When you’re preparing a presentation or a speech, how much time do you spend working on what you’re going to say vs. how you’re going to say it? Too often, we spend so much time focusing on the content (researching the topic, collecting and organizing information, building PowerPoint slides, etc.) that we forget about our most effective communication tool – our body language!
Research by Professor Albert Mehrabian suggests that communicating effectively with our audience and leaving a lasting impression is not done through our words (content) – it’s done with our bodies. Mehrabian’s studies found that body language conveys a whopping 55% of the total impact of a message! Words alone convey a measly 7% of the impact. The remaining 38% is conveyed through vocal tone and inflection (Mehrabian & Wiener, 1967 and Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967.)
Today we’ll focus on making the most of that 55%. Read on to learn how to use your body to maximize the impact of your presentation.
Your Face
Your face is vital to communication. First and foremost, make eye contact with your audience. Don’t look down at the floor or off into space. And don’t gaze over the audience as a whole – make eye contact with individual audience members. Eye contact helps you bond with your audience, and it tells them that you are a confident speaker (a lack of eye contact is a dead giveaway for a nervous speaker).
Use facial expressions to make clear what you’re trying to express verbally. One way you can practice this is by delivering your speech silently to a mirror, forming the words with your mouth but without making any sound. Let your face do all of the communicating.
Remember to smile! Smiling will relax both you and your audience. But be careful not to overdo it. Watch that you don’t over-smile or even giggle because you are nervous. This will detract from the seriousness of your message.
Your Posture
You won’t command an audience if you’re standing in front of a room with your back curved and your shoulders slumped. Stand upright and tall, your feet firmly planted on the floor, and your weight equally distributed on both feet. But also remember to relax; rigid posture creates a bad impression and shows nervousness. Be calm and natural. Imagine that there’s a string attached to the top of your head and that someone is pulling on that string. Can you get taller without lifting your feet off the ground? If so, then you need to work on making sure your back is straight.
You are an expert on your subject and you want your audience to trust you, so you need to appear confident (even if you aren’t). Did you know that a lot of your confidence is portrayed through the placement of your chin? You don’t want it to be too high (arrogance), but you don’t want it to be too low either (lack of self-confidence). Grab a friend and practice – where do you need to hold your chin so that you look just the right level of confident?
Your Hands
You could keep your hands at your side, in your pockets, or behind your back – but why do that when you could use your hands to make your presentation more effective? Think about how you could use your hands to emphasize emotions or to convey the depth of your message. Look through your presentation and look for places where you could incorporate specific hand gestures. When you’re not gesturing, keep your hands in the “neutral position’ – hanging loosely at your sides.
If you point, don’t point with your finger. Instead, use an open palm (this looks more polite). And don’t fidget with your hands – be aware of what they are doing. If you are holding something, like a slide-controlling remote, be conscious of how you are holding it. You often see speakers unconsciously playing with what they’re holding and this can be distracting.
Movement
Think about how much of that 55% of body language communication you’ll be cutting off if you hide behind a podium, desk, or flipchart! Use all of the space you are given when you speak to an audience. The space is yours and you should claim it! Move around as topics change, and move toward the audience when asking questions, making connections, or sharing something particularly important. When you move, move with purpose. Nothing exudes confidence like a speaker who is comfortable in their own skin in front of an audience.
Identify Your Nervous Mannerisms
Nervous mannerisms are the nervous habits a speaker might have but isn’t aware of. These unconscious mannerisms can distract and annoy an audience, and they detract from a speaker’s perceived confidence level. Some examples of nervous mannerisms might be clasping and unclasping your hands, pacing back and forth, or using filler words like “um” and “uh” too often. Since you’re probably not aware of your nervous mannerisms, identify them by giving your speech into a mirror, to a friend, or by video-recording your speech and playing it back.
Here are some don’ts:
• Don’t play with your hair
• Don’t lean on one hip
• Don’t fold your arms
• Don’t cross your legs
• Don’t sway from side to side
• Don’t shift your weight from foot to foot (a lot of people do this unconsciously)
• Don’t fold your arms across your chest (this will most likely be interpreted as your closing yourself off from the audience)
My challenge to you this week is to focus on body language during your next presentation. Notice what you do with your body. How do you use it to make your presentation more effective? Try some of the techniques we talked about here today and tell us how it went and how you felt!
Remember that we are always here for you if you need help.
