If you are a fan of the tv show The Office, you might recall an episode in which Dwight wins an award and has to give a speech of acceptance. His arch nemesis/friend Jim then purposely gives him some bad advice about public speaking, mostly that he should pound his fists for emphasis. What follows is a hilarious speech in which Dwight pounds loudly on the lectern during a very strange speech.
Unfortunately, even when we move outside of the sitcom world, we still see a lot of strange and distracting speaking habits when speakers deliver presentations from behind a lectern. So today, we want to share a few tips that will keep you from making the same mistakes Dwight and so many others make. If you are asked to speak behind a lectern or need one for your notes, consider these 3 tips: modify your gestures, find other ways to connect with your audience, and don’t abandon all movement.
Modify Your Gestures
The biggest issue with speaking behind lectures involves arm and hand gestures and whether the audience can see them. The lectern (unless it’s transparent) will make your normal gestures invisible. So you have to learn to adjust the way you use your hands and arms. If you are used to gesturing around waist level, you’ll need to raise your hands more to chest level for the audience to see them. Or you might try gesturing out to the side rather than directly in front of your body.
Find Other Ways to Connect
A lectern is literally a barrier between you and your audience. So you’ll need to work harder to connect with them because all they can really see is your face. You might need to use more facial expressions than normal. This shifts the nonverbal communication from your gestures to your face. You might also need to be more intentional with your eye contact. We know that eye contact is an important part of communication, right? But recent research has proven that eye contact connects more powerfully than we previously thought by literally synchronizing our brain activity with the person with whom we are making eye contact. So you can make up for some of that big barrier by making eye contact with your audience.
Don’t Abandon All Movement
Another problem that occurs is that some speakers just stop moving and gesturing completely when behind a lectern. They might even grip the sides of it like their life depends on it. But when you stop moving, it can affect your:
- Delivery: Research shows that because gesturing is connected to speaking, it can help you “form clearer thoughts.”
- Message: Research shows that hand movements form a “second language, adding information that’s absent from our words.”
- Audience’s perception of you: Research shows that we perceive people who talk with their hands as “warm, agreeable, and energetic.” On the other hand, people who don’t move much while speaking are perceived as “logical, cold, and analytical.”
So when you are behind a lectern, remember that you don’t have to stay planted behind it. You can still move away from it to have a more direct path of communication with your audience.
You can still be effective when presenting behind a lectern. Just modify your gestures, connect with your audience in other ways, and remember that you can still move around. Oh, and in honor of Dwight, we should probably add a 4th tip here. Whatever you do, please don’t pound on the lectern.
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