Your Body Speaks Volumes!
This is the first installment of articles contributed by my fellow Public Speaking Blogger, Gary Guwe. Former President of the NUS Toastmasters Club, Gary also does extensive research in the area of Body Language. Visit his blog Connexion! Communication Central
Take it away Gary!
Have you ever seen a presenter or speaker speak on stage, and be entirely turned off or irritated by him? Alright, maybe not entirely turned off… but your feeling still borders on the negative side as you struggle with discomfort as you hear the speaker speak?
Well, lousy content and poor pronunciation aside, inappropriate use of body language in different settings can cause discomfort for your audience and it can be a MAJOR turnoff to the people who’ve come to hear you speak! It’s true!
Imagine your typical meeting/conference room. It’s capacity is made for about 10-20 people set around a round/oval meeting table. You’re seated in the midst of the audience, and you’ve a presenter prancing around the room and waving his arms in the air as he gesticulates and makes a point.
What comes to your mind?
( I had a chimpanzee in mind…a really adorable one)
Jokes aside, inappropriate gesturing can make your audience uncomfortable. More specifically, misjudging the magnitude and the level of energy you put into gesticulation can cause more harm than good for your speech. And when it comes to body language, it is essential that speakers match their level of energy and the size of their actions accordingly to the size of the crowd, as over-gesticulation or under-gesticulation may compromise the effectiveness of your speech/presentation.
The purpose of this post, then is to help you understand the dynamics behind the volume of your action, and which level you should employ depending the size of your crowd.
When it comes to using your hands, there are 4 main zones to consider. When you’re talking to a small group of people on stage, the minimum you could use your hands would be at level One-waist level. You are, however, allowed to stray into the zone Two, which is slightly higher-chest level too even when you’re group size is considerably small, say between 3 - 5 people.
The Second Zone (chest level) is an appropriate level for you to gesticulate when you’re speaking to, say, a group size of around 6 to 50 people. It is natural for you to raise your level as as your group size becomes bigger, you’ll need to increase it for the sake of visibility and energy.
The Third Zone (upper chest level) would be more appropriate for a group size of 50 and above, and when you’ve people seated far at the back and you need to make your actions visible to them.
Lastly, the Fourth Zone (head level and beyond) is the loudest and most prominent of all levels. Whilst it’s okay to make a gesture or use your hands near your head once in awhile to make a point, prolonged gesticulation around your head, or raising your hands above your shoulders could have disastrous consequences. Not only would you look like a restless chimpanzee, your actions could come across as being too loud and boisterous, and you could come across as being pushy, aggressive and dangerous. Not to mention crazy… and restless (again!)
Eventually, unless you’re speaking (or singing) to a stadium full of people, I would recommend that you refrain from raising or flailing your hand for extended periods above your head. Not unless you’re trying to show off your beautiful arm pits or attempt to find a mate by spreading your pheromones. In any instance, you can do it if you feel like being a monkey. Otherwise, let’s strive to be professional by paying attention to the volume of our actions.
Remember, there’s no need to shout when you can speak. The same goes for our actions!
Remember( yet another one ), you heard this first at the Public Speaking Blog!
P.S. To find out more about Body Language on Stage, check out the following posts:
Power Moves! 5 Tips To Make Body Language Work For You
Power Failure-How Not To Use Your Body
Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach
baslicositge…
getrotro…
Thanks Gary
You are also right that a good presentation is perceived to be effective not necessarily by what it said but by how it was presented. This is why I tell presenters to always expand their vocal range for greater emphasis. Not only will it help to hold audience attention, but also helps to telegraph more clearly how they feel about what they are saying.
Here is a great article on the subject: “Albert Mehrabian, a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, is well-known for his publications on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages. His findings on inconsistent messages of feelings and attitudes have been quoted throughout communication seminars worldwide, and have also become known as the 7%-38%-55% Rule.
According to Mehrabian, these three elements account differently for our liking for the person who puts forward the message: words account for 7%, tone of voice accounts for 38%, and body language accounts for 55%.” More can be found at: wikipedia
If I hear one more person mis-quote or mis-understand the work of the Prof, I’ll scream!
It’s true that his research showed something like that, but only in a laboratory when the “words” component was restricted to a single word. It’s not transferable into the real world as it stands: Prof M was, essentially, trying to figure out what was important *after the words had been allowed for*.
Given that restriction it’s no wonder that words only come out at 7%!
Simon
Thank You Simon.
It’s exactly for that reason that I’ve not quoted Prof M in my post!
Thank you for pointing it out!
Gary
I do really agree upon what you say,as we know that some studies have shown that 80% of our messages are conveyed through body langauge,so its crucial to focus on this area in order to give our presentations a boost and more value.