Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance

I purchased this because I saw it recommended by Adam Grant. Do not waste your money unless you are a complete novice in this area. If you have a modicum of experience, it is mostly fluff and not worth the time or money, especially in hardback.

Digital Body Language helped me understand the signals and cues I was unintentionally sending through my emails and texts. A lot of my work has been digital so this book is a great guide on understanding how to best communicate and collaborate digitally. It's also helped me properly address urgent requests in my messages in an effort to avoid creating any anxiety on the receiving end. I highly recommend this book!

This is the book for our times - it helped me and will help every reader prevent the enormous waste of time and emotional effort that happens from daily digital communication misunderstandings. Erica Dhawan has done exhaustive research and is a master at helping us understand these challenges in a helpful structured way. I nodded my head on every page - "Oh yes, I've experienced that!" The book provides practical strategies you and your team, your friends, and family can use to have smooth communication that helps you feel warm connections and get big things done.

So much of today's social interaction (via email, texts, tweets, and such) is devoid of all-important nonverbal visual signals. Digital Body Language highlights the risks this brings to our online communications, then shows how to present ourselves with tact, clarity, and effectiveness.Erica also provides great coaching on how to manage your visual presence online, as in Zoom calls or with Microsoft Teams. Neuroimaging studies show that your first crack at influencing others occurs in the initial 1/20th of a second of your encounter with another person. Your brain's mirror neurons fire off automatically and instantly shape the other person's response. Digital Body Language positions you to manage this critical mirroring that goes back and forth.Good book. Worth the money!

From punctuation (!!!) to response time to email sign-offs, our online actions broadcast emotions and meanings we may not intend.As workplaces become more hybrid and virtual, it’s more important than ever that we learn to master not only the words we use, but also the non-verbal signals we send. Whether you’re a digital native or a “digital adapter,” you’ll find solid advice about communicating more effectively at work—and in your personal life as well!

Reading Erica Dhawan’s insightful and practical new book about "digital body language" made me realize the extent to which we’re all pioneers in this area. We’re still exploring and settling into the digital communication frontier. It’s like the American Wild West from the 1840’s in cyberspace with “1” and “0”’s. We’ve been navigating trails without any clear rules of the road as well as working without set laws or even many guidelines. Plus, those who hold traditional positions of organizational power are often the novice digital cowhands, which can make matters more confusing.Dhawan’s new book can help us maneuver the digital terrain, improve working relationships, and reduce digital communication friction. In her book, Dhawan defines “digital body language,” explains what it means and provides four laws to follow – all helpful in settling the digital world.

This is the first time I had heard "digital body language" as a phrase or really a "thing" we all do. The author interweaves stories and examples all through the book which creates interest and entertainment at times and makes it easy to comprehend the concepts.This book is good for companies and teams, and also the individual. I am in sales and this got me thinking about how I interact with my clients and how to improve.This book will also enlighten areas of communication that may be a struggle between others and help you identify how to modify you behavior to improve to prevent further issues.

This book is a great read; it’s a worthy buy and it will inspire you to make the changes you want to see happen in your digital workplace. You will read several very entertaining stories about many people who have mastered or failed at digital body language and what to do differently moving forward. No matter what you get out of it, you won’t be disappointed. :)

“You see, these days, we don’t talk the talk or even walk the talk. We write the talk.”Roughly 70% of all communication among teams is virtual and 50% of the time the “tone” of our emails is misinterpreted. Non-verbal cues make up 60-80% of face-to face communication. Humans rely on body language to connect and build trust, but with most of our communication happening from behind a screen, traditional body language signals are no longer visible.This is where Digital Body Language becomes important. Signs that were implicit when communicating in the physical world have to now be made explicit by tailoring the communication we send out.This book, supported by case stories, presents strategies to enhance your digital body language, thereby strengthening your communication. An important aspect it covers is the differences in Digital Body Language across gender, generation and culture. What is normal to one, may not be to another which often creates biases.In the new modern workplace not limited to offices, or communication mediums not limited to email, physical and digital body language are inseparable.Providing a better understanding of how digital body language can help build trust and authenticity, this book will transform the way you connect by allowing you to build stronger relationships, be it in your professional space or in your personal relationships.For complete review, visit aquamarineflavours.wordpress.com

This is a well-organised, lucidly written book about how to communicate using a digital device such as email and WhatsApp. The advice is sound although some may think that they are just common-sense advice. It is, but take it as a refresher course or as a primer. We spend (according to surveys) about two hours a day on social media. If we are careless in our writing, we offend friends. If we are careless with our colleagues, they (and our bosses) may misunderstand us and the working relationship may be eroded. What is important and enlightening is that different generations have dissimilar writing practices. The ellipsis is a passive-aggressive punctuation mark and is preferred by older generations (who do not use exclamation marks much). The two broad categories of digital users are the native and the adapter users. Native users are more informal in their writing style whereas the adapter generation (age 35 and above) tend to be more formal. It has commonly-used phrases and their passive-aggressive undertones. For example, ‘Going forward’ carries the implied warning, ‘Don’t ever do this again’. Some of the book’s best advice is about taking time to read incoming messages, taking time to reply, and writing well is a mark of empathy. As to taking time to reply, the author discusses the different situations and what counts as a reasonable time in each.

I ordered this book on the same day it was released and finished in 3 hours!What captured me right away, other than Erica's personal story, which is very much related to mine, is the question, "How do we show appreciation nowadays?" Nowadays, there are so many talks around increasing productivity working from home, but nobody really asks how we can appreciate those who we are working with: nobody but Erica.In her work, Erica dug deeply into our collaboration by texts and emails, and I found myself in some examples. I also tried to keep my emails short not to waste people's time and know that English is not my first language, but the others found them dry and unfriendly.I think it becomes a drama of the 21st century being misinterpreted more than 50% of the time (Erica provided researches on that) communicating digitally. So, I highly recommend this book to read to bring our collaboration and relationships to the next level!

The author explains how we can improve our communications skills. She shared stories that make us think in all the times we were not understood or we had offended someone. She did that buy sharing her vulnerability and make us feel normal and dive in this book that can save your job, your (and your colleagues’) mental health.