Use of body and movement when speaking
For public speaking people very often spend a great deal of time ‘learning’ what they should do and should not do with their bodies, including moving around the stage, and making gestures.
It is worth noting that once you do have the confidence to speak, how you use your body and how you move your body largely take care of themselves.
Even if you are nervous there are some simple things you can do to project confidence and become more confident.
A great deal of time can be spent focusing on body and movement, particularly on speaking courses and of course as part of the manual speeches that you will find at your local Toastmasters Club.
In fact in the first manual of speeches that you do at Toastmasters Clubs there is a particular speech whose primary aim is to help you with your body language. This is speech number 5 from the Competent Communicator manual entitled – ‘Your body Speaks’.
By following a few simple steps, even if you feel nervous your audience will not know. Here is what to do.
How you stand -
Whether you chose to move and use your arms to convey your points or chose not to move around, and are more comfortable standing in one position, both are fine.
If you are nervous we recommend that you stand in one place and with good posture everyone will think you are confident, you don’t have to move around the stage.
Good posture is simply standing upright in a position that is comfortable for you. If in standing in one place you choose to use your arms to help you make a point through gestures and you are comfortable doing it then do so.
Eye contact -
Eye contact is an important part of using the body in communicating with an audience. If you have eye contact then you create a bond between you and your listeners and people will want to hear what you have to say and will believe that you are confident.
The Speaking Well uses the Memory Mapping technique to help you maintain eye contact with the audience and is one of the techniques to help you with your confidence. See elsewhere in this Blog for more details of the Memory Mapping technique.
A Memory Map enables you to know what it is you want to say either by a quick glance at the Map or by visualising the Map.
Because you know what you want to say you can then maintain eye contact with the audience.
Knowing what you want to say will in itself give a boost to your confidence, further enabling you to keep eye contact.
If you are nervous simply stand so you are comfortable, visualise your Map whilst looking at the audience, or look at the audience and quickly glance at the Map as required to help you to remember what to say.
As you know what you want to say, you will appear more confident and you will become more confident.
Movement -
If you are nervous in front of an audience the things to concentrate on are the techniques to get yourself in a state where you feel more confident and not worry about being precise in how you use your body and how you move.
You can look confident by just standing, and you can look confident and converse with an audience without moving.
You can also choose to move as much as you want. Do what you feel comfortable with as opposed to feeling that you have to move about and use gestures.
So a focus of The Speaking Well is helping you to gain your confidence and with that will come use of body and movement in getting your point across.Confidence is the key, and good use of your body and movement will naturally flow from this in a way that is comfortable for you.
The subject of confidence and how you can achieve this is also dealt with in detail elsewhere in this Blog.
Please remember this one tip. Even when nervous, you can appear to be confident by simply standing with good posture and looking at your audience.
Idiosyncrasies -
When speaking before an audience people sometimes have idiosyncrasies that they do not have when speaking one to one or with friends. Such things would be hand clasping, adjusting their tie, rubbing their noses etc.
All these things happen when people are nervous and simply disappear when they are confident. Don’t concentrate too much on them as they will disappear as you gain in confidence.
Finally -
Please remember that once you have the confidence to speak, how you use and move your body will largely take care of itself. The things to focus on are therefore the confidence building techniques including Memory Mapping.
Even if you are nervous if you use the techniques recommended the audience will not know.
Summary
1) Once you have the confidence to speak, how you use your body and how you move your body will largely take care of itself
2) In fact by following a few simple steps, even if you feel nervous the audience will not know
3) If you stand in one place and with good posture, everyone will think you are confident, whether you are or are not
4) Eye contact creates a bond with your audience and creates an image of confidence. You can use Memory Mapping to help you do this
5) You can choose to move as much as you want, but you do not have to. Do what is comfortable and feels right
