Corporate Training Partners

Move yourself, to move your audience
By Peter Sprague

How often have you seen a speaker begin her remarks standing in front of the lectern on the stage? "Whew, I'm glad she's out front" you think, assuming this presenter is getting ready to connect directly with her audience. But then the speech begins and you realize that while this speaker is making the effort to be out in front, she still doesn't understand how to use movement to increase the impact of her speech. Instead, she gives a fine demonstration of how pacing can distract your audience and interfered with the message! Hardly her intent, wouldn't you agree?

The symptoms in this the Speech Doctor's diagnosis are a presenter who:

Seems planted in the middle of the stage. You expect roots to grow at any time.
Paces. The opposite of the "tree," this presenter wears out the carpet on the platform. Back and forth, back and forth…the audience is mesmerized by the speaker's energy and loses all contact with her message.
Positions his hands in the classic "fig leaf" pose, modestly speaking to you while painfully aware that he is on display.
Uses movements that can only be described as stilted and strange. Herky-jerky, unnatural. The only thing worse than watching is realizing the speaker probably rehearsed these actions!

The remedy for this problem? Controlled and effective movement. Efficient, aware use of the speaking area to enhance your connection with the audience.

There are three keys to effective movement:

Move with a purpose
Move with your characters
Be aware, not rehearsed

Moving with a purpose means understanding exactly where you are moving when on platform and why you are moving there. For those pacers out there, moving with purpose is how you harness your energy and unleash it in productive ways. For example, in a speech I gave recently I told a story about a trip I had taken. I introduced the speech from center stage. When I went into the body of my speech, first speaking about how I planned the trip, I moved to the right of the stage. When telling about the first leg of the actual trip, I moved back to center. And so on. Each time I changed position on stage, it was connected to a change in my speech.

Another element of moving with purpose is to establish eye contact with a different part of your audience. Move to the right, look at the people in front on the right, through to people in the center, on to the people at the back left of your audience. Yes, you look diagonally across the room after the move, maximizing the number of people with whom you connect.

The next key is to use movement to create a contrast between the characters in your speech. This is especially important for story tellers. When telling a story recently about the Gingerbread Man, who leapt from the old woman's oven and ran away, past the old man, a horse, a cow and others in the story, I always went forward and center for the line repeatedly spoken by the Gingerbread Man. But for each character in the story, I moved to each side to speak their lines, first from the left, then from the right, and so on. This allowed me to use space to create a separation between the characters, as well as changing my voice for each one.

The third element of effective movement is to be natural without being rehearsed. Should you practice movement? Yes. But give yourself some flexibility. Let your movement come into your speech naturally. Instead of thinking, "Now I need to walk over here and look polished," just walk to where you want to go and try to forget about your hands, arms, legs, head, etc. The more you rehearse a specific way to move, the more it will look stilted. And what is your reaction to a speaker whose movements come across stilted, rehearsed and practiced? You start paying more attention to the speaker's movement, and less attention to the speaker's message.

Watch a good speaker's movement and gestures. You are almost unaware of the gestures, they seem so natural. That's because these gestures ARE natural. Chances are, these speakers would use these gestures if they were talking with you one on one while in an elevator! Which means the key to natural movement and gestures is getting comfortable with your audience. Then move your talk into "kitchen table" mode: how you would be talking to a group of friends while sitting around your kitchen table.

When you get our in front of the lectern, away from your notes and closer to your audience, you are taking a big step (literally and figuratively!) to increase your effectiveness. You remove boundaries that get in the way of connecting with your audience. Your next challenge is to use movement effectively. Remember to move with purpose, perhaps using different parts of your stage for different sections of your speech. Use movement to bring to life the characters in your speech. Lastly, be aware of your movements without over-rehearsing. Confident, natural movement will enhance your message.

Peter Sprague is the President of Corporate Training Partners, Inc. where he works with companies to transform potential into profits. You can contact Peter at 727.321.5077 or psprague@corporatetrainingpartners.com.