When does your presentation delivery become a liability? There’s a common trope about using gestures in my field. So many leaders worry, “Am I gesturing too much?” This is almost never the problem. The real problem is all the other things they’re doing in their delivery that distract from their message. In this article, I’ll share three common delivery pitfalls that you want to avoid as a presenter.
Pacing the Stage
I was at a conference recently where a brilliant engineer did a talk on Crypto and AI. As he began the talk he said, “Don’t look at me, look at my slides!” Then he began to pace the stage. Back and forth, back and forth. He rarely looked up at the audience. He was clearly passionate, but his delivery was manic. Why did this hurt his message?
When you pace the stage instead of planting yourself and talking, you’re sending a message that you are not grounded in what you’re saying. Research shows that unmotivated movement, like pacing, bobbing and weaving, or shifting from foot to foot can damage credibility. More than that, it’s exhausting to follow a speaker as they pace the stage—like watching a caged animal.
I believe the “don’t look at me” comment was in earnest, but the truth is we are looking at you. In the 1990s, the US Department of Homeland Security showed that roughly 80% of our communication is nonverbal (Ticknor, Body Language is an Art). Nonverbal communication is everything from what you wear to how you carry yourself on a stage. Therefore, if you want to communicate well, nonverbal communication has to be something you care about and refine.
Racing to “Get It All In”
Quick quiz. You have a 10 minute slot at a conference. You have 20 minutes worth of content you want to share. Do you speak twice as fast, or do you edit your content down? If you said speak twice as fast, I want you to book a call with me right now. Because it’s not ok to assault your audience with fast talking.
I saw it recently. A dynamic speaker took the stage. Confident voice, good looking, enthusiastic. But then he raced through so much content that I literally fell asleep. It was too much cognitive load for me, and my body shut down.
It takes energy to listen and comprehend what someone is saying—especially if you’re not already familiar with the topic. So when you increase your rate of speech to get it all in (or get it over with), you’re forcing your audience to work twice as hard. It’s often too much for people and they tune out.
It’s counterintuitive, but allowing moments of silence (pauses) in your talk gives your audience a chance to process what you’ve said. It’s like putting your fork down every few minutes when eating a meal. Giving your audience space to digest what you’re saying increases comprehension and retention. Speaking at a slower pace (130-150 wpm) actually increases your perceived confidence too.
“Pterodactyl hands”
Many speakers revert to a single gesture or pose when speaking because they don’t have a range of vocabulary in the way they use their body. For example, I was working with a CEO who had a habit of speaking with his elbows positioned at his waist, hands at his chest with limp wrists—like a pterodactyl. His body language was open, but it was giving the signal that he was stuck in this pose. It looked uncomfortable. Indeed, he was uncomfortable.
There are other gestures in which I’ve noticed people get “stuck”: tenting the hands, holding an invisible clicker (thumb on top of a closed fist), locking body language by holding one wrist with another hand. If these gestures were part of a broader range of movement, we might not even notice them. But it’s when they become the gesture that people associate with you, that’s when we have a problem. Because at that point it’s not communication, it’s a tick.
The CEO and I worked together to help him open up his body language. It looked like I was teaching a modern dance class. But that’s what it takes. It takes getting comfortable enough with your body that it becomes an instrument to deliver your message.
THE BIG PRINT
How you deliver a message determines whether anyone hears it at all.
How to Avoid Common Delivery Pitfalls
The next time you’re getting ready to take the stage, make sure to consider these tips during rehearsal.
1 – Move with purpose
Avoid pacing the stage by choosing points in your talk to change locations. Then plant yourself in that location for a certain percentage of your talk before moving again. Choose key lines you want to emphasize, choose where to deliver them from, and practice moving to those spots when it’s time.
2 – Time your rate of speech
Aim for 120-160 wpm—especially if delivering a highly technical talk—on the slower side of that if you want to land a key message with emotion.
3 – Use a variety of big gestures
The reason why actors wear makeup on a stage is that the audience is far away from them—the makeup helps define their face in the bright lights. Similarly, your gestures help you define your communication for an audience that is not close to you. Open up your body. Practice saying certain lines with gestures that take up space. “This is a BIG opportunity.” Go ahead, practice over-emphasizing it. It will feel weird, but when you get on the stage, it will look normal to the audience.
TAKE IT FROM… Steve Jobs, American businessman, inventor, co-founder of Apple, Inc, and consummate presenter.
Steve Jobs redefined what great presenting looked like in Silicon Valley and beyond. Behind his effortless delivery were hours of rehearsal and a finely tuned narrative arc. His genius wasn’t only in what he said, but in how he said it—and he knew that distinction mattered.
I work with leaders and teams to help them craft and deliver stories from a stage. Not sure what story to tell or how to tell it? I can help. Get on my calendar here.
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