The eyes have it

A while back, I came across an interesting article on Medium, in which Warren Buffett’s business partner Charlie Munger tells a story about the two types of knowledge.

The premise to the story is that there are two types of “knowledge” 1) real knowledge and 2) surface knowledge, and the challenge in life is figuring out the difference between people who know and people who pretend to know.

In the early seventies, Dr Albert Mehrabian published a seminal work on non-verbal clues which has become known as the 7%-38%-55% rule. What this states is that when an individual is speaking, the listener focusses on the following three types of communication:

1. Actual words — 7%
2. The way the words are delivered (tone, emphasis on words, etc) — 38%
3. Facial expressions — 55%

Many years ago I developed an interest in body language and emotional behaviours and read several books on the subject — back in the early 2000’s this was the hot topic, with best selling books such as ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ and ‘Why men don’t listen and women can’t read maps’. These are great reads and provided me with a useful springboard for developing my interests in this area of human behaviour.

As a result of practice and learning, I believe that I have become an astute observer of people through the development of my awareness of the signals that people give out.

One of the things that I have really noticed is that if people are truly passionate and knowledgeable about something, it is reflected in their eyes, and it is from this that you really get to learn most about someone.

There is an old proverb that states “the eyes are the window of the soul”

Now that I am back in the UK, I have been attending some local professional job clubs — these clubs offer assistance from expert volunteers who help with skills to get back into work. It is really interesting to observe people making their personal sales pitches (or TMAY as it is known), and for me, interesting to see differences between those who really believe in themselves and those who are mechanical and maybe don’t quite believe — and it all shows up straight away in the body language and the eyes. Back to Charlie…. we can all learn words and repeat them like a recording, giving an impression of knowledge, but I think that if people only have surface knowledge, they lack the passion and this is the giveaway.

A great example for me is one of my friends, Ron, who is a passionate sailor and adventurer and when he talks about sailing, straight away it is clear that he is truly passionate and has real knowledge about what he does as this is reflected according to Dr Mehrabian’s theory. It is amazing to see as his eyes really twinkle with the knowledge and passion that makes me want to listen and learn.

My conclusion, based on personal observation, is that it is really important to be honest and authentic as a person, so that those that you interact with really receive (and believe) 100% of your message.

Are you really truly passionate and knowledgeable about what you do, or is your body giving you away?

I firmly believe that honesty and authenticity leads to credibility. Try faking it and astute observers will see right through you…

I first published this article on LinkedIn on October 14, 2016