Public speaking is an art. Public speaking gives you an opportunity to deliver your knowledge to a large group of audience. As a speaker, you can persuade, move, and influence your audience.
A powerful speech or presentation has the ability to win people and get them by your side. In order to be able to speak confidently and effectively, you need to master the art of public speaking.
Public speaking can be divided into two major aspects, verbal and non-verbal communication. As important as it is to deliver creative, engaging, and informative content; it is equally important to maintain an overall stunning body language.
Language is a more recent technology. Your body language, your eyes, your energy will come through to your audience before you even start speaking. -Peter Guber
Your body language speaks a lot about you. It can make or break your speech. With positive and genuine body language you can attract your audience and can keep them engaged till the end.
Half of the impression depends upon your body language and facial expressions, how you present yourself and the rest is the content of the speech.
The audience can judge you based on your communication skills and body language. Body language includes eye contact, stances, gestures, hand movements, and facial expressions.
You need to make sure that you maintain great body language throughout. Your positive attitude, confidence, and body language help the audience to build credibility, connect with you, and express themselves without hesitation.
Here's all that you need to do to improve your body language.
Tips to maintain stunning body language during public speaking:
1. Power pose:
Standing still in one place and delivering all that you know about a topic is not going to get you the audience's attention.
You need to implement power poses. You need to maintain an eye-contact, use hand gestures and consider moving around on the stage once every while.
Your audience will lose interest in your presentation if you speak standing still. Also, they may get distracted if you move around too much! So, you need to keep a balance.
Change your expressions based on what you are telling. Don't be monotonous. Show your energy and enthusiasm.
2. Eye Contact:
Delivery of any content goes well with proper eye contact. Eye contact connects you with the audience and vice-versa.
Eye contact provides a sense of interest. The audience knows that the speaker is interested in the conversation and that he or she is trying to talk to each one of them.
This makes the audience feel worthy and they will show more interest in your presentation.
Not maintaining eye contact can make them feel that you are not confident about what you have to say. These are very small things but can have a great impact on your speech or presentation.
3. Hand movements:
Hand gestures or hand movements can sometimes be tricky but play an important role in presentations.
Some people move their hands a lot out of habit while others keep them still.
However, while explaining a point during your presentation, you need to use your hands effectively.
Hand gestures strengthen or complement the verbal message that you are trying to deliver. Practicing hand movements regularly will eventually lead you to use your hands naturally during a speech.
Try to avoid overdoing hand gestures and focus on your actions. You can use symbolic gestures.
Avoid keeping your hands in pockets, or fold arms, or keep them behind your back. Also, make sure you don't point out someone to use such a gesture that can prove to be insulting for people. Always keep it humble.
4. Voice:
Voice is your vocal expression and a major component of body language.
Albert Mehrabian wrote that our words convey 7% of the meaning, our tone 38%, and the rest 55 % is our body language.
So you need to make sure you use your voice with its utmost power. Keep a check on your tone.
Incorporate intonations while you speak. Don't speak monotonously. Take pauses at appropriate times. Breathe. Don't blabber. Don't talk either too fast or too slow.
If you think that your voice sounds very high-pitched or angry then stop for a moment, take a deep breath, calm yourself down, and start again. Don't use slang language and be polite, always.
5. Use your space and time:
Make use of the entire stage. The stage belongs to you when you are presenting, so use it effectively.
Ensure that you are not pacing around the stage every 30 seconds because it can distract the audience.
You can change your position after you finish explaining a point or a sub-topic. When you ask questions to the audience or answer any of their questions, move closer to the audience.
Try to avoid turning your back to the audience. This can disconnect them.
6. Gestures:
Your gesture can make the audience feel comfortable. Make sure you maintain a warm and welcoming gesture.
Keeping a humble and polite gesture will help your audience to connect with you easily.
Try to keep it as natural as possible. Let your gestures compliment the flow of your speech.
Persuade your audience by using facial expressions and smile in between the speech. Make sure that you stay relaxed and calm during your presentation.
Now that you know how to improve your body language while speaking in public, you can start working on your body language.
Body language forms a major part of any conversation. Your body language reflects your overall personality. It shows how confident and informed you are.
Good body language can lift up your speech or presentation greatly. We use our hand and face to express ourselves in daily lives. However, while delivering a speech or presentation you need to keep it formal.
Good body language can create a long-lasting impact on your audience. So make sure, you create a good impression that stays with them for a long time!
So, have you started working on your body language? Let us know in the comments.
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