Public Speaking - Make Your Body Speak For You

When speaking in public, you must be aware that your body movements as well as the body movements of your audience communicate silent messages that can make your speech a success or a disaster. By learning how to read other people's unspoken body movements and becoming aware of your own body language, you are able improve your public speaking skills.

Statistically, between 60%-80% of your message is communicated through body language, with only 7%-10% attributable to the actual words you chose for your speech. Therefore, reading body language, the silent signals that people send, will not only insure that your speech is being received, but it will also allow you to make minor adjustments during the actual delivery of the speech so that you know without a doubt that your audience is hearing exactly what you intend to say.

Since body language is so powerful, because we cannot be separated from our bodies, this is an imperative skill when speaking in public. There are four distinct types of body language that you should understand.   

Facial Expression Including Eye Contact

Most of our facial expressions are universal. For example, if you are from the United States and you travel to France, however, you do not speak French, but you are eating French cuisine and you snarl your nose and frown, people observing you will realize that particularly do not care for that type of food. The same is true in speech delivery. During your speech, if you say that you really like to sing, but your nose scrunches up, you frown, and look down, evading eye contact, the audience can read in your facial body language that you are lying. Therefore, your speech has just been devalued. With eye contact, you can either convenience your audience that you are an honest, genuine person or someone who has no character whatsoever.

Gestures

Gestures are powerful communicators pending that you learn to use them correctly. When speaking, you naturally partake in some movements of which you may not even be aware. For example, if you “talk with your hands” and fidget during your speech subconsciously, you are portraying that you are nervous and/or bored and you feel that your hands must be moving or you would not be able to speak. In order to correct this, try using hand movements only to emphasize the important points in your speech. During an important part of your speech, raise your hand into the air to catch the audience off guard so that they will become attentive, wondering what you are about to do. You must recognize the gestures that you do so that you can adjust them accordingly for your speech.

Posture

The way you hold yourself during your speech communicates to the audience that you are either an expert at what you are saying or that you have no idea what you are talking about. If you stand in front of your audience with your back straight, head up, looking directly at the people in the audience, the audience will realize that you are an important person with something valuable to say. However, if you stand in front of the audience in a slumped position, arms crossed in front of you, looking down toward your feet, you are telling the audience that you have nothing of value to say to them and that they really should not listen to a word that you have to say. Therefore, becoming aware of how you stand is a key element to speech delivery.

Space/Proximity

The element of space or proximity can communicate your confidence level. If you are delivering a speech on a stage and you stand as close to the audience as possible without falling off, this signifies to the audience that you are confident and self-assured, knowing that you have an important word to share. However, if you are on stage, standing as far back from the audience as possible, you audience will immediately realize that you are not confident in what you have to say, and therefore, it is a waste of time to listen. Before your speech, if possible, go to the stage and practice standing at different locations and angles to determine the likely success of your speech.

Taking into consideration all four of these key elements of body language and working toward becoming proficient in all four will directly influence the success rate of your speech.
Personal Appearance, Self Confidence and Public Speaking