Sometimes, one gesture is all it takes. How can you effectively tailor your actions to your speech?
Wednesday: Speak on the Shoulders of Giants
What good is your awesome content if it is not delivered properly in a speech or presentation?
Good communication skills are a vital necessity to everyone. As an independent professional, it’s important that you be equipped with all the training and tips necessary to enhance your public speaking skill.
After all, the better you communicate, the better you’ll convince people to your call-to-action and influence them to make the right decisions in their lives.
Keep reading to know how your gestures can help you communicate effectively with your audience and enable them to easily remember main points in your presentation.
I hope you find this week’s topic informative as you rehearse for your next presentation.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Speak on the Shoulders of Giants
What do you think is a good bottle of wine?
Do you choose based on the type of grape, vintage, or appellation?
During one of the finance masterclasses conducted by Professor Joel Litman, President and CEO, he asked the same question.
Majority of the people in that class thought that a bottle of 2008 Bordeaux wine is considered a good one. Professor Litman used this to explain his analogy of the FIFO and LIFO accounting methods used in managing inventory.
He held his left fist up as he explained the concept of FIFO. Then, he held his right fist up as he explained LIFO
After giving a brief explanation of each method, both his fists were up. This specific gesture made for a very notable and unforgettable point during the discussion. A lot of the students in that class effectively remembered what he said when differentiating the two methods.
That’s all he had to do, and they remembered.
This public speaking secret is called THE POWER GESTURE.
James C. Humes’ book, “Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln” contains powerful secrets of the greatest speakers in history. One of those secrets is the Power Gesture.
Body language is important in any conversation or presentation. It sets the tone on how the person you’re talking to or the audience sees you. In some instances, it’s what will make your audience determine whether you’re worth listening to.
An action or gesture can emphasize credibility in a statement, and you can also use this to stress a certain point or topic.
Any gesture works depending on what you want to say. It could be your right palm up facing the audience, it could be a smile, it could be a thumbs up or down, or it could even be a clap. Anything that is appropriate.
It’s a piece of what James C. Humes calls, “communications magic.”
Use this sparingly, of course.
You don’t need to walk around doing all sorts of gestures and actions to incorporate this tip into every part of your presentation. Would you want your audience to remember you dancing on stage instead of discussing or emphasizing an important piece of information?
We don’t think so.
“One gesture may be all it takes to get your point across.”
Use this tip wisely.
A really good example from the book can give us a better grasp:
“Another executive I knew once opened a company meeting by pointing his finger like a pistol, aiming, and firing three times. He followed up by outlining three ways they were going to ‘kill’ their chief competitor: ‘by lower costs’ (he cocked his finger in trigger action), ‘by better marketing’ (he cocked again), ‘and by a new advertising campaign’ (and he flashed his index finger as a pistol once again).” p. 103
This executive definitely made an impression on his team about their plan during the meeting. He only mentioned those three ways but it gave the rest of the team a sense of determination in beating their competition.
We often hear that “actions speak louder than words” and, in some instances, they really do.
Sometimes, it packs more of a punch when you use less words.
Try doing a power gesture in your next presentation! The right action can really magnify a certain moment that you want your audience to remember.
“Acts by the body can count more than words. Silent signals can register even louder than speech.” – James C. Humes
Hope you’ve found this week’s public speaking tip interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s Speak on the Shoulders of Giants!
