When it comes to business interactions and leading a team, you’d think simple body language — such as eye contact or the crossing of arms — bears little significance, but the truth is these gestures can send a positive or negative message to employees.

There are two sets of signals a person gives off, said Carol Kinsey Goman, author of The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help — or Hurt — How You Lead. The first sets status and authority; the next gives off warmth and empathy.

The air of status and authority is given off by how people carry themselves, Kinsey Goman said. Details, such as a person’s height, may make them look more powerful. Leaders can typically convey warmth and empathy by using open hand signals, tilting their heads, nodding and making eye contact.

“There’s no good or bad body language signal; it depends on what your message is,” Kinsey Goman said. “Is your body language supporting or sabotaging that message?”

Kinsey Goman cited an instance of a presenter who she said had the crowd mesmerized. At the conclusion of his speech, he said, “And now I’m open for questions,” then crossed his arms and stared at the crowd. Not one person asked a question.

“No one in that audience said, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s crossed his arms, therefore I cannot think of a question,’” Kinsey Goman said. However, there must have been complete confusion in the audience’s brains.

If the speaker’s message was to invite questions, he needed to realize that crossing his arms sabotaged that message; however, he was oblivious to this contradictory movement.

Aileen Pincus, principal and CEO of the Pincus Group, a communications consulting firm, explained that her company is usually asked to help with delivery issues — seldom content issues — even though the two are intertwined.

“For instance, if you’re hesitant about something because you’re not sure what you’re saying is 100 percent accurate or whether you’re behind what you’re saying 100 percent, it’s going to show,” Pincus said. There are times when people who come in for training are put in positions where they must deliver information they don’t believe or are not confident about.