10 Body Language Tips Every Speaker Must Know

A lot of my time I use teaching, giving lectures, doing workshops or giving speeches. Maybe as much as 20-25 hours every week I spend on ”the stage”.

And I, as Kristin Piombino (author of the article in www.entrepreneur.com from december 2013) knows that when giving a presentation or speak in front of a group, not only are our words important, but the body language that accompanies them. In the academic world they are speaking about “class management”.

Your words may give the audience one message while your body sends quite another.

As if getting the words out wasn’t hard enough, right?

This infographic from SOAP Presentations lists 10 body language tips to employ during your next presentation. These tips range from how to get the audience to like you, to how to make sure the audience remembers your key points.

 

For example:

1. To get the audience to like you, make eye contact. People tend to pay more attention to and like those who look them in the eye.

2. To boost your confidence, open your chest and arms, and keep your back straight.

3. To demonstrate authority, be calm and use small, stiff gestures.

4. To draw the audience’s attention to something, point directly at it and look at it yourself. The audience will follow your lead.

5. To convince the audience of something, use positive gestures — smiling, nodding, open movements, etc. — throughout the presentation.