Natural, not performative

In ten years as a communications coach, I’ve never started with body language when coaching a client. For me, all of that stuff comes last. First - you must understand your audience. Who are they? What do they need? How does your talk serve them? Second - your message had better be both useful and provocative, artfully shaped into a great story. Once your audience focus and content are nailed, then we can focus on the art of delivery, which includes how you use your voice, your eyes, and your gestures to deliver your exceptional message to your audience.

If I were distilling my advice down to three words, it would be this: “You do you.” Do NOT manufacture and memorize a set of gestures or expressions that you think look “professional” or “engaging.” You will only look like a robot, which will freak people out. Your gestures, facial expressions, and voice modulation must be organically your own. Naturalness is all.

In his book, Trust Me, Mitch Joel says the goal with gestures is to be open without thinking too hard about body language at all. Exactly. If you look like you’re thinking about it, people will perceive it.

So how do you find what’s natural for you? My colleague Hope Timberlake has great advice on how to build your own library of gestures. In her fabulously useful book, Speak Up, Dammit!, Hope suggests that you watch recordings of your talks (or even Zoom meetings) with the sound off to see what gestures you use. Did you smile? Grimace? Make direct eye contact? What are you doing with your hands? How is your torso positioned? Are you leaning in or away? Notice your good behaviors and use them again and again.

Duarte.com suggests finding naturalness by being physically comfortable. What helps you, the presenter, feel at ease? This is why I always tell my clients to be hydrated, fed, caffeinated, and wearing a favorite, but not brand new, outfit when going on stage.

Your voice is an essential tool for in-person and virtual presentations. Here’s more vital advice from Hope: “You will lose your listeners’ attention unless you vary your voice, emphasize specific words, raise and lower your tone, and diversify your volume.”

When people are reading, they can see new paragraphs and chapter headings on the page. But when they are listening, they can get lost in a monotone speaker’s delivery. Use your voice to cue your audience to transitions as you move through your content. And, when you pair a shift in your voice with your most engaged gestures, you signal to your audience that you’re hitting your talk’s crescendo.

Everything you do with your voice, expressions, and gestures should be natural and should enhance the experience for your semi-distracted audience. Everything that distracts - fidgeting, pacing, weird expressions - should be weeded out over time. This is why recording and reviewing your practice sessions is such a powerful way to improve.

Becoming a speaker who uses her voice, expressions, and gestures masterfully won’t come overnight, but if you focus on mastering one thing at a time, you can get there.

Great delivery doesn’t make bad content good, but it makes great content inspiring.

Not sure how to crush your next presentation? Persuade that difficult customer or team member? Navigate tough questions from regulators, press, your boss? How about some pragmatic, actionable communications advice?

If you are a startup founder, an intrapreneur at a company, or a leader looking to grow, consider Office Hours with Lisa, a great way to get bite-sized, personalized communications coaching. Because your business must scale and you must scale with it. Because it’s the great communicators who create change!