Tag Archives: presentation

How to Use Hand Gestures in Public Speaking?

How to Use Hand Gestures in Public Speaking?

Do you know how to use hand gestures in public speaking?
What do you do with your hands?

Have you ever watched someone’s hand gestures when they are talking? Open hand gestures tend to make a person appear open and honest. Bringing hands together to a point can accent the point you are making.

Wringing your hands or excessively moving your fingers and hands will give away nervousness.

public speaking hand gestures

Read the article written by Jena McGregor and Shelly Tan dated November 17, 2015  (The Washington Post). It is a good reference for what to do with your hands while speaking in public.

What to do with your hands when speaking in public?

Here are the key points:

  1.  Keep hand movements descriptive.
  2.  Use open palm gestures to build the audience’s trust.
  3.  Keep your hands in the strike zone when possible.
  4.  Don’t point. Just don’t.
  5. Politicians love to use the “Clinton thumb.” Most people shouldn’t.
  6.  When you don’t know what to do, drop your hands to your sides for a moment.
  7. Avoid drawing attention to the wrong places.
  8. Conducting is for orchestras, not public speaking.
  9. Keep objects out of you hands.
  10. If behind a lectern, show your hands.
  11. Avoid “spider hands.”

The following youtube videos demonstrate how to use your hands – and how not to – while giving a presentation. I find these videos useful and would like to share with you.

Communication does not just consist of words. Less than 10% of the words we use in speaking gets through to others. On the other hand, over 55% of our body language is communicated to others very clearly. Whether you are trying to sell your product or service to a client or you are trying to persuade a group of people to change their behavior, it is critical that your words and gestures match. Many people have sabotaged their messages because their words were saying one thing, while their bodies were saying the exact opposite.

Can you think of a time when someone told you that he would be able to do something while his head was shaking no? Which did you believe, the words or the gesture? When your body movements are congruent with your words, your message will have a very powerful impact on your audience.

Gestures include your posture, the movement of your eyes, hands, face, arms and head, as well as your entire body. They help to support or reinforce a particular thought or emotion. If our gestures support our statements, we are communicating with a second sense. People tend to understand and remember messages better when more than one sense is reached.

Winston Churchill was a master at using gestures to powerfully bring home his point. During World War II, Churchill rallied the citizens of Great Britain to continue their fight against overwhelming odds. He often visited the neighborhoods of London, which had been devastated by bombs and walked through them with his fingers held up in the sign of a “V”. This victory sign accompanied his famous message, “Never give in. Never, never, never give in.” This gesture so powerfully communicated Churchill’s message that soon people gained greater resolve to continue fighting whenever they saw the victory sign.

People naturally use gestures in conversations. They are not on the spot, so they easily move their arms and hands and make facial expressions to illustrate the points they are trying to make. However, an amazing thing happens when people stand up in front of a group to speak. They suddenly think, “Oh no! What am I going to do with these things attached to my shoulders?” and they either don’t move them at all or they move them awkwardly. Gestures should be a natural extension of who we are. Presenters should strive to be themselves. They should be as spontaneous with their movements as if they were talking to their family or friends.

What are you doing with your hands? If you get nervous in social situations, you may feel that no matter what you do with your hands, it’s the wrong thing. Many people who cross their arms in front of their chest are probably doing so at least in part because they don’t know where else to put their hands.

You should never cross your arms in front of your chest unless you really don’t want anybody to approach you. That is the message this gesture sends out. If you want to look open and approachable, keep your arms at your sides. Holding your arm in front of your body can be seen as a signal that you want to defend yourself against other people.

Practice Makes Natural.
A good way to be comfortable with gestures is to know your speech well. Several of the most outstanding speakers offer the same piece of advice: “The key to effectively using gestures is to know your material so well, to be so well prepared, that your gestures will flow naturally.” Practice your speech and know it well so that you can enjoy sharing your message with others.

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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The Best 20 Public Speaking Tips from the TED Talks

a-good-emceePublic speaking is all about performance. Holding the interest of your audience throughout your presentation is an area documented in any public speaking course. Once you’ve learned ways to prepare your notes, conquered your fear of public speaking and brushed up your presentation skills, suggestions on great ways to captivate your audience is the next step.

While captivating an audience is a skill that takes years to develop, there are some simple ways to quickly improve your public speaking and presentation skills from the TED Talks.

