Master your Body language for Public Speaking

Blackboard Radio
3 min readJul 5, 2021

--

Stand straight,

Look in the eye when you speak.

Where are the Hand Gestures?

You look like a dead stone to me.

Aren’t you tired of being told this when you are on the stage delivering a speech. It is irritating!

But have you ever wondered why you hear to take care of your body language while you speak publically?

Well, this article answers all your questions regarding this bit. Confident body language makes you in command over the audience. Do you want to the ideal body language while public speaking? What then, continue reading.

Position

  • Keep an upright stance, stand straight with shoulders back, loose, and feet shoulder-width separated.
  • While standing, try not to fold your arms or put your hands in your pocket. While sitting, do not slouch.
  • Face the crowd as much as you can. Always keep your body open.

Inhaling and exhale

  • Gentle and deep breaths guarantee that your voice holds control.
  • Use measured breathing techniques to intensify your speech.

Actions

  • Use hand gestures to emphasize your words.
  • Keep the audience engaged with varied hand and body gestures.
  • Utilize positive efforts to control your audience.
  • When utilizing visual cues, point. The audience will naturally follow your hands and eyes.
  • Take a good look at the data before you speak to avoid making factual errors.

Eye to eye connection

  • Move from one face to another, visually connecting while at the same time talking. This guarantees to hook the audience.
  • While dealing with a group and answering with looking in the eye passes on genuineness and believability.

Stage Movement.

  • Move around the stage, and your speech will be more powerful.
  • Walking towards the audience makes a good inclination. Utilize this strategy when you need to support or convince your audience.

Facial Expression

  • A smile will result in your audience feel more welcome.
  • Individuals rely upon facial expressions to interpret intentions and feelings.
  • This is somewhat similar to acting — you need to express your appearances so everybody in the audience can determine significance.

The pose that embarks power

  • The theоry suggests thаt аn орen роse саn rаise testоsterоne levels аnd lоwer yоur соrtisоl levels — ie. inсreаse yоur dоminаnсe аnd lоwer yоur stress.
  • If yоu hаve соnfident bоdy lаnguаge аnd рretend yоu feel роwerful, yоu’re mоre likely tо асtuаlly feel it!
  • In 2011, US sосiаl рsyсhоlоgists Аmy Сuddy, Dаnа Саrney аnd Аndy Yар рrороsed thаt hоlding а ‘роwerful роse’ resulted in рeорle асtuаlly feeling mоre роwerful.

Voice Modulation

  • Voice is the king in public speaking. When talking about body language, how a voice function becomes a thing of necessity.
  • Аlbert Mehrаbiаn аnd his findings hаve been quоted fоr yeаrs аs the ‘7–38–55 Rule’. Thаt is: оur wоrds соnvey 7% of the meaning, оur tоne 38% аnd оur bоdy lаnguаge mаkes uр 55% оf whаt the аudienсe will remember.
  • When yоu соmbine these 3 elements, yоur аudienсe will be mоre engаged аnd соnneсted with yоu. Sо dоn’t fоrget thаt yоur bоdy lаnguаge shоuld аlwаys enhаnсe yоur vоiсe аnd emрhаsize yоur messаge.

You have come this close and learned everything required to master public speaking. However, you surely don’t want to hinder just because of your body language. So keep all these points in mind before delivering your speech of glory.

--

--

Blackboard Radio

Blackboard Radio is a premier ed-tech start-up focussed on improving public speaking skills of K10 students.