Caution: Man-eating Lectern! |
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| Beware of spending your whole presentation standing behind the lectern. To make your speech come to life, you need to move around the stage a little - or that lectern will swallow you whole and turn you into a block of wood! Remember Courtney Wood in The Apprentice? What was it about his presentations that made his pitch so lacklustre? To be fair, he was having to perform under very high pressure, unrealistic circumstances – you are unlikely to be asked to pitch a new product or idea to an auditorium full of industry experts with only two days from concept to design to presentation. No wonder he succumbed to nerves. If you watched the coaching he was given before his final presentation, a lot of the work was around movement. It can be very hard to move naturally when giving a talk. Nervous novices (and even some experienced presenters) tend to fall into one of two camps: the ‘block of wood,’ or the ‘caged tiger.’ The block of wood will stand with all muscles tense and joints locked into position, motionless apart from possibly the odd spasmodic hand flap. The caged tiger, on the other hand, is never still, restlessly pacing back and forth, inducing motion sickness in his audience. How not to do it: Gordon Brown's 'Power for a Purpose' speech on 16/8/15 Walking 500 miles... Apparently he walked an astonishing 2400 steps (that's 1.3 miles) during the 50-minute speech! The ideal is, of course, somewhere between these two extremes. Enough movement to look natural and reassure your audience that you are not carved from stone, not so much that you distract from the content you are putting across. The main point to remember is: "Move with purpose"
Rather than having movement as a distraction, you can use it as a technique to reinforce your message. Here are some ideas:
to separate ideas visually. Depending on the size of your audience, you may want to mentally apportion them into three sections, and address your first remarks to the centre, then turn slightly and speak to the section on the right, then turn and speak to the section on your left.
audience. It's the same sort of body language that you'd use if you wanted to share an especially juicy piece of gossip with a close friend, and subconsciously implies that this is something worth listening to!
about the present, then move to the audience's right to talk about the future.
characters speaking, help your audience follow along by choosing a separate place to stand for each character's dialogue. The idea is to move during transitions between points, then stand still while you make your point. This makes your movement appear natural, keeps the audience’s attention and reinforces your message. As with everything, the more you do it, the more natural it will appear, so practise, practise, practise! Don't forget to look at our articles on posture and presentation for some more top tips. How do you incorporate movement into your presentations? Do you have any tips to share? Add your comments below. |
Walking 500 miles
Posted by
Katherine
Katherine has a background in teaching (primary and secondary) and in industry, where she regularly gave presentations to directors and senior management. She is happy to share the techniques she has learned to make your presentation engaging and informative. 
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