An Expert Guide for Effective Body Language in Public Speaking

Ashish Arora
7 min readDec 20, 2024

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Have you noticed how some people walk into the room, and everyone’s gaze follows them for those initial seconds? Or how sometimes a serious and honest gaze can convince people of something hours of reasoning couldn’t?

Body language is powerful. In fact, it is sometimes more influential than spoken words. Because words can still deceive, but vibes and energy can’t.

In something as important as public speaking — negative body language could very well mean the death of your presentation.

If you are unsure how you communicate with your body, fear not! We have you covered! Here’s all you need to know about body language. And what’s more, we share some powerful tips that will help you up your game and communicate more impressively.

But before moving ahead, let’s find out what it means.

What do you mean by Body Language?

Body language, in simple terms, is your communication through your body. We communicate through spoken words but also nonverbally, which expresses and concretizes itself through eye contact, body movements, facial expressions, and gestures.

Benefits of a Positive Body Language

  • It’s a powerful tool of engagement.
  • It will highlight you as a credible speaker and improve your presentation by making it look more authentic.
  • It will enhance your confidence and communication.
  • Positive verbal cues considerably reduce stress and anxiety, giving you a better chance of succeeding in your presentation.
  • You can count on a positive first impression and a stronger rapport with the audience.
  • There are better chances to persuade people by demonstrating leadership potential through gestures.
  • Positive body language can help you enhance your speech, demonstrate gravitas, and deliver a high-impact presentation.

10 Tips to Use Body Language to Your Advantage

1. Look People in the Eye

Eye contact is a vital thing for communication. If you don’t look someone in the eye while talking, they can infer that you are untrustworthy or underconfident, which can considerably undermine your authority.

Looking people in the eye will make you feel more comfortable and help you gauge whether they understand you. It will also help you build a genuine connection with people and engage better.

Few tips:

  • Scan the crowd. Find 4–5 friendly faces in different parts. Look at them while talking to cover the entire audience.
  • Try to talk only when you meet someone’s gaze and not like reading through your notes. Your presentation is meant to address people, so maintain that.
  • Looking at someone and quickly moving the gaze away is quite impersonal. So, allow people the time for one or two sentences and then look at another person.
  • You can try looking at people’s noses or foreheads if eyes seem intimidating or too personal.
  • Try practicing it with people you know to rectify issues like overstaring, excessive blinking, frequent eye contact drops, and so on.

2. Emphasize with Hand Gestures

Hand gestures are handy when you want to emphasize points and stress over something. Even when talking to someone one-on-one, it’s normal for people to move their hands around animatedly, even unconsciously.

Few tips:

  • Don’t cross your arms when delivering your speech; it will make you look closed off (an implied barrier between you and people) and defensive.
  • During communication, hands in the pocket or beside the body can make you look bad.
  • You can add energy and strength to your words by moving your hands above shoulder height.
  • Your gestures should be big and purposeful and last more than a few seconds to convey leadership and authority. Don’t make small, unnecessary flapping movements for the sake of hand gestures, as they can have the opposite effect.
  • In case of no hand movements, keep them still in the front, with bent elbows.
  • Keep your hands loosely on the furniture if you stand behind a podium. You don’t want to display a rigid upper body.

3. Work on a Good Posture and Body Movement

Slouching, standing rigid, or maintaining a tense posture are nonverbal gestures that communicate uneasiness. People who see you like that will share your energy and respond the same way.

Instead, stand tall and upright and maintain an open posture to make people feel welcomed and inclusive.

Few tips:

  • Keep your feet shoulder-width apart from each other.
  • Your body should always be facing people, even when you are pinpointing something on the screen.
  • The bottom half of your body should be still at all times, with movement only in the upper half. Also, avoid shifting weights from one leg to another.
  • Plan your movements with your speech to make it come naturally to you.
  • Don’t pace back and forth on the podium. Make a point, move to another part of the stage, and do another. Command the space to look inviting, comfortable, and authoritative.
  • You can also use props to accentuate your point and add fun and interest to your speech.
  • Power poses can make you feel comfortable and confident.

4. Focus on Your Breathing

Have you noticed your breathing is erratic and short when you are tense?

