Shape Up Your Body Language (Six Eternal Truths)

[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] If I had a share of Apple stock for every time I’ve been asked “what should I do with my hands?” in my nearly 20 years of facilitating presentation training and media training, well…

It goes without saying that as a presenter, you must rehearse your material until you have it down cold before standing up in front of an audience. Similarly, if you’re on the other side of a news reporter’s microphone about to be interviewed, you must have messages, and must rehearse them, even if you’re in the middle of a crisis and have limited prep time.

But to take your performance to the next level, take the time to conduct a careful audit of your body language. Play back a video of your rehearsal. Watch yourself perform in a mirror. What’s happening with your hands? Are they flailing around pointlessly like the guys in bad TV car commercials? Are they nervously jangling around keys in your pockets?

The golden rule here: your use of gestures must be unobtrusive so the audience isn’t distracted from your material. And be careful with body language in the meet-and-greet period before a presentation – it can project your attitude toward your material, your audience or yourself. For example, if your body language sends the message that you are nervous about your material, that you lack self-confidence, or that you are apathetic, audiences will shut you down before you utter your first syllable.

Your body language must complement your material, not contradict it (e.g. you’re talking about an exciting new project but yawning and slouching). When what we see contradicts what we hear, we tend to give greater weight to visual cues.

Here are six points to keep top of mind when you want to shape up your body language and supercharge your speaking performance:

• A good gesture always helps emphasize an idea you’re presenting, or express your emotional response to the material.
• If a gesture doesn’t help communicate the material, it’s a distraction (again, think bad TV car commercials!)
• Never gesture for the sake of it. No gesture should call attention to itself above your content.
• Don’t overthink it – if you’re focusing on what you are doing with your hands, your audience will sense it and become distracted.
• For some people, it’s helpful to exaggerate gestures when you first start rehearsing your material so that your gestures become part of your “muscle memory.” You can then tone it down to a more comfortable level as you continue rehearsing.
• If you’ve developed a nervous gesture (rapid-fire blinking, shoulder shrugging, gazing up at the heavens for inspiration, etc.), videotaping your rehearsal with a smart phone and playing it back can help minimize or break your bad habit.

The ability to communicate effectively demonstrates leadership. Ultimately, when the stakes are high and you need to communicate with power to preserve or defend your organization’s reputation, seek professional media training to sharpen your performance to a razor’s edge, and to maximize the impact of your critical messages.