One of the most powerful and insightful speakers that I've had the opportunity to hear in the past decade is Joe Navarro. He's the author of What Every Body Is Saying (and a lot of other books too) and a 25 year veteran of the FBI as a counterintelligence special agent.

I contacted Joe and asked him if he'd share some of his expertise with you as readers of the HireBetter Blog so that you can be more effective interviewers. He was very generous with his time and the tips he shared are SO GOOD that I've decided to make a short 4-part series out of the information.

We started our conversation at a high level and that's what this post will focus on. In the forthcoming blog entries I'll dig in further around certain actions that a Candidate might take that will give you clues that you can use in your evaluation process. Enjoy!

[JDavis]: There are a lot of studies out there that suggest that Body Language is the most significant aspect of our communication. However, they all seem to say something different. What percentage of what someone is saying is their Body Language versus their Tonality and the actual Words?

The simple answer: no one really knows. Body Language is clearly the most powerful and significant of the 3 you've mentioned but here are some examples of how it can differ:

• If you’re on a date and you’re sitting there 'googley-eyed' at your new lover, body language can be 98% or even more of what you're saying
• Political Events, whether debates of press events or even just stump speeches are often scripted and very orchestrated. Even with this, very few people ever remember what someone said during the debate or speech. Yet, if I simply asked you if you remembered "The Wink" most people will immediately remember Sarah Palin.
• If someone you're talking with is describing something technical or mathematical, body language accounts for very little of what they're saying.

[JDavis]: Then what proof do you have that Body Language means anything at all?

When we look at studies of blind children talking with other blind children, they still use ALL of the same body language as people who have the gift of sight. A prime example: they even cover their eyes when they hear something they don’t like yet they’ve never SEEN other people using these behaviors before!

[JDavis]: After all of your years in counterintelligence, can you tell if someone is lying to you?

With all of the TV Shows and Police Movies that are out there today, you'd think it was possible, right? In my experience NO, I can't tell if someone is lying or not. In fact, in 1986 Paul Ekman went out and tried to figure out if people really could “Detect Liars”. He found that the very best people were only as good as a coin flip.

To follow that up, in 2004 Maureen O’Sullivan completed an exhaustive study by looking at 14,000 Police Officers, Detectives, Judges, Psychologists (all people who you'd think, because of their training, that they would be better than average at this skill).

The results? Only 33 people (0.2%) were good enough at detecting someone who was lying to receive a grade of "above random chance” (meaning they could do it at least 66% of the time).

Police Officers and others in Law Enforcement often think that they’re expert at detecting deception. What we learned was that the people they were observing or questioning were nervous from being interrogated and the
stress that they were experiencing resulted in “tells” that the police officers were interpreting as deception.

In upcoming posts I'll share Joe's tips on how you can keep your eyes open for "tells", what the actions of the feet, hands, face and shoulders mean and what you should do if the countenance of a Candidate suddenly
changes. I look forward to sharing these with you and hearing your thoughts.

For twenty-five years, Joe Navarro was an FBI counterintelligence special agent and supervisor specializing in nonverbal communications. A
frequent lecturer, he serves on the adjunct faculty at Saint Leo University and the FBI. You can learn more about Joe through his website or by following him on Twitter.