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Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for
President Reagan and current columnist for the Wall Street
Journal, has a favorite saying about presentation audiences:
“They won’t care how much you know until they know how much
you care!”
Regardless of how compelling you
believe your message to be, your audience won’t become engaged
unless you physically
demonstrate just how compelled you feel.
To do that, you need to raise the volume of your voice,
add some inflection to your key words, and bring your upper body
into play. We
emphasize upper,
because with the possible exception of Elvis Presley, none of us
can really add to the quality of our presentations with
movements of the lower
body.
The problem is most people really don’t know where to put or what to do with their hands. They would just
as soon have their arms fall off before a public speaking
appearance because they seem to both get in the way and, worse,
accentuate nervousness. Having
trained literally tens of thousands of speakers over the years,
we’ve seen virtually everything that a person could possible
do with their hands when up in front of the group.
Here are by far the most popular things that we suggest
you become aware of and avoid:
The “Fig Leaf”
The most favored position for most
people’s hands is the clasped position. The hands come together like
magnets right at the belt buckle point. We say magnets because
once those hands come together, there’s no way that they’re coming apart again. It’s as though your hands have been super-glued together.
People try to break their hands apart, but it’s very difficult to do.
When your hands are together in front and the back of the hands are
facing the audience and covering your private parts, it’s
commonly referred to as the “fig leaf position”.
For some reason this position seems a little more popular
with the guys. Worse
is the “talking fig leaf”, where you gesture with your hands
while they are in this position.
Needless to say that can be a real distraction.
The reverse of this is when your hands are clasped together behind
your back, which is commonly referred to as the “reverse fig
leaf” or what we like to call “parade rest” for those of
you with a military background.
The “Johnny
Carson”
It’s also popular to put one or two hands in your pockets.
It looks comfortable, but you simply handicap your
ability to gesture, describe, and emphasize key points.
Also, having your hands in your pockets typically leads
to key swirling or change jingling, or what we term “executive
worry beads”. People
in the audience start to count to themselves silently, “Well,
let’s see: that sounds like about 4 quarters, 3 dimes, and a
nickel. I’ll bet
it’s around $1.35.”
Obviously, this is distracting. And
it is hard to describe ‘expansion’ or a ‘big
opportunity’ to your audience when your hands are in your
pants.
The “Spider on
the Mirror”
Until his handlers taught him
otherwise, Dick Cheney would use this annoying gesture every
time he would do something embarrassing to the administration
and have to go on “Meet the Press” or another Sunday TV talk
show to explain himself. The
“spider on the
mirror” involves both hands connected at the fingertips moving back and
forth. If you can’t visualize it, just think of ET touching all of his fingers with a
human hand, but then imagine those two hands attached to the
same body.
The “Pointing
Dancer”
This one’s a real combo-platter of problems.
It involves a “Saturday Night Fever” type of movement
were the speaker dances and moves back and forth, while pointing
up and down. While
studying his steps, the audience misses the message.
These movements should be reserved for the dance floor.
Actually, you need to stay away from pointing and using fingers all
together. A single
finger straight up in the air, no matter which one it is, looks
ugly and appears arrogant and condescending.
It conjures up images of scolding, road rage, and various
cultural insults. Different
fingers also mean different things and in a culture as diverse
as ours. Why take a
chance? Which
leads us to another finger problem:
The “Bad Accountant”
We often see people hold up two fingers and say, “There are three
things that I want to tell you about.” It’s
inconsistent, and immediately takes the audience off your
message. Still
others will show a complete hand and name five things and count
each finger for everything on the list. “The first thing is
(grabbing first finger), the second thing is (grabbing second
finger)”, and so on. It
ends up looking like the nursery rhyme about “This little
piggy went to the market…”
Plus, it will get your hands together again causing
potential magnet problems.
The “Phone
Booth”
We know you’ve all seen presenters who spend the entire time in
front of the group with their arms clasped around their chests,
as if they are hugging themselves.
Comfortable, perhaps, especially if the room is chilled,
but not very user friendly.
What you should do…
Break out of the phone booth and take the handcuffs off.
You have the whole front of the room with empty space.
Use it wisely to visually mirror the story that you are
trying to depict, and use your full wingspan to describe and
explain. Adopt
a stance that both appears balanced and also allows you to keep
from needing or wanting to rock or pace back and forth.
Then,
gesture from the shoulders, not the elbows. Use your
hands to describe and emphasize. Drop your hands down to your
side (neutral position) when you’re starting your speech or
when you’re done gesturing.
When
you gesture from the neutral position, your gestures become more
emphatic. Dropping
your hands down to your side is, for many, difficult to do.
Yet it is from this neutral position that your gestures
have the widest range, and thus the ability to show the extent
of your passion.
And
when they sense the passion, they listen.
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