Jan 28, 2021
What Do I Do With My Hands When Presenting
One of our problem areas is what to do with our hands when we speak. Judging by most of the presentations I see in Japan, few speakers have worked this out yet. Here are some common habits we can improve upon to make ourselves much more persuasive and professional.
The arms and hands when held in front of the body create a subliminal barrier between the audience and the speaker. It is saying “I don’t trust you, I am scared of you and I need to protect my most vital organs from you, in case of sudden attack”. We want to show we are totally confident and have a welcoming attitude to our audience.
Since cave dweller days, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands are not visible to us. They may have been concealing a weapon. Instead have the palms open and facing forward, a gesture which is universal and timeless indicating “I am not a threat to you, because, as you see I have no hidden weapon”.
In speaking term though, these postures send all the wrong messages. We want to be trusted as a speaker and to do so, we have to show we are open to our audience.
Sheets of paper can become a distraction as we tend to wave them around. The pages quiver and shake if we are nervous and this is visible to our audience. We are sending the wrong message to them. We want to convey belief and confidence in our message. We want to remove all distractions from what we are communicating and we want to free up our hands so we can employ our gestures to bolster our argument.
Don’t touch the microphone stand at all. Restrict the hand microphone usage to one hand only, so the other is free and readily available for emphasis