When in Rome

In Cameroon I had the rare honour to be introduced to the Fon of Bafut (A Fon is the "King" of the area and Bafut is the largest of the three provinces in Cameroon). Prior to the meeting I was given explicit instructions not to shake his hand and what to do with my own hands instead. Our friend who had arranged the meeting, was his son.

I was told that the proper use of the hands when speaking to the Fon is in front of your mouth with your eyes cast down to the floor, and when the Fon is speaking the hands should keep up a quiet clapping motion in front of the body. It was felt, however that I may get this wrong which would be a terrible insult, so when (if) the Fon addresses me I should keep my hands behind my back at all times, which I did. I also looked at him when he talked which was, apparently, not on, so my conversation with the Fon was quite short.

The psychology behind the position of the hands is, I guess, that the Fon is too important to care about your attitude when you are talking to him so you should lower your eyes and hold both hands over your mouth. This would effectively hide your body language and therefore a large part of the communication of your feelings. By clapping when the Fon is talking however you are indicating your approval of what he is saying. He is all powerful in the area anyway so I guess it doesn't matter what you feel, you have to approve.

This story serves to underline an important issue. When doing business with people of other cultures, it is not only important to learn some of their verbal language but also their body language. By not fully understanding the importance of averting my eyes, my conversation with the Fon was cut short. Under the circumstances this was not a problem but if I had been visiting the Fon to get his approval over some business matter, my mistake could have been catastrophic.

The lesson here is easy one. I was told what to do, and I simply did not realise the importance of this type of body language.In business we learn by training or experience how to use verbal and written language to communicate. Nobody would doubt the importance of these media in business communications, and without a good command of the appropriate language, business at anything but a basic level would be impossible.

To be really effective in business, however, it is essential that we learn the art of understanding body language, so that we can communicate well using our own gestures and understand others by reading theirs.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph