Command Attention with Your Body Language
MANY OF NORMA'S BRILLIANT IDEAS went unheard during the business presentation to the company’s international stakeholders. Her body language was stealing attention from her content.
As she spoke, she paced relentlessly from side to side. While she wore a groove in the floor, her arms hung lifelessly at her sides.
INJECTING FLAIR
Many speakers understand that using physical movements and hand gestures to underscore a point or to call attention to something can add panache to speech delivery.
But often, they go awry when they try to support their talks and presentations with these nonverbal delivery skills.
Knowing how to use gestures and physical movements is particularly important for higher-level professionals.
Not only do they need to convey the nuances of policies and ideas, but they must do it across all levels of the hierarchy and even across cultures while communicating globally.
But it must come from the heart.
Audiences can tell when physical movements are artificial.
Here’s a look at the do’s and don’ts of gestures and physical movements in speaking.
GESTURES
Some typical problems:
- Sending a fuzzy or wrong message
- Overdoing it so the gestures become predictable and distracting
- Underdoing it so the talk gets no help to keep it from becoming pedestrian
The cause of these faux pas? Usually, it’s nerves.
What you don’t want is for gestures born of anxiety to become more interesting to the audience than the speech. So follow these tips:
- Use gestures purposefully to punctuate or illustrate your talk.
- Develop a vocabulary of gestures. For example, to highlight an important point, have your two palms facing inward, fingers and thumbs extended (or do the same thing with one hand, keeping other at your side).
- However, remember that perceptions vary among people, and gestures can get unintended interpretations
- Be clear. Does your gesture truly support or reinforce your words?
- Learn to tell when you’re producing gestures out of anxiety – and stop them from distorting your message
- If you use too many gestures, practice speaking while sitting on your hands or keeping them in your pockets. Or try speaking with just one hand in your pocket.
PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS
Many people need liberation from standing stock still. However, others need to be reminded not to walk restlessly from side to side or back and forth.
Again, you don’t want to become more interesting than the presentation by indulging in physical movements that are anxiety-driven. Nor do you want to induce boredom by standing still.
- See the speaking area as an inverted triangle with you at the apex. Strive to share yourself with different areas of the audience by naturally moving to each point of the triangle. A good time to do this would be as you finish one major section and begin another.
- But also use the technique of stopping in your tracks to underscore a particularly dramatic point of your delivery.
- Be sure to share eye contact generously. If you find it distracting to look directly into people’s eyes, then look just above their eyes at their foreheads – from a distance you will appear to be looking them squarely in the eyes.
- While you’re finding your feet, it’s OK to pick out one person and look directly into their eyes (or at their forehead).
- Be mindful of the potential of lecterns or podiums to block your interaction with the crowd. Unless you need to stand behind the lectern because of a microphone, come out from behind it and interact with the crowd.
- Avoid gripping the sides or top of it tightly with your hands – doing so adds tension to your body that will be visible to audience members.
- Always strive to look presentable through good grooming and an overall tidy appearance. This shows you respect for the audience, the situation and yourself. But dress appropriately for the audience you are speaking to, given the occasion and the forum.
- To make an impact, you want to come out with your shoulders back, head held high, projecting an air of majesty.
EXUDE CONFIDENCE
You'll ensure you'll have natural physical movements on the speaking stage by preparing to feel confident.
Avoid reciting rehearsed scripts. Unless you need to give a speech where every word has to be authorized, it’s better to use key words – core words and phrases that speak to you emotionally.
That will allow you to speak as if fresh ideas and words are occurring to you spontaneously. The more relaxed you feel, the easier it will be for you to have natural-looking body language when you address the crowd.
Remember, the sole purpose of your physical movements is to underscore or punctuate the content of your talk.
You can learn more about how to build a vocabulary of physical movements and hand gestures by going to michaelbarris.com/mini-course and subscribing to a free public speaking series based on Michael's bestselling book, “How to Become a Super Speaker: The 7 Principles for Speaking with Confidence and Connecting with Audiences.”
You will receive tips, strategies and take-action homework assignments to guide you toward becoming an empowered speaker who knows how to communicate with more than your words alone.
Like a dot over an i, when you've got your gestures and physical movements working together with your utterances, the impact can be powerful.
And make your talk unforgettable.
BELOW: Three examples of using gestures to punctuate speech. (Left) Inviting: “Won't you join me?” (Center) Emphasis: “Let me be perfectly clear.” (Right) Summing up: “The evidence shows conclusively that…”
MICHAEL BARRIS
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Michael Barris is the consummate evangelist for speaking better to be your best and create an impact with your career.
He is a transformational public speaking coach and speaker who has a background as a former adjunct professor of public speaking and expository writing at Rutgers University.
He also is the author of "How to Become a Super Speaker: The 7 Principles for Speaking with Confidence and Connecting with Audiences."
A longtime journalist, he worked for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, producing articles on many of the world’s biggest financial and business news stories.
In total, he has produced over 3, 500 print articles over his journalism career, including more than 300 for the Wall Street Journal, and countless more published online.
Learn more about Michael and his work at michaelbarris.com
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