Body language and in particular facial expressions are incredibly important when delivering criticism. We all know that we respond strongly to someone’s facial expression and always try to get more meaning from it to complement what it has been said. This is how we find out if someone is sincere or deceptive. There is another side to facial expressions. Research shows that holding a specific facial expression makes you emotionally feel that way. Even more, you may unconsciously react to your own facial expression which means you may not realise why you are feeling in a certain way. This is a subtle point as it shows how important it is to smile, make a confident expression, keep your head up and simply refuse to adopt any negative expression when you want to feel positive.

In contrast, if you want to feel angry or sad, you can act out that expression and the feeling will simply follow it, in other words you will end up feeling angry or sad.

This is applicable to all emotions so once again you can turn this phenomenon on its head and exploit it. Use laughter to make yourself and others feel a lot better. Research shows that laughter helps us becoming elated and hence far more creative. People in a happy mood can solve more problems than those who are stressed, feel resentment or are simply depressed and bored. 

Another interesting piece of research shed light on the physiological aspects of emotions. When you become emotionally angry, the body immediately goes into a different state. Your heart rate will jump up by 10 to 12 beats per minute. Adrenaline pumps in, your breathing becomes slower and heavier and of course you will adapt the facial expression of anger, all happening in less than a heartbeat! This suggests that we do not think much about an event, decide what it means and logically end up in an angry state. It is all controlled through a different pathway in the brain (called amygdala) and upon receiving external sensory information it is interpreted as a particular emotion and direct commands are sent to various organs including the heart.

What makes this even more interesting is the research carried out by Paul Ekman. He measured the heart rate of people who were not angry but only adopted the expression of anger. Their heart rate jumped up by 10 to 12 beats on average! This is true even if you were not angry at all. Angry or not, by acting out an angry expression, the same signals are sent to amygdala and subsequently the same commands are distributed throughout the body.

The implications of this research are quite profound. By making an expression, not only you may emotionally feel different, but the brain is so sensitive to such signals that you are also physiologically affected. Equally well, when you see an angry face, you may instinctively respond by going into the same state, not because you are angry but because you are imitating the other person unconsciously. Of course, you may then end up angry as a result.

Your facial expressions have the same effect on other people. This can be problematic especially if you are not aware of your own expressions. A good example is when you are sad or deep in thought. You may not realise that you have the expression of a sad person on your face and might be wondering why everyone is avoiding you or talking in a depressed way. They may simply be imitating what you are showing, almost unconsciously, and you might just be wondering what is wrong with the world getting even more depressed! Fortunately, it is easy to break the cycle; smile!

The conclusion is that you need to pay attention to your body language and your facial expression when dealing with other team members. It is of considerable importance to pay attention to your expression when delivering sensitive information to make sure it does not lead to any misunderstandings.