How to Use Hand Gestures in Public Speaking

Video Transcript

DON VARNEY: Hi, I'm Don Varney, founder of Varney Speaks, and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. One of the things you have to do as a professional speaker is master the art of looking at the entire room. The last thing you want to do is forget about the people on the left as you're constantly just looking at the people on the right. So learn to have a casual flow of your eyes, looking at people, making eye contact, letting them know that you're interested in them. Talk to the people in the back of the room as well as in the front. Eye contact becomes critical. The other thing is your gestures. So many people when they first start speaking, they think they have to do one, two, three--one, two, three. Their gestures are almost programmed like a robot. What you can find a lot of times is your gestures might just be something as simple as your hand in your pocket, showing a casual moment in your presentation, this hand just kinda casually being there moving about, emphasizing a point, pointing at something in the room. The hand comes out of the pocket, you switch, you move, you look, you come back. The key is let your hands flow naturally. Sometimes hand gestures are non-existent. There might be that time when you reached down, you grab your notepad, you look at it, you pull back up, you stand back up, you talk to your audience. The audience doesn't know that you don't need to make a gesture, so don't. So you'll find that hand gestures are impactful. They add credence to what you're saying. They let people know that this is important--"This may not be, but today, we're here for you." Think of how to use your gestures in an effective, impactful way to enhance that professional speaking career, not distract. As a public speaker, your gestures and your eye contact become important. If you're right-handed, there's a chance you're going to dominate the right side of the room. You can't do that as a speaker. You've got to remember that there's a left side of this room also and the people on the left are just as important as the people on the right. And then finally you can't forget that fellow sitting in the back because you want to make him feel that he is just as important as the people sitting right here in the front. Eye contact, your gestures--an important part of showing your professionalism as a public speaker.

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