When we talk about body language, it doesn’t only refer to what we do with our hands & our eyes. Most of us have never asked ourselves whether our legs and our feet are supporting our message. This is particularly important to consider when you’re presenting on a stage face to face with our audience, especially if the platform is significantly raised. If you only ever present via video platform, nobody can see what is going on below laptop height , so you don’t need to worry– you can present in fluffy slippers so long as it doesn’t distract you!
Today I want to share with you 4 things to be mindful of when presenting ‘live’. Start noticing them now – when you’re at a party over Christmas perhaps - then you can start to control them when it matters.
1: STANCE - Beware of standing with one foot ahead of the other at an angle. It looks like a good balanced position, but it can look like you’re getting ready to run off stage at the earliest possible moment – it quite literally ‘puts you on the back foot’. This might well be what you’re feeling inside at the start of your presentation, but if you don’t show it in your body, you can convince your mind it’s not what you feel. What should you do instead? Stand with your feet hip width apart – it gives you a chance to stay balanced, present, and strong.
2: KNEES - Avoid locking your knees. I see a lot of locked knees in my business ; many presenters and performers do it on stage to their detriment. Why is it a problem? Because when we lock our knees, we also lock or tense a series of other muscles above it, which impedes our ability to (among other things) breathe quietly, freely and easily. This can have a knock-on effect on our nerves.
3: ROCKING (forward and back) – a frequent outcome from the locked knees; when we lock our knees, we have a tendency to stick our pelvis slightly forward and then it’s natural to lean or ‘rock’ the top of the body backwards from that position. This is a common stance in very young children (it sometimes looks like they’re standing with their tummies pushed out) – but as adults, we need to be careful of it otherwise it can take us back to playground days, and the feelings of powerlessness we may have experienced at the time – we disempower ourselves whilst giving a visual reminder of a child’s stance to our audience - not the image we were going for!
Stand strong with your weight evenly distributed between both your feet at the same time and keep your knees ‘loose’. You need a balanced stance to present at your best. There will be time to relax and chill afterwards.
I’ll be including stance, together with body language, eye contact, as well as the key verbal and vocal presentation skills in my next intensive training day and Masterclass , Presenter Skills for STEM Professionals on 1st February. Booking opens 27th December. https://juliacaddick.co.uk/presenter-skills-for-stem-professionals/
Julia Caddick
