Cavalry Officers' Nonverbal Communication and its Relation to Perceived Leadership and Superior Performance.

The present paper focuses on how nonverbal communication elements are correlated with leadership behaviours of military junior leaders and how these constructs affect the superior performance of their followers. Our data show that the facial expression (smile) and the eye behaviour are the ones that have a positive and most pronounced correlation with the subordinate's perception of self-confidence, self-control, courage, empathy, and influence / reference of their commanders. The factors "extraordinary effort" and "satisfaction" are also positively related. On the contrary, gestures such as "crossed arms" and "point one's finger" have a negative correlation with the subordinate's perception of "selfconfidence", "self-control", "courage", "empathy", and "influence / reference" of their commanders. In this case, the factors "extraordinary effort" and "satisfaction" are also negatively related. We conclude that the use of certain gestures may contribute to a positive or negative perception of a commander by his followers thereby influencing their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]