NONVERBALS: They're Key to
Any Successful Presentation
Body language transmits 80%
of your message. Analyze the component parts of your "look" with
care before making any presentation. Putting together the "right"
package is key to your success. Practice your body language
before making a presentation. Use a mirror or videotaping
equipment. Consider investing in a coach.
These are six components to successful body language: clothing, facial
expression, posture, eye contact, movement and gestures.
1. Clothes are
the first thing your audience notices. So dress appropriately for
the group you are addressing. "Power" suits worn before an
audience of jeans-clad collegians will put off students. Make
sure your clothes are comfortable as well as good looking. Don't
wear anything for the first time when you are making an important
presentation or appearing on television.
2. Facial expressions
should be relaxed, not tense. Look at yourself in the mirror
while you're practicing your opening remarks. Make an open face,
relax your jaw, look around, open your mouth wide, lengthen your neck,
feel your shoulders relax.
3. Check your posture.
The basic position? Feet hip-width apart, shoulders over hips,
neck free, back lengthening and widening. This allows you to
move, gesture, pick up material, put it down again, return to "square
one."
4. Make eye contact
with individuals, not by sweeping jerkily across a crowd. Look at
one person for at least three seconds; try to finish a thought or a
sentence before moving on to the next one. Be sure to look at
both sides of the room.
Keep an eye on the decision-makers in your
audience. Don't focus on the disgruntled. Look at your
notes or away from the audience for no longer than 15 seconds.
Don't talk while looking at your notes.
Put a smile in your eyes.
5. Move decisively
and with confidence. Stride into a room, stroll from the
podium during your talk the way you would walk around your own
home. Always take two or three steps, not just one: that makes
you look hesitant. Convey freedom and ease as you move.
6. Use natural
gestures but make them bigger than you normally would,
especially when speaking before a larger crowd. The sweep of
hands and arms carries further into the back of the room. Avoid
small gestures because they convey timidity. Keep your hands
free. Don't fiddle with your glasses or touch your nose.
Don't repeat gestures.
Wiley, C. (1991). The
Presentation kit.
Executive Strategies: Business/Personal.