What your body language during presentation says about you? Do's and Don'ts! Let's learn the best tips with AhaSlides!
So, what is the best presentation posture? Got awkward hands syndrome? You probably don't because I just made that up. But - we all have moments when we don’t know what to do with our hands, legs, or any part of our body.
You may have a fantastic icebreaker, impeccable introduction, and excellent presentation, but the delivery is where it matters most. You don't know what to do with yourself, and it's perfectly normal.
Overview
| What is the body language of embarrassment? | downward gaze, smile controls, turned-away head movements and face touching |
| What are the nonverbal signs of shame? | Slumped shoulders, lowering our head, looking down, no eye contact, unconsistent speech |
| Can audience tell when presenters are shy? | Yes |
| Why was Steve Jobs presentation so good? | He just practied a lots, along with intesting presentation outfits |
Tips for Better Engagement
- Personality in a Presentation
- How do you Express Yourself?
- Use word cloud or live Q&A to survey your audience easier!
- Use brainstorming tool effectively by AhaSlides idea board
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To what extent do you know about a successful presentation? Aside from well-designed PowerPoint templates, it is important to utilize other performance skills, especially Body language.
Now that you know that body language is an irreplaceable part of presentation skills, it is still far from mastering these skills to deliver effective presentations.
This article will give you a holistic view of body language and how to take advantage of these skills for your perfect presentations.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Tips for Better Engagement
- Importance of body language during a presentation
- 10 Tips to master body language in presentations
- 4 Body Gestures Tips
- Frequently Asked Questions
Importance of Body Language For Presentation
With body language presentations, when it comes to communication, we mention verbal and non-verbal terms. It is crucial to remember that these terms have a relative relationship. Hence, what it is?
Verbal communication is using words to share information with other people, including both spoken and written language. For example, the word “how’s it going” that you choose to let others understand what you are trying to greet them.
Nonverbal communication is the transfer of information through body language, facial expressions, gestures, created space, and more. For example, smiling when you meet someone conveys friendliness, acceptance, and openness.
Whether or not you’re aware of it, when you interact with others, you’re constantly giving and receiving wordless signals besides talking. All of your nonverbal behaviours—your posture, your intonation, the gestures you make, and how much eye contact you make—deliver vital messages.
In particular, they can put people at ease, build trust, and draw attention, or they may offend and bewilder what you are attempting to express. These messages don’t stop when you stop speaking, either. Even when you’re silent, you’re still communicating nonverbally.
Similarly, a presentation is also a way of communicating with your audience; while speaking up about your idea, show body language to emphasize it. Thus, understanding the importance of non-verbal and verbal communication skills simultaneously will help you avoid dull presentations.
To make it much more straightforward, we explore elements of body language, a part of non-verbal communication skills. Body language comprises gestures, stances, and facial expressions. When you are presenting, robust and positive body language becomes a powerful instrument for building credibility, expressing your emotions, and connecting with your listeners. It also helps your listeners to concentrate more intently on you and your speech. Here, we give you 10+ language body examples and tips to leverage your
10 Tips to master Body Language in Presentations
Consider Your Appearance
First, it is essential to have a neat look during presentations. Depending on which occasion, you may have to prepare the appropriate outfit and well-groomed hair to show your professionalism and respect to your listeners.
Think about the type and style of the event; they may have a strict dress code. Choose an outfit you’re much more likely to feel poised and confident in front of an audience. Avoid colours, accessories, or jewellery that might distract the audience, make noise, or cause glare under stage lights.
Smile, and Smile Again
Don’t forget to “smile with your eyes” instead of just your mouth when smiling. It would help to make others feel your warmth and sincerity. Remember to maintain the smile even after an encounter—in fake happiness encounters; you may often see an “on-off” smile that flashes and then vanishes quickly after two people go their separate directions.
Open Your Palms
When gesturing with your hands, make sure your hands are open most of the time and people can see your open palms. It is also a good idea to keep the palms facing most of the time upward rather than downward.
Make Eye Contact
It is usually a bad idea to make eye contact with individual members of your audience! Finding a sweet spot for “long enough” to look at your listeners without being offensive or creepy is necessary. Give it a try to look at others for about 2 seconds to lessen awkwardness and nervousness. Don’t look at your notes to make more connections with your listeners.
Check out tips on Eye Contact in Communication
Hand Clasping
You may find these gestures helpful when you want to conclude a meeting or end an interaction with someone. If you want to appear confident, you can use this cue with your thumbs stuck out—this signals confidence instead of stress.
Blading
Around close friends and trusted others, it’s lovely to relax your hands in your pockets once in a while. But if you want to make the other feel insecure, sticking your hands deep in your pockets is a surefire way to do it!
Touching Ear
Touching the ear or a self-soothing gesture subconsciously takes place when a person is anxious. But do you know it is a good help when encountering difficult questions from audiences? Touching your ear when thinking of solutions may make your overall posture more natural.
Don’t Point Your Finger
Whatever you do, don’t point. Just make sure you never do it. Pointing a finger while talking is taboo in many cultures, not only in presentations. People always find it aggressive and uncomfortable, offensive somehow.
Control your Voice
In any presentation, speak slowly and clearly. When you want to underline the main points, you may speak even more slowly and repeat them. Intonation is necessary; let your voice rise up and down to make you sound natural. Sometimes say nothing for a while to have better communication.
