How to Establish a Confident Stage Presence
1. Be Thoroughly Prepared
Know your speech so well that you can
Know your speech so well that you can
concentrate on a
smooth delivery.
This preparation includes frequent rehearsal.
If you know that you are prepared to speak you will find it much easier to relax and present a comfortable and alert posture.
2. Channel Your Energy
The strong speaker knows how to harness emotional energy.
Psych your self up to enjoy the thrill and rush of adrenaline.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “When I see a person talk,
I like to see them talk as though they’re fighting
a swarm of bees”
A Master Guide to Public Speaking
I like to see them talk as though they’re fighting
a swarm of bees”
A Master Guide to Public Speaking
Use hand gestures that are natural.
3. Strong Eye Contact
Good eye contact communicates both personal confidence and
warmth.
Nonverbal immediacy
Here and now
Here and now
Great speakers make a point of engaging their audiences.
Try to connect with individuals in the audience nonverbally and interact with a facial expression.
Strive to keep away from notes about 80 percent of the time that you speak.
4. Vocal Variety
According to Robert L. Montgomery,
“some psychologists believe that the voice
is only second to facial expressions in
influencing others.”
Be aware of Paralingustics – how you use the sound of your voice to communicate.
Articulation — clear and correct pronