Body language in
public speaking

What is body language?
Body language is part of non-verbal communication. It is the combination of
movements, gestures, and postures. This includes the way a speaker talks,
moves and looks on stage. Body language is part of the message a speaker
wants to give.
Many people only think body language is only about the way you position
yourself on stage. This is a big part of it, but there is much more. Body
language shows your confidence. The right attitude on stage gives you an air
of authority, which supports your story.

The importance of body language in public speaking
Why is body language important? You can say that having the
wrong body language makes that your talk almost can’t be a
success. You need a lot of talent on other elements to make up for
bad body language.
Some examples of bad body language include: turning your back
to the audience, moving around too much or hiding behind a desk.
Gesturing also can have a bad influence on your talk. Being too
aggressive in your gestures, drumming your fingers or even biting
your nails are also bad examples.
But even when you aren’t doing a bad job, improving your body
language can have a big effect. Especially on the way, the audience
receives your talk. It can make a difference between a nice talk and
actually persuading people. This is why it is important for everyone
to pay attention to.

What elements to pay attention to
Good body language means you are paying attention to different elements. For example,
you have to know how to move, where to look, where to stand and what gestures to
make.
Looking at your audience
Where are you on stage?

Happy vs sad
Importance of facial expressions: are you smiling?
Think about your energy level
Be in control

How body language can impact an audience

The biggest element in communication is not your words, it’s your
body language. What you say with your body is more important than
what you say with your mouth.
Being able to communicate with your body makes that your impact on
an audience can be much bigger.
That’s because your body brings emotion to the story.
World Champion Public Speaking 2015, Mohammed Qathani, uses
some smart techniques that help him capture the attention of the
audience.
In this video, we break down how Qathani uses body language to
make a more powerful story.

Moving on
stage
Facial
expressions
Connect to
the audience
with gestures

8 Elements of Confident Body Language

1. Power pose
Why? In 2011, US social psychologists Amy Cuddy, Dana Carney
and Andy Yap proposed that holding a ‘powerful pose’ resulted
in people actually feeling more powerful. Their theory suggests
that an open pose can raise testosterone levels and lower your
cortisol levels - ie. increase your dominance and lower your
stress.

How:
1. Stand straight with your shoulders back and feet shoulder
width apart.
2. Imagine your shoulders opening up from one another so
that they rest centrally.
3. Place your hands either side of your body so that you can
easily make hand gestures when you need to.
4. Face the audience as much as possible. If you’re in a large
room, tilt your whole body towards different parts of the
audience so everyone feels included.

2. Eye contact
Why? Making eye contact with your audience builds a
connection between you and them and they feel more valued
by you. This makes the audience more likely to respect and
listen to you because they feel important. It also makes the
audience trust you more because people tend to avoid eye
contact when they’re lying.
Confident body language can also be used as a feedback loop.
Making eye contact is the easiest to way to receive feedback
from the audience about your speech. You can see if your
audience are listening and read their facial expressions to see if
they are interested, bored, angry, happy, and so on.

3. Hand gestures
Why? When used correctly, hand and arm gestures can help enhance
your message and make you seem more confident and relaxed.
Gestures amplify your stories and will help you come across as more
genuine and believable. They’re an essential element of our non-
verbal communication in showing others how we feel, and in turn
how we make them feel.
Hand gestures are one of the most clear non-verbal ways we
communicate confident body language or nervous body language -
and your audience will react more positively to the former.

How:
• Think of your hand gestures as a storytelling tool; put verbs into action by
acting them out with your hands.
• Don’t overdo it - gesture sparingly, and focus on action words. Make your
gestures strong and defined.
• Begin in a neutral position with your hands either side of your body so that
your hand gestures flow smoothly.
• Use symbolic gestures to communicate numbers and position, eg. 2 fingers
for the number 2 and a raised hand for stop.
• Use descriptive gestures to communicate movement, eg. shapes, size,
length, etc.
• Use emotional gestures to communicate feelings, eg. hands clasped
together to show pleading, hands raise either side of your head to show
despair.
• When using visual aids, point and turn slightly to look at the relevant data,
and the audience will automatically follow your hands and eyes.
• Vary your gestures with different parts of your body. You don’t have to just
use your arms- you could use your legs, facial expressions and full body
movement as gestures too.

4. Movement
Why? Moving around the stage is a great way of showing your
audience you are confident in what you’re saying and including
everyone in the conversation. Commanding the space around you
shows strong leadership and, after all, when you’re presenting you are
the leader. When you have confident body language, you’ll be more
dynamic and interesting to listen to and your audience will not only
be more engaged but they will have more trust in your message too.

How:
• Don’t pace around the stage every 30 seconds - this is
distracting to your audience. Wait at least 3 minutes before
moving to another area of the stage.
• Time your movement on stage with a change in topic - this
is a way of physically marking the transition.
• Move towards the audience when asking questions or
making an important point.
• When you’re walking to another side of the stage, try to
avoid turning your back to any areas of the audience as this
disconnects them and can come across as rude.
• Avoid swaying or rocking on the spot - either walk to
another area of the stage or don’t move your entire body at
all.

5. Expressions
Why? People depend on facial expressions to interpret motives
and emotions so an audience will respond better to you if you
are expressive. This is a bit like acting - you want to emphasize
your expressions so that everyone in the audience can
interpret meaning from them.
You could film yourself speaking and identify artificial or
unfriendly facial expressions you make when telling a story and
replace them with more genuine, believable expressions. Try to
practice speaking with your face to show happiness, sadness,
anger, and surprise. Your face should reflect the emotions
within your stories.

How:
• When trying to show shock or confusion,
raise your eyebrows.
• If you’re conveying anger or concern,
frown.
• When you’re happy in your story, simply
smile.
• For sad moments, frown a little and slightly
tilt the sides of your lips downwards.

6. Mannerisms
Why? Mannerisms are the nervous habits most
people have that detract from your message and
can make the audience feel uncomfortable. They
are key to confident body language. Common
habits you have that you might not be aware of
are fiddling with your hair or suit, putting your
hands in your pockets, and excessively using filler
words such as ‘um,’ ‘so’ and ‘like’.

How:
• To break these habits, film yourself speaking
and become aware of them.
• You could ask a trusted friend to tell you if you
have any.
• Once you’ve acknowledged your nervous
habits, work in your everyday conversation to
break them. If you can break them on a small
scale, you’ll likely find they disappear in front
of larger audiences too.

7. Breathing
Why? Even though your audience can’t see your breath, it is
a significant factor in portraying confident body language.
Maintaining a slow, steady breath can reduce your stress
levels and make you less likely to revert to nervous habits,
bad posture and excessive movement. Relaxed and deep
breaths also ensure that you’re speaking at the right pace
and your voice can project across the room, which in itself
will make you feel and sound more confident.

How:
• Before you present or speak in public, do some
breathing exercises to warm up your voice and
fill your lungs. Slowly inhale for 3 seconds, and
exhale for 4 seconds. Repeat this as often as
you need to, in order to feel calm.
• Always make sure you’re standing up straight
so that your lungs can expand fully.

How:
• Before you present or speak in public, do some
breathing exercises to warm up your voice and
fill your lungs. Slowly inhale for 3 seconds, and
exhale for 4 seconds. Repeat this as often as
you need to, in order to feel calm.
• Always make sure you’re standing up straight
so that your lungs can expand fully.

8. Voice
Why? Your vocal expression is physical and so your body language has
an effect on your voice and can enhance or detract from the message
of your speech.
Albert Mehrabian wrote extensively on the relative importance of
verbal and non-verbal messages and his findings have been quoted
for years as the ‘7 - 38 - 55 Rule’. That is: our words convey 7% of
meaning, our tone 38% and our body language makes up 55% of what
the audience will remember.

How:
• Imagine you have a string on the crown of your head
that is being gently pulled. This will help elongate your
spine, maximise your rib cage and allow more air to
inflate your lungs and support your vocal expression.
• Watch videos of good and bad speeches to see how
their words are in tune with their body language, or
how they are not.
• Practice varying your pitch. You can do this with the
VirtualSpeech app that you gain access to when
purchasing the Essential Public Speaking course.

Exercises

Tongue In-and-Outs
Stick your tongue out and hold it for 2 seconds,
then pull it back in. Hold for 2 seconds, and repeat

Tongue Side-to-Side
Open your mouth and move your tongue to touch the right
corner of your mouth.
Hold for 2 seconds, then touch the left corner of your mouth.
Hold for 2 seconds, and repeat.

Tongue Up-and-Down
Open your mouth and stick your tongue out.
Then, reach your tongue up toward your nose.
Hold for 2 seconds, then reach your tongue down toward your chin.
Hold for 2 seconds, and repeat.

Say Cheese!
To help improve control of your lips, practice smiling in front of a mirror.
Smile, then relax. Repeat as much as you can stand.

Consonant &
Vowel Pairing Repetition
Once you have exercised your tongue, you can start to practice
making sounds.
Take a consonant that you have trouble saying, and then pair
it with each of the 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

PERSONAL AND
SOCIAL BENEFITS OF
SPEAKING IN PUBLIC

MODERN
ELEMENTS