Have you ever talked with someone about a communication miscue where it “wasn’t the message” but “how it was delivered?” If so, they had a point.  There’s a lot of research on the non-verbal aspects of communication. 

In a mid-70’s study, Harris and Osborne found:

• 7% of communication is through words
• 38% of communication is through voice, tone, rate, and inflection
• 55% of communication is through face and body language

In a more recent but similar study, Marie Dasborough, a professor at Rutgers, did research where one group of employees were given positive feedback with negative delivery (harsh tones, stern facial expressions, etc.) and a second group of employees were given negative feedback with positive delivery.  The first set of employees felt worse about their performance after receiving the feedback than the second group.

What does this mean as a leader?

We live in an email and texting world.  If there’s a difficult message or something that could be taken the wrong way, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation… with the corresponding (correct) delivery.