Doing the vice versa can also get you in a calm mind state. Don’t believe us? Try it.

Regulate your breathing, and you will see how you start getting calmer and more precise in your head. You can do the same on the stage. Control your breathing to control your nerves and deliver confidently.

Few tips:

  • Try breathing from your diaphragm to help you regulate your voice.
  • Do rhythmic or long breathing before you step on the stage.

5. Express Through Your Face

Face expressions say a lot.

Picture someone agreeing to the terms of some deal with a smirk. You won’t believe what they are saying, right?

Facial expressions can communicate all your emotions and are essential to the nonverbal engagement strategy.

You can supplement your words with emotions like enthusiasm, seriousness, excitement, or concern to enhance your delivery and make people connect better with your speech. For instance, you can squint your face and eyes to express doubt or widen your eyes with a smile to show admiration or awe.

Few tips:

  • Record yourself or practice in front of the mirror to see what your face says while you talk — do you express yourself correctly, have a poker face, or overexpress yourself?
  • Smiling is the most potent weapon to make people feel comfortable and a great icebreaker. Smile at people when you step on the stage to convey instant warmth.

6. Be Authentic

You don’t want to be one of those blow-your-own trumpet presenters. There is nothing more turn-off than listening to people ranting about how important or credible they are in their field.

The one thing that will help you form a connection with people is being yourself. Let them see the real you — with your vulnerabilities and strength. Even if you are nervous on stage, you can let people see it.

A lot of popular speeches follow a similar trajectory. People connect to the presenters more after they see and feel that human emotion of nervousness and stress before something big. It makes presenters look genuine and human.

Few tips:

  • Share anecdotes and personal stories that are relatable to the content. Your body language should convey the same emotions.
  • Be earnest in your expressions. You don’t have to imitate or overdo anything: people can sense when you are being fake.

7. Adapt to Your Environment

We often don’t know the environment or the people who will be a part of our audience.

In that case, be open to adapting and improvising as needed.

Few tips:

  • See how people respond to your spoken and unspoken language. Do what is necessary to adapt in real-time and make your speech resonate with people.

For instance, move around the stage if you feel people need to feel more inclusive, or you can start an activity that involves everyone.

8. Be Aware of Your Habits

Now, you might habitually move your legs or run your hands through your hair frequently. We don’t notice these things, but when it comes to public speaking, they can be substantial distracting factors and risk making you look unprofessional.

Few tips:

  • Be mindful of your distracting habits and get rid of them. You can practice in front of the mirror or record yourself to figure out.
  • Ask your friends or family if they have noticed anything you don’t see. That way, you will be able to make the necessary changes.

9. Practice

Practicing is the solution to all your problems.

First, practice to get your presentation down cold. Once you are thorough with the content, you can focus better on the delivery. Next, see how your body communicates with the spoken words.

Do you move around nervously? Do you animate a lot with your hands? Do you turn your eyes away quickly? Do you stand still at one part of the stage?

Few tips:

  • Record yourself to assess and rectify, or you can practice in front of the mirror. Analyze every small thing and make corrections one by one to perfect your presentation delivery. Consistent self-analysis and improvement are the keys to a perfect presentation.
  • Practice in front of people to get feedback.

10. Observe the Response and Respond Accordingly

You might be doing everything perfectly, but it will be a waste if people don’t respond positively. The best way to work around that is by assessing people’s honest reactions.

Few tips:

  • Focus on your presentation, but keep an eye open for how people receive your words. If you see a tense environment, smile at people, pause, and address the concern. You can also get down the stage and move around people to make them feel more inclusive.

In a Nutshell

Your body language should be, without fail and at all times, positive and welcoming towards people. You might be very efficient with spoken words, but if you communicate arrogance or discomfort with your body, people will take that in, too, and respond accordingly.

Nonverbal communication is important for three purposes. It can replace words (e.g., a smile without saying anything), reinforce words (e.g., nodding and saying yes), and underline your actual feelings (e.g., an angry face when agreeing to something).

Work on your postures and gestures to create a positive atmosphere and avoid sending mixed signals and confusing people.

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Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora

Written by Ashish Arora

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