Body language is a powerful tool to communicate your message, emotions, and personality to your audience. It can also help you overcome nervousness, build rapport, and enhance your credibility. In this article, you will learn how to use body language effectively before, during, and after your speech.
Before you start your speech, make sure you have a confident and relaxed posture. Stand tall, with your shoulders back and your chest open. Avoid slouching, crossing your arms, or fidgeting with your hands. These gestures can make you look insecure, defensive, or bored. Instead, use your hands to gesture naturally and expressively, but avoid pointing, waving, or overdoing it. Your hands should support your words, not distract from them.
Connect with your audience during a speech by maintaining eye contact, smiling genuinely, using open posture and purposeful gestures, varying tone and pitch, moving purposefully, subtly mirroring the audience, incorporating strategic pauses, aligning body language with the message, engaging with the audience, adapting to responses, and being mindful of nervous habits.
Your posture should reflect your audience. You should assess their reception of your posture and hand gestures just as much as their reception to the topic. You can control the level of engagement based on your posture and gestures. Gauge the level of formality and go from there. You can also wear a posture corrector if you are prone to slouching. They can be nearly invisible under clothes.
Eye contact is one of the most important ways to connect with your audience. It shows that you are interested, attentive, and respectful. It also helps you gauge their reactions, feedback, and engagement. Try to make eye contact with different people in the room, especially those who are nodding, smiling, or asking questions. Don't stare at one person for too long, or avoid eye contact altogether. This can make you seem nervous, rude, or dishonest.
Making eye contact is hard if you’re not used to it. Get around this by looking at people’s foreheads right between their eyes. It looks like eye contact without the intimidation. Pick a handful of safe faces to rotate between. 2-4 seconds per person is plenty of time to make an impact. I used to make the mistake of holding eyes a tad too long and I would get that pointed out sometimes.
Smiling and nodding are simple but effective ways to show your enthusiasm, warmth, and agreement. They can also encourage your audience to smile and nod back, creating a positive feedback loop. Smiling and nodding can also help you cope with stress, as they release endorphins and serotonin, which are hormones that make you feel happy and relaxed. However, don't overdo it or fake it. Smile and nod when it is appropriate and genuine, not when it is forced or out of place.
Don’t nod too big or too much. Again, feed off the audience and make it look and feel natural and that will lead to a more natural delivery of your topic.
Your voice is another key element of your body language. It can convey your tone, mood, and emotion. It can also keep your audience interested, engaged, and entertained. To use your voice effectively, vary your pitch, volume, pace, and pauses. Use a higher pitch and volume to emphasize important points, a lower pitch and volume to create suspense or intimacy, a faster pace to show excitement or urgency, and a slower pace to show calmness or seriousness. Use pauses to create emphasis, clarity, or suspense.
Moving around the stage or the room can help you use the space, interact with your audience, and avoid monotony. However, you should move with purpose, not randomly or nervously. Plan your movements ahead of time, and use them to support your transitions, points, or stories. For example, you can move closer to the audience when you want to ask a question, share a personal anecdote, or make a call to action. You can also move away from the podium or the screen when you want to focus on your verbal message, not on your visual aids.
After you finish your speech, don't forget to use body language to follow up with your audience. Thank them for their attention and applause with a smile, a nod, and a wave. If you have time, mingle with them and shake hands, hug, or high-five them, depending on the level of formality and familiarity. These gestures can help you reinforce your connection, express your gratitude, and solicit feedback. They can also make you and your audience feel good and satisfied.
If shaking hands is appropriate, smile and make eye contact and use a firm but not lethal grasp. Don’t touch anyone without verbal or non verbal consent. Let them initiate if you’re unsure.
In forensics we did an exercise called “talking to the wall” we would practice our speeches and pieces and debates by presenting to a wall. It helped us with repetition and also placing gestures in the best place to make the most impact. You can do this in the mirror, at a wall, or if able in the space you’ll be speaking while it’s empty. This allows you to evaluate gestures, faces, pauses, transitions, cadence, and breathing.