Presentations can be daunting and body language is a major part of presenting with confidence. Learn how minor alterations to where you keep your hands can make a massive difference with these top tips to making an impact.

Make Simple Changes For Successful Public Speaking

Dominic Donaldson is leading consultant in presentation skills and communication skills training, delivering courses worldwide.
Learn more about http://www.speak-first.com/courses/presentation-skills.aspx

Public speaking can be a daunting prospect for even the most confident people. There is something about standing formally in front of an audience and presenting which causes our voice to stammer and our hands to shake. Even the most seasoned presenters will share in the nerves that cause this sort of indecisive body language. However they employ basic presentation skills to channel the nervous energy and to come across with confidence and impact.

One core area of presentation skills is body language and how you stand, move and gesture. A perfect example of how small changes can make a massive difference to your presentation skills is the position of your hands when speaking. Along with the eyes and voice, hands are one of the main areas of focus when making changes to improve your presentation skills.

The hands are a dead giveaway in presentations as well as in effective communication generally. A clammy, weak handshake sends completely the wrong message to someone you are meeting for the first time. Similarly, indecisive or non-existent hand gestures in a presentation give the impression that you lack confidence or are unsure of what you’re saying. And over-the-top or inappropriate gestures can be off-putting or devalue what you’re saying. But what can you do with your hands while presenting?

Firstly, you need a neutral resting position to come back to and from where you can deliver confident, definite hand gestures with ease. Where should that be? Hands behind the back give a rather over-formal impression like a school teacher or policeman. Meanwhile, hands in the pockets can appear too informal. We all know that crossing your arms closes you off from your audience and makes you seem dismissive.

One effective neutral position can be arms simply down by the side, however some people find it uncomfortable to just leave them hanging. The best resting position for most people is to have hands resting lightly against one another approximately in front of the naval. This position is in fact often used by professional news and television presenters and avoids the ‘fig leaf’ or ‘footballers’ pose! From here, your hands can easily move up, down, or sideways in gestures.

Gestures themselves should be used to illustrate your points and should punctuate what you’re saying. This helps to add interest to your presentation and keep your audience engaged, Presentation skills training or coaching will help you to learn to gesture in a way that appears natural and that enhances your presentation rather than detracting from it.

It can be extremely helpful to watch yourself on film delivering a presentation and to receive feedback from a trainer and peers. That way, you’ll be able to see whether you’re gesturing wildly, keeping too still, or have in fact got this part of your presentation skills just right.

Those who present effectively are able to combine a suite of different presentation skills and bring them all together in a way that appears confident and professional. At the same time, they appear natural, rather than like a performer or actor.

It can be difficult when you’re starting out to remember everything: hands, eyes, what you’re saying, how you say it. It all comes down to practice, feedback and more practice. Over time, your confidence will increase and these presentation skills will come all the more naturally.

Looking For More Information?

Make sure to explore other articles in the Negotiation category or contact us to suggest a website or a service to review.