Have you ever thought about how you use your hands when you’re speaking? Gesturing while you talk is an essential, but often overlooked aspect of strong professional communication. Body language can make a big difference in how your listener or audience receives your message, and can change the way that others perceive you. Take a look at the following strategies to make sure your gestures are working for you:
- Use gestures to draw attention to the parts of your message that you really want your listener to focus on. A well-timed gesture will subtly cue your audience to pay particular attention to what you’re saying, emphasize your point, and will make that moment more memorable later on.
- While staying stiff and motionless can come across as unnatural, so can gesturing too much or too often. Rather than creating contrived gestures, pay attention to the gestures you naturally use while speaking, and then adapt and modify them to suit your particular professional situation.
- Since gesture and body language are often automatic, you may have trouble recognizing and changing your patterns. Ask a friend or trusted colleague to keep an eye on how you use your hands while speaking for a day or two. Once you have feedback about your personal patterns from an outside perspective, it can be easier to shape them to project strong, professional communication
Want to learn more? Watch the following video to hear me give some additional tips and strategies for incorporating gesture into your communication:
Are you using gestures too much? Too little? If you are interested in coming in for our 10-point assessment designed to evaluate all aspects of your presentation skills, please give me a call at 212-308-7725 or send me an e-mail at info@corporatespeechsolutions.com. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
© 2016, Corporate Speech Solutions of New York City and Long Island – All Rights Reserved