sales. And everyone should be familiar with his advice in the section entitled “How to lie well”.