Body language is a powerful tool to communicate your message, confidence, and credibility during a presentation. However, many speakers struggle with how to use their gestures, posture, eye contact, and facial expressions effectively. As a presentation coach, you can help your clients improve their body language by following these six steps.
Before you can coach your clients on how to improve their body language, you need to understand their current habits and challenges. Ask them to record a video of themselves delivering a presentation or a mock speech and watch it together. Pay attention to how they use their hands, feet, shoulders, head, eyes, and mouth. Identify what they are doing well and what they need to work on. Give them constructive feedback and praise.
Witnesses win trials more than lawyers do. Spend 10X more time working on their presentations than on yours. You should relax and be yourself. Help your witnesses do the same rather than be script readers.
Next, you need to teach your clients the basic principles of effective body language for presentations. Explain how body language can enhance or undermine their verbal message, influence their audience's perception and engagement, and affect their own emotions and confidence. Share some best practices and tips on how to use body language to convey clarity, credibility, and charisma. For example, you can teach them how to use open and confident gestures, maintain a balanced and relaxed posture, make eye contact with different parts of the room, and smile and nod appropriately.
Princliple Number One (the one principle to rule them all): You may think you have no natural presentation skills. You may be nervous. You may sweat. You may stumble. NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Well, of course it matters. What I mean is the you — and only you — can do this. In fact ONLY YOU CAN DO IT YOUR WAY, which is the only way to do it. YOU CANNOT DO IT MY WAY, OR HER WAY, OR THAT OTHER PERSON’S WAY. First practice according to what others have told you. A lot. But not too much. As you practice (including dipping your toes into practicing in front of real but “safe” or “reasonably safe” audience. You will find you like the way some people taught you. You will likely dislike other ways. Stick with what you like!!! And build on that.
Lawrence Stein makes a great point - be authentically you, not an imitation of someone else's style. But I DO want you to be the best, most persuasive version of yourself when you're in front of the room. Rather than focus on best practice, I like to focus on identifying and reducing any worst practices. Those tend to be distracting non-verbals: 1) Pacing / repetitive movement 2) Distracting gestures (like "the prayer" or "knife hands") 3) Hiding some or all of the body (hands behind back, standing behind a podium, etc.) 4) Lack of expression or eye contact Then work on reducing those distractions, one at a time, to consistently improve.
After you have taught your clients the principles of body language, you need to show them some examples of how to apply them in different situations. You can use videos of yourself or other speakers who demonstrate good or bad body language and explain what they are doing right or wrong. You can also use role-playing or scenarios to demonstrate how to use body language in different contexts, such as formal or informal, large or small, friendly or hostile audiences. Ask your clients to observe and comment on the examples and compare them with their own style.
Once your clients have seen some examples of body language, you need to help them practice the skills and incorporate them into their own presentations. You can use various exercises and activities to help them practice different aspects of body language, such as gestures, posture, eye contact, and facial expressions. For example, you can ask them to deliver a short speech with different emotions, use a mirror or a camera to check their body language, or practice in front of a small group of peers or colleagues. Give them feedback and encouragement as they practice.
As your clients practice their body language skills, you need to monitor their progress and help them overcome any challenges or difficulties. You can use tools such as checklists, rubrics, or self-assessments to help them track their improvement and identify their strengths and weaknesses. You can also use video recordings or live observations to review their performance and give them specific and actionable suggestions. Celebrate their achievements and motivate them to keep improving.
Finally, you need to help your clients refine their body language style and adapt it to different situations and audiences. You can help them find their own authentic and natural way of expressing themselves with their body language, without copying or imitating others. You can also help them adjust their body language according to the purpose, tone, and format of their presentation, as well as the expectations, preferences, and feedback of their audience. Encourage them to experiment and test different body language strategies and find what works best for them.