|
Passion
Although
developing proper eye-contact technique and learning how and
when to pause are absolutely essential to acquiring "The
Skills" - you're not finished yet. The last element
involves adding the emotional to the mechanical. What we're
referring to here is the element that works to lock in your
audience once you've successfully engaged them with your
eye-contact and person-to-person approach. What we're talking
about is passion.
The
truth is, you can break almost all the 'rules' about proper
delivery if, in the end, you deliver your message with true
passion. There are even some great speakers out there whom
you'll notice will occasionally break some of the rules, but
they get away it because they wrap you up so tightly in their
passion that you don't notice.
With
the easy availability of information today, there are many
people who know a great deal. But knowledge matters very little
if you can't convey what you know with a level of passion that
drives people to sit up and listen.
After
all, it's not likely that anybody in the audience is going to
care more about your topic than you do, so to ensure that
audiences come away interested and motivated to learn more, it's
incumbent upon you, the speaker, to stretch to the point of
almost going over the top with passion and enthusiasm for their
topic.
So
how exactly do you convey passion?
Gestures
One
way to let your audience know how you feel is to demonstrate it
physically. In our on-site classes we have a lot of fun with the
gestures module. What you need to know about gestures is that in
keeping with Rule #2, when you incorporate meaningful body
movement into your presentation, it provides a win-win for all.
The
presenter wins, because every time you move the muscles in your
upper body it burns some of the excess energy running through
your body. In a modern world one-against-many environment, it's
not healthy for your career or your freedom if you choose to
either fight your audience or flee the scene. So what do you do
with that excess energy? You move your arms and hands in concert
with the words coming out your mouth. You paint pictures of the
words or the action you're describing. We say in concert
because, unfortunately, most of the body motions we see
presenters use tend to distract from the message rather than add
to it:
If
you're not guilty of any of the above, you probably err on the
other side - in fact, most people don't gesture at all. Or their
gestures are so reserved that they fail to either burn off
energy or signal enthusiasm. What you want to do is put enough
energy into your gestures that you both burn calories and let
the audiences know that you care enough about your topic to
actually get physical about it.
So
far, we've talked a lot about what not to do. Now its time to
examine (and practice) the type of physical skills that will
project your professionalism. As easy as it is to define
distracting gestures and nuances, it is also fairly easy to
adopt the practices that can define you as a professional
presenter. In this lesson, we'll work on the basics of
maximizing your impact on the audience.
The
first thing is to adopt a stance that both appears balanced and
also allows you to keep from needing or wanting to rock or pace
back and forth.
The
Neutral Position
Then,
figure out exactly what you are going to do with your hands and
learn to gesture from the shoulders, not the elbows. Use your
hands to describe and emphasize. Drop your hands down gently to
your side (known as the neutral position) when you're starting
your speech or when you're finished gesturing.
When
you gesture from the neutral position, your gestures become more
emphatic. If everything comes from the middle magnet position it
looks like you are stuck in a phone booth. Dropping your hands
down to your side is of course extremely difficult to do. With
most people the hands immediately come back together like
magnets or start grabbing things like clothing, various body
parts like your face, or they jump back into your pockets.
So
when you're talking about an increase in sales, show us your
hand up in the air. To demonstrate lowering costs, extend your
other hand down below it. And here you might mention that the
space in between represents profit, which is a good thing,
because that's where profit sharing comes from!
Studies
have shown that gesturing lightens the cognitive load while
speaking and actually helps you think. This may be why its not
unusal to watch someone become very physically animated while
talking on the phone, even though the person on the other end
can't see them.
For
maximum impact, then, balance your stance, feet shoulder width
apart. You want to use your hands, but you want to use them
appropriately. You want to use them in a way that helps to
further your message. And then you want to increase your volume,
increase your inflection as much as possible to show how
strongly you believe in the words you have to say.
Passion
is the driver.
|