Source: 20 Public Speaking Tips of the Best TED Talks

  1.  Always give the audience something to take home.
    Always provide something specific the audience can do almost immediately. No matter how inspiring your message, every audience appreciates learning a tangible way they can actually apply what they’ve learned to their own lives. Inspiration is great, but application is everything.
  2. Don’t defer answering questions.
    If a question pops up in the middle of your presentation, that’s awesome: Someone is listening! So seize the opportunity. If you would have addressed it in a later slide, skip ahead. 
  3.  Ask a question you can’t answer.
    Asking questions to engage the audience often feels forced. Instead ask a question you know the audience can’t answer and then say, “That’s okay. I can’t either.” Explain why you can’t and then talk about what you do know.
  4. Fuel your mental engine.
    Let’s start with some preparation tips. Dopamine and epinephrine help regulate mental alertness. Both come from tyrosine, an amino acid found in proteins. So make sure to include protein in the meal you eat before you need to be at your best.
  5. Burn off a little cortisol.
    Cortisol is secreted by your adrenal glands when you’re anxious or stressed. High levels of cortisol limit your creativity and your ability to process complex information; when you’re buzzed on cortisol, it’s almost impossible to read and react to the room. The easiest way to burn off cortisol is to exercise.
  6. Create two contingency plans.
    If you’re like me, “What if?” is your biggest source of anxiety: What if your PowerPoint presentation fails, someone constantly interrupts, or your opening falls flat? Pick two of your biggest fears and create contingency plans.
  7. Establish a pre-routine.
    Instead of creating a superstition, create a routine that helps center you emotionally. Walk the room ahead of time to check sight lines. Check microphone levels. Run through your presentation at the site to ensure it’s ready to go.
  8. Set a backup goal.
    You should always have two goals in mind: one that you really want to achieve, and another that you’ll aim for if the first doesn’t work out. Why should you be prepared to give up on your primary goal? It will allow you to walk away from one failed attempt without feeling like a complete failure.
  9. Share a genuinely emotional story.
    Tell a story and let your emotions show. If you were sad, say so. If you cried, say so. If you felt remorse, let it show. When you share genuine feelings you create an immediate and lasting connection with the audience. Emotion trumps speaking skills every time.
  10. Pause for 10 seconds.
    Pause for two or three seconds and audiences assume you’ve lost your place; five seconds, they think the pause is intentional; after 10 seconds even the people texting can’t help looking up. When you start speaking again, the audience naturally assumes the pause was intentional … and that you’re a confident and accomplished speaker.
  11. Share one thing no one knows.
    Find a surprising fact or an unusual analogy that relates to your topic. Audiences love to cock their heads and think, “Really? Wow…”
  12. Benefit the audience instead of “selling.”
    Put all your focus on ensuring that the audience will benefit from what you say; never try to accomplish more than one thing. When you help people make their professional or personal lives better, you’ve done all the selling you’ll need to do.
  13. Don’t make excuses.
    Due to insecurity, many speakers open with an excuse: “I didn’t get much time to prepare”¦” or, “I’m not very good at this.” Excuses won’t make your audience cut you any slack, but they will make people think, “Then why are you wasting my time?” Do what you need to do to ensure you don’t need to make excuses.
  14. Don’t do your prep onstage.
    Don’t wait until you’re onstage to check your mic, your lighting, your remote, or your presentation. And if something does fail, smile and try to look confident while you (or others) take care of the problem. When things go wrong, what really matters is how you react.
  15. Don’t overload your slides.
    Roughly speaking, your fonts will be between 60 and 80 points. If you need to fit more words on a slide, that means you haven’t tightened your message.
  16. Don’t ever read your slides.
    Your audience should be able to almost instantly scan your slides; if they have to actually read, you might lose them. And you’ll definitely lose them if you read to them. Your slides should accentuate your points; they should never be the point.
  17. Focus on earning attention.
    Make your presentation so interesting, so entertaining, and so inspiring that people can’t help but pay attention. It’s not the audience’s job to listen; it’s your job to make them want to listen.
  18. Always repeat audience questions.
    Unless microphones are available, rarely will everyone in the audience hear questions other audience members ask. Always repeat the question and then answer it. It’s not only courteous, but it also provides you with a little more time to think of an awesome way to answer each question.
  19. Always repeat yourself.
    Create a structure that allows you to repeat and reinforce key points. First explain a point, then give examples of how that point can be applied, and at the end provide the audience with action steps they can take based on that point. What you repeat has a much greater chance of being remembered–and being acted upon.
  20. Always, always run short.
    If you have 30 minutes, take 25. If you have an hour, take 50. Always respect your audience’s time and end early. Finish early and ask if anyone has questions. But never run long–because all the goodwill you built up could be lost.

Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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Public Speaking Tips: What is Your Message?

Public Speaking Tips: What is Your Message?

When you are preparing a presentation, one of the first things to do is to focus on your message.  Think of your message as the one thing you would like the audience to remember from your presentation.

For more information, check out the below article “Presentation Skills: What Is Your Message?”

