Body language speaks much more succinctly and honestly than mere spoken words. – Dixie Waters
“What does body language have to do with presentations?” Thinking this, most presenters just focus on the big picture, i.e., placement of text and design of slides, completely overlooking the importance of non-verbal cues. If you are also one of those speakers who hold a similar notion, this blog post is for you!
Body language is powerful, and how you use it makes all the difference between a downright disaster and a successful presentation. Your movements, facial expressions, and gestures reveal the true story behind your verbal words and say a lot about who you are. By working on the tiniest details, such as eye contact and posture, you can add an extra layer of persuasion, conviction, and clarity to your pitch and make a big impact on your audience.
Did you know? Body language and non-verbal signals are older than language itself, and their use dates back to prehistory and pre-language times when we didn’t know about verbal communication.
Body Language Hacks You Must Know
1. Use Eye Contact Wisely Without Being Creepy
Appropriate eye contact is the key to converting your talk into a conversation and passive listeners to active participants. Moreover, you can create a strong bond with your audience, improve your rapport with them, and understand their response to your message by making meaningful eye contact with them.
Tips on improving eye contact:
- Don’t look aggressively or gaze at the audience as it can make them feel uncomfortable.
- Maintain positive eye contact with an audience member for only 4-5 seconds and then shift towards another member.
- Understand the meaning of eye contact in different cultures.
- Do practice to improve your eye contact skills.
Example: Watch the Ted Talk by Jessica Leavitt on “Eye contact has the potential to change your life” to learn about the importance of eye contact.
2. Vary Your Vocalics to Drive Engagement
The volume, tone, fluency, intensity, rhythm, and pitch of your voice plays an important role in engaging the audience in your conversation. Using the power of your voice appropriately, you can inspire, provoke, motivate, and comfort your viewers.
Here are a few tips to win your presentation with your vocal expression:
- Have an appealing and authoritative voice tone.
- Expand your breath capacity through exercises to have better vocalics.
- Vary the pitch of your voice to help your audience grab the key points and remember them for longer.
- Bring variations in the pace of your voice – speed up the pace when introducing a topic, and slow down when you talk about an important concept.
- Take pause wherever required. It will help your audience grab what you said and interpret it rightly.
Example: Watch the Ted Talk by Janina Heron on “Connect and inspire using your tone of voice,” and learn more about how you can enrich your presentation with your voice.
3. Maximize the Effectiveness with Your Facial Expression
You can win the hearts of your audience members if you know the art of using your facial expression effectively while speaking. Your facial expression makes it easy for the audience to decode your emotions, feelings, and attitudes behind your message.
Here are a few tips for leveraging facial expressions to your advantage:
- Keep your facial expressions authentic and supportive of your message.
- Smile naturally when needed. A permanent smile looks complacent, debilitating, and artificial.
- Don’t keep your jaws tensed, as it may give an impression that you are aggressive and angry.
- Touching your chin, mouth, or nose during a presentation is perceived as a sign of nervousness by your audience. So, avoid it.
- Adjust your facial expressions by observing your audience’s facial expressions.
Example: Want to get more insights? Watch this talk on “Are there universal expressions of emotion?” by Spohie Zadeh!
4. Add the Extra “Oomph” with Your Hand Gestures
Assume a scenario – you are attending a presentation, and the speaker is just spitting out words to finish the story without any gesture or movement. Will you be able to connect to his words?
Hand movement is crucial to draw the attention of the audience to certain points of speech and strengthen your core message. Effective gestures help the audience understand the flow of information and build trust.
Let’s have a look at some do’s and dont’s:
- Be purposeful with your gestures and use them in a meaningful way.
- Keep your hand gestures natural; too robotic gestures can mess up your speech.
- Your gestures must not be too jazzy or too stiff; they must be responsive and expressive.
- Sync your gestures with your core message.
Example: Watch Ted Talk on “It’s in Your Hands: The Power of Body Language” by Tal Millet. In this talk, he has provided a few tips to enhance your first impression through your hand gestures.
5. Project Your Confidence and Passion with Your Posture
“A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.” – Morihei Ueshiba
No matter how engaging your content is, if it is not presented with power poses, it will not be received as intended by the audience. By adopting the right posture while delivering your speech, you can reflect your persona and change the perceptions of the audience about you.
Here are a few tips:
- Stand tall with your shoulders back; avoid slouching.
- Straighten your body without exaggerating your height and puffing your chest.
- Don’t put your hands in your pocket.
- Avoid folding your arms across your body.
- Refrain from crossing your legs and leaning against a wall
Example: Watch Amy Cuddy’s talk to know how power posing helped shape her life.
The Inference
Having control over your words while talking to the public is not sufficient for a successful presentation; you must also have control over the messages you convey nonverbally through your body language. Remember, your body language must be in conformity with what you are saying. So, instead of rushing to get your presentations “done” without paying heed to body language, be proactive and learn how you can use your expressions and gestures to your advantage.
Do you have some insights to add more value to this blog post? We would like to hear from you! Leave your response in the comment section.
