5. MEDIOCRE presenters rely on their slides.
They’ve got a nice bunch of animated slides to show,
but they don’t realize the most important visual is them.
As we said in the previous unit, how you say things
is more important than what you say.
Language of your body can help your audience
to understand what you say, or can make them fall asleep.
6. IF your facial expressions, gestures or general posture
contradict words that you utter, people will believe
the former. Even if you manage to convince them,
deep inside they will still feel, ‘There’s something wrong...’
7. THE tricky thing about body language is that people
are usually unaware of it. It’s just natural in everyday life.
But when presenting and thus nervous, it can be
far from natural. When presenters see themselves
on videotape, they're often surprised to see that
their body language had an entirely different message
from the one they had intended. For example,
some people actually shake their heads when they say ‘yes.’
11. Eye contact
WHEN you talk to people, you look them in the eye.
If you don’t, you give the impression of having something
to hide. People might think you’re dishonest,
or that you’re not interested in the conversation,
or that you’re ashamed.
That day, when you came from school with bad marks,
where were you looking as you told your parents about it?
Anywhere but their eyes, we guess.
12. Eye contact
AND where most of presenters look?
Oh, anywhere but their audience’s eyes.
Down at their notes, somewhere over people’s heads;
or they pan from one side to the other
without really looking at anybody.
Eventually, people won’t listen to them at all.
Little eye contact is a guaranteed way to lose
your connection with the audience.
13. Eye contact
ALWAYS keep eye contact with your audience.
You should be looking at their eyes 95 % of the time.
Not somewhere in the direction of the eyes —
but at the people. This way people will realize you are
actually talking to them, and thus will listen to what you say.
You, in turn, will see if people understand you, if they are
convinced or not. Are the members of the audience
approvingly nodding, or are they knitting their eyebrows
in confusion? Are they looking at you too, or are they
looking for their phone, with a bored look?
14. Eye contact
IF you are speaking to 3—7 people, this is fairly easy.
Look at one person, establish the eye contact,
talk for a while, then switch to another one, etc.
But if you’re speaking to a large audience
and it’s impossible to look at each member in the eyes,
use this technique. Choose five people sitting in different
parts of the audience, and while talking, look at them.
Thanks to the distance between you and audience,
all the people around each one of the five you’ve chosen
will think you are looking at them!
15. Eye contact
Here are a few more tips on eye contact.
1. Imagine that the person you’re looking at is the only person in the room.
For those few seconds you’re having a private conversation with just that person.
Not only will it make your talk more simple, it’ll also make you less nervous,
because you’ll no longer care about this whole big audience.
16. Eye contact
2. Keep your eyes up at the end. The most powerful time to have your eyes up
is at the end of a sentence. Unfortunately, it’s also the time when most presenters
drop their eyes down so that they can look at their notes. And the powerful
impact gets ruined. Discipline yourself to keep your eyes up till you’ve finished
your sentence.
17. Eye contact
3. Respect people. Some people in your audience may show that they’re
uncomfortable with eye connection by looking away. Respect that by spending
less eye connection time with them.
18. Eye contact
NOW, what reasons stop us from looking at the audience?
There are two main reasons:
1) you need to look at your notes,
2) you are nervous.
The first one is eliminated with practicing your speech
many times in advance. This way you’ll remember what
you have to say, and it will allow your eyes to be focused
on the audience. Most presenters don’t practice as much
as needed, though — and it shows.
19. Eye contact
AS for the second reason, nervousness, mostly it comes
from being unprepared as well. We talked about ways
to eliminate it in Unit 0. Try them and you’ll see
that the more you prepare and rehearse your talk,
the less nervous and the more confident you become.
20. Eye contact
ONE more important thing about notes.
You may read from your notes only if you need
to make a long and complex quotation.
Otherwise, never read. If you forgot the next thought,
make a pause, look at the notes, lift your eyes back up,
establish eye contact — and start speaking again.
21. Facial expressions and head movements
YOUR facial expressions must support
what you’re saying and not contradict with it.
Simple example: if you say, ‘It’s terrible’, and at the same
time smiling, it’s strange. People will think you’re ironical.
They won’t understand that it’s a nervous smile.
Another example: you’re saying, ‘It’s very, very important
for us,’ but your face is tired and shows no emotion.
What will your audience think? ‘Right, it’s so unimportant
that even the presenter doesn’t care about it.’
22. Facial expressions and head movements
NOD, smile, raise eyebrows, express different emotions
to reinforce your meaning and convince people.
Remember, when a mother is spoon-feeding her baby,
she herself is opening her mouth and grimacing as
if she’s eating. And that helps the baby realize what to do.
23. Facial expressions and head movements
BUT at the same time, don’t over-grimace —
you’re not a drama actor,
and you’re not spoon-feeding babies.
25. Hand movements
DO use your hands. Hand movements have the same
importance as facial expressions: they emphasize what
you say in words, express emotion. Have you seen
fishers telling you just how big their fish was?
26. Hand movements
MOST people have their own gestural vocabulary.
Anyone can think of a gesture that supports words
such as ‘short’ or ‘tall’, or how to emphasize a thought
(raise the index finger, for example).
27. Hand movements
BUT everyday gestures are often too small
to use in front of a large audience.
Presenters need to scale their gestures to the size
of the room. It doesn’t mean swinging your arms.
It means making sure your gesture can be seen
from another end of the room. That’s why
the most effective gestures arise from the shoulder,
not the wrist or elbow; and they look more energetic.
29. Hand movements
WHAT should you not do with your hands?
First, don’t hide your hands. Hiding hands looks
like you’re hiding something from the audience,
being dishonest.
In addition to that feeling of being dishonest,
keeping your hands behind your back, like a drill sergeant,
makes you look aggressive.
And keeping your hands in pockets,
you look like you’re bored with your speech yourself.
30. Hand movements
Second, don’t do ‘closed’ gestures. Closed gestures
mean there’s something between you and your audience,
something not letting them reach to you. Unconsciously
people feel that you’re ignorant and reserved.
These gestures are e.g. keeping your arms crossed;
holding your notes with both hands in front of you;
keeping your hands in a ‘preacher position’
(hands in front of you, fingers touching).
31. Hand movements
AVOID presenting behind a lectern.
Lecterns are too formal and, closing you from audience,
greatly limit your gestures and expressiveness.
But if you really are presenting behind a lectern,
don’t make it worse by grasping its sides with your hands!
Try to adjust gestures to your upper-body area.
34. Stance
HOW to stand in front of the room speaks
before open your mouth. A balanced stance
with weight slightly forward tends to say that the speaker
is engaged with the audience. A slumped stance
leaning to one side can says the speaker doesn’t care.
35. Stance
THUS, stand squarely on both your feet
when you’re not moving around.
The feet should point straight ahead.
Avoid standing unbalanced: with your weight on one leg
and the other foot wound around it; or putting one foot
forward with the toes raised.
Don’t hunch, don’t sway from side to side.
36. Stance
WHEN not gesturing, the hands should sit quietly
at the sides of the presenter. It is called a zero position.
Another possibility for zero position is holding
the left wrist in your right hand.
Yes, mostly of the time you will move around and gesture
more often than usually in life. But that movement
should be punctuated with stillness, like pauses punctuate
your talking. Constant motion, such as swaying,
is a distraction that can annoy your listeners.
37. Stance
KEEP an open posture, i.e. nothing is placed between you
and your audience. When writing on a flip chart or
whiteboard, don’t turn your back to your audience fully;
and don’t speak until you’re looking at your audience again.
38. IN general, watching great presentation masters
on the Internet will be a great help.
Watch how they move, what gestures they use,
and how it emphasizes what they are talking about.
Pay attention to every little details
that make up the whole image.
But be yourself and don’t copy directly.
Find the equivalents that will be comfortable for you.
40. KEY POINTS
1. Keep eye contact with your audience
most of your time.
2. Make your facial expressions and gestures
support and reinforce your words.
3. Keep a balanced and open stance.
41. KEY POINTS
... and above all:
Open up to your audience,
be emotional and authentically yourself.