If you want to overcome stage fright and learn to speak with confidence, join a toastmasters club.  You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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Presentation Skills: What Is Your Message?
By Gilda Bonanno

When you are preparing a presentation, one of the first things to do is to focus on your message.

Think of your message as the one thing you’d like the audience to remember from your presentation. State it in one sentence, if you can – think of it as fitting on a headline of a newspaper or a billboard.

What’s the one thing stated, succinctly, in one sentence, that you’d like the audience to take away from your presentation? Whether you are talking for ten minutes or an hour, what would you like the audience to remember?

If we were to interview the audience after your presentation and ask, “What was the point of that presentation? What was the message?” would they all say the same thing? They may describe it using different words, but in essence, it should be the same content.

We’d want them to say, “Well, the point of that was to understand the three reasons for not moving ahead with this project now.” Or,”Well, the purpose of that presentation was so he could explain his management philosophy, and how he’s going to lead the team.” Or, “The purpose of that was to explain the first quarter numbers, and why they are not as good as we expected.”

So before you start putting together your material, your outline, and your slides, it’s important for you to be clear on your message. State it in one or two sentences and write it on the top of your notes or outline.

Because, if you’re not clear about exactly what you’re trying to communicate, it’s going to be very difficult for the audience to understand it.

To get more tips you can use immediately to improve your presentation skills, sign up for Gilda Bonanno’s free twice-monthly e-newsletter by visiting http://www.gildabonanno.com/Pages/newsletter.aspx and entering your email address.  Copyright 2013

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gilda_Bonanno

http://EzineArticles.com/?Presentation-Skills:-What-Is-Your-Message?&id=7806797

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Public Speaking Tips for Better Presentations

Public Speaking Tips for Better Presentations

Do you want to be a better public speaker this year?
Follow the 10 step plan to build presentation self-confidence and reduce anxiety when speaking in public.

If you want to overcome stage fright and learn to speak with confidence, join a toastmasters club.

You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.

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New Year’s Resolution – 10 Steps to Prepare Better Presentations
By Andrew Ivey

New Year. New Year’s resolution. Like most things that are worthwhile it’s true that when we invest solid preparation in an important presentation we achieve a better result. I have never doubted it — but some times I have definitely been better prepared than on other occasions. So, in common with most people I have decided on a New Year’s resolution this January — be better prepared for my business presentations.

But this time, since my previous New Year’s resolutions rarely lasted much beyond February, I have noted down the key elements of better preparation. This simple check list should ensure that I am both better prepared for my presentations and less apprehensive about the output. It is equally true that sound preparation results in higher self-confidence and lower anxiety when speaking in public. Now that’s a bonus objective.

  • Write it down. Be prepared to write or type the whole of the presentation in full. Check over the length of the sentences and abbreviate where necessary.
  • Organize it. Aim to type the presentation in a standard lower case style using double line spacing. Use capitals at the start of a sentence or to emphasize certain words or phrases only. Begin each sentence on a new line. This will be important if you are to read the presentation from this script. Remember to select a typeface that you can read easily.
  • Mark it up. Word process the presentation with the appropriate mood advice, intonation markings and advice for extra emphasis. These pointers are for you — they should not feature in any scripts that you give to the organizer, the audience or the Press.
  • Read it. Read the presentation fully all the way through. Repeat this procedure several times becoming more and more familiar with the words and phrases. Where any particular words or sentences don’t work then mark these up for subsequent editing. This is the best time to ensure that all the words sound right and you are not to be caught out by tricky pronunciation. Continue reading
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Powerpoint Presentation Tips

These days, powerpoint slides are very common for business or sales presentations.

How to conduct effective powerpoint shows?

Here are some powerpoint presentation tips as stated in the Toastmaster International website:

“Keep your visual aids:

  • Visible
  • Simple
  • Colorful, but don’t let them upstage you
  • Justified by the content — not too many or too few slides

For effective PowerPoint shows:

  • Don’t read the slides to your audience!
  • Make your text large.
  • Choose colors that make the text easier to read.
  • Use bullet points instead of full sentences.
  • Don’t let the text or graphics fly around too much.
  • Avoid charts and diagrams that are hard to see.

Most Importantly – Remember, you control the presentation; don’t let it control you. PowerPoint should be a “visual aid” – not the entire show.”

In the Basic Competent Communication Manual by the Toastmaster International , there is a project helping you to “Get Comfortable with Visuals Aids”.

Just join a toastmaster club and learn how to conduct effective powerpoint presentations.

Yetti

Club President 2007-2008
Kowloon-Singapore Toastmasters Club
“Helping You To Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Speak With Confidence!”
Website:
http://public-speaking-singapore.com
Blog: https://blog.public-speaking-singapore.com

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