Walking Around
Moving around or staying in one spot when you are presenting is fine. Yet, don’t overuse it; avoid walking back and forth all the time. Walk when you intend to engage the audience or while you are telling a funny story, or while the audience is laughing
4 Body Gestures Tips
In this article, we’ll spell out some quick tips on body language and how to develop your presentation skills regarding:
- Eye contact
- Hands & Shoulders
- Legs
- Back & Head
Your body language is crucial because it not only makes you look more confident, assertive, and collected, but you will also end up feeling these things. You also should avoid looking down while talking.
Eyes - Body Language During Presentation
Don’t avoid eye contact like it’s the plague. Many people don’t know how to make eye contact and are taught to stare at the back wall or someone's forehead. People can tell when you're not looking at them and will perceive you to be nervous and distant. I was one of those presenters because I thought public speaking was the same as acting. When I did theatre productions in high school, they encouraged us to look at the back wall and not engage with the audience because it would take them out of the fantasy world we were creating. I learned the hard way that acting is not the same as public speaking. There are similar aspects, but you don't want to block the audience from your presentation - you want to include them, so why would you pretend they aren't there?
On the other hand, some people are taught to look at just one person who is also a bad habit. Staring at one individual the entire time will make them very uncomfortable and that atmosphere will distract the other audience members as well.
DO connect with people like you would a normal conversation. How do you expect people to want to engage with you if they don't feel seen? One of the most helpful presentation skills I’ve learned from Nicole Dieker is that people love attention! Take time to connect with your audience. When people feel that a presenter cares about them, they feel important and encouraged to share their emotions. Shift your focus to different audience members to foster an inclusive environment. Especially engage with those already looking at you. Nothing is worse than staring down at someone looking at their phone or program.
Use as much eye contact as you would when talking to a friend. Public speaking is the same, just on a larger scale and with more people.
Hands- Body Language During Presentation
Don’t restrict yourself or overthink it. There are so many ways to hold your hands incorrectly, like behind your back (which comes off as aggressive and formal), below your belt (limiting movement), or stiffly by your sides (which feels awkward). Don’t cross your arms; this comes off as defensive and aloof. Most importantly, don’t over-gesture! This will not only become exhausting, but the audience will begin to fixate on how tired you must be rather than the content of your presentation. Make your presentation easy to watch, and, therefore, easy to understand.
DO rest your hands at a neutral position. This will be a bit above your belly button. The most successful looking neutral position is either holding one hand in another or simply just touching them together in whatever way your hands would naturally. Hands, arms, and shoulders are the most important visual cue for the audience. You should gesture like your typical body language in a regular conversation. Don’t be a robot!
Below is a quick video by Steve Bavister, and I recommend you watch it to visualize what I just described.
Legs- Body Language During Presentation
Don’t lock your legs and stand still. Not only is it dangerous, but it also makes you look uncomfortable (making the audience uncomfortable). And no one likes to feel uncomfortable! The blood will start to pool in your legs, and without movement, the blood will have difficulty recirculating to the heart. This makes you susceptible to passing out, which would definitely be … you guessed it … uncomfortable. On the contrary, don’t move your legs too much. I’ve been to a few presentations where the speaker is rocking back and forth, back and forth, and I paid so much attention to this distracting behaviour that I forgot what he was talking about!
DO use your legs as an extension of your hand gestures. Take a step forward if you want to make a statement that connects with your audience. Take a step back if you want to give space for thought after an astounding idea. There is a balance to it all. Think of the stage as a single plane - you shouldn’t turn your back on the audience. Walk in a way inclusive of all people in the space and move around so you can be visible from every seat.
Back- Body Language During Presentation
Don’t fold into yourself with slumped shoulders, drooping head, and curved neck. People have subconscious biases against this form of body language and will begin to question your capability as a presenter if you project as a defensive, self-conscious, and insecure speaker. Even if you don't identify with these descriptors, your body will show it.
DO convince them of your confidence with your posture. Stand straight like your head is connected to a taught string attached to the ceiling. If your body language portrays confidence, you will become confident. You will be surprised by how little adjustments will improve or worsen your speech delivery. Try using these presentation skills in the mirror and see for yourself!
Lastly, if you have confidence in your presentation, your body language will improve drastically. Your body will reflect how proud you are of your visuals and preparedness. AhaSlides is a great tool to use if you want to become a more confident presenter and WOW your audience with real-time interactive tools they can access while you're presenting. Best part? It's free!
Conclusion
So, what does body language during the presentation say about you? Let’s take advantage of our tips and consider how to incorporate them into your presentation. Don’t hesitate to practice in front of the mirror at home or with a familiar audience and ask for feedback. Practice makes perfect. You’ll be able to master your body language and get favourable outcomes from your presentation.
Extra tip: For a virtual online presentation or wearing a mask, you may encounter difficulties in showing body language; you can think of leveraging your presentation template to capture the audience's attention with 100+ AhaSlides types of presentation templates.
Frequently Asked Questions
What to do with your hands when presenting
When presenting, it's important to use your hands purposefully to make a positive impression and enhance your message. Therefore, you should keep your hands relaxed with open palms, use gestures to benefit your presentation and maintain eye contact with your audience.
When presenting to a neutral audience, why should I present both sides of the issue?
Presenting both sides of an issue to a neutral audience is essential, as it helps lots to engage with the audience, enables your critical thinking skills, makes your presentation better and also helps to increase credibility.
Which type of gestures should be avoided in a speech?
You should avoid distraction gestures, like: speaking dramatically but not relevant to your contents; fidgeting like tapping your fingers or playing with objects; pointing fingers (which show disrespect); crossing arms and surprisingly and overly formal gestures!
