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How to
Gesture Effectively
(c) 1997 LJL Seminars
Gestures are reflections of every speaker's individual
personality. What's right for one speaker may not be
right for another; however, the following six rules
apply to anyone who seeks to become a dynamic effective
speaker.
1. Respond naturally to what you think, feel, and see. -
It's natural for you to gesture, and it's unnatural for
you not to. If you inhibit your impulse to gesture, you
will probably become tense.
2. Create the condition for gesturing, not the gesture -
When you speak, you should be totally involved in
communicating-not thinking about your hands. Your
gestures should be motivated by the content of your
presentation.
3. Suit the action to the word and the occasion - Your
visual and verbal messages must function as partners in
communicating the same thought or feeling. Every gesture
you make should be purposeful and reflective of your
words so the audience will note only the effect, not the
gesture itself. Don't overdo the gesturing. You'll draw
the listener away from your message. Young audiences are
usually attracted to a speaker who uses vidorous
gestures, but older, more conservative groups may feel
irritated or threatened by a speaker whose physical
actions are overwhelming.
4. Make your gestures convincing - Your gestures should
be lively and distinct if they are to convey the
intended impressions. Effective gestures are vidorous
enough to be convincing yet slow enough and broad enough
to be clearly visible without being overpowering.
5. Make your gestures smooth and well timed - Every
gesture has three parts:
The Approach - Your body begins to move in anticipation.
The Stroke - The gesture itself.
The Return - This brings your body back to a balanced
posture.
The flow of a gesture - the approach, the stroke, the
return-must be smoothly executed so that only the stroke
is evident to the audience. While it is advisable to
practice gesturing, don't try to memorize your every
move. This makes your gesturing stilted and ineffective.
The last rule is perhaps the most important but also the
hardest.
6. Make natural, spontaneous gesturing a habit- The
first step in becoming adept at gesturing is to
determine what, if anything, you are doing now. The best
way to discover this is to videotape yourself. The
camcorder is completely truthful and unforgiving. If you
want to become a better speaker, you need to make the
camcorder your best friend.
Videotape yourself and identify your bad habits, then
work at eliminating them, one at a time. You will need
to continue to record yourself and evaluate your
progress if you expect to eliminate all your distracting
mannerisms.
To improve gestures, practice - but never during a
speech. Practice gesturing while speaking informally to
friends, family member, and coworkers.
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- Lenny Laskowski
- Lenny Laskowski is an international professional speaker and the author
of the book, No Sweat Presentations - The Painless Way to Successful Speaking and several
other publications. Lenny is also available for hire to speak to your organization,
college or association. Lenny also provides in-house seminars and workshops. Why not
contact Lenny today for your next function or event. Lenny can be found at his Web site, http://www.ljlseminars.com/ or can be contacted by
email at the following address: Sales@LJLSeminars.com.
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