Using the Body

Pay Attention to Body Language

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As audience members listen to you, they are simultaneously evaluating the messages sent by your facial expressions, eye behavior, gestures, and general body movements. Audiences do not so much listen to a speaker’s words as “read” the body language of the speaker who delivers them.1

Research confirms the importance of body language. One study suggests that when speakers talk about their feelings and attitudes, the audience derives a mere 7 percent of the speaker’s meaning from the words they utter. The balance comes from the speaker’s nonverbal communication: 38 percent from the speaker’s voice, and 55 percent from the speaker’s body language and appearance.2

Animate Your Facial Expressions

From our facial expressions, audiences can gauge whether we are excited about, disenchanted by, or indifferent to our speech—and the audience to whom we are presenting it.

Few behaviors are more effective for building rapport with an audience than smiling. A smile is a sign of mutual welcome at the start of a speech, of mutual comfort and interest during the speech, and of mutual goodwill at the close of a speech. In addition, smiling when you feel nervous or otherwise uncomfortable can help you relax and gain heightened composure. Of course, facial expressions need to correspond to the tenor of the speech. Doing what is natural and normal for the occasion should be the rule.

Checklist: Tips for Using Effective Facial Expressions

Use animated expressions that feel natural and express your meaning.

Avoid a deadpan expression.

Never use expressions that are out of character for you or inappropriate to the speech occasion.

In practice sessions, loosen your facial features with exercises such as widening the eyes and moving the mouth.

Establish rapport with the audience by smiling naturally when appropriate.

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Maintain Eye Contact

If smiling is an effective way to build rapport, maintaining eye contact is mandatory in establishing a positive relationship with your listeners. Having eye contact with the audience is one of the most, if not the most, important physical actions in public speaking. Eye contact does the following:

With an audience of one hundred to more than a thousand, it’s impossible to look at every listener. But in most speaking situations you are likely to experience, you should be able to make the audience feel recognized by using a technique called scanning. When you scan an audience, you move your gaze from one listener to another and from one section to another, pausing to gaze at one person long enough to complete one thought. Be certain to give each section of the room equal attention.

Use Gestures That Feel Natural

Words alone seldom suffice to convey what we want to express. Physical gestures fill in the gaps, as in illustrating the size or shape of an object (e.g., by showing the size of it by extending two hands, palms facing each other), or expressing the depth of an emotion (e.g., by pounding a fist on a podium). Gestures should arise from genuine emotions and should conform to your personality.3

Create a Feeling of Immediacy

In most Western cultures, listeners learn more from and respond most positively to speakers who create a perception of physical and psychological closeness, called nonverbal immediacy, between themselves and audience members.4 An enthusiastic vocal delivery, frequent eye contact, animated facial expressions, and natural body movements are the keys to establishing immediacy.

Audience members soon tire of listening to a talking head that remains steadily positioned in one place behind a microphone or a podium. Use your physical position vis-à-vis audience members to adjust your relationship with them, establishing a level of familiarity and closeness that is appropriate to the topic, purpose, and occasion. Movement towards listeners stimulates a sense of informality and closeness; remaining behind the podium fosters a more formal relationship of speaker to audience.

Stand Straight

A speaker’s posture sends a definite message to the audience. Listeners perceive speakers who slouch as being sloppy, unfocused, or even weak. Strive to stand erect, but not ramrod straight. The goal should be to appear authoritative but not rigid.

Create a Feeling of Immediacy

Superficial as it may sound, the first thing an audience is likely to notice about you as you approach the speaker’s position is your clothing. The critical criteria in determining appropriate dress for a speech are audience expectations and the nature of the speech occasion. If you are speaking as a representative of your business, for example, you will want to complement your company’s image.5

An extension of dress is the possession of various objects on or around your person while giving a speech—pencil and pen, a briefcase, a glass of water, or papers with notes on them. Always ask yourself if these objects are really necessary. A sure way to distract an audience from what you’re saying is to drag a briefcase or a backpack to the speaker’s stand and open it while speaking, or to fumble with a pen or other object.

Checklist: Broad Dress Code Guidelines

For a “power” look, wear a dark-colored suit.

Medium or dark blue paired with white can enhance your credibility.

Yellow and orange color tones convey friendliness.

The color red focuses attention on you.

Flashy jewelry distracts listeners.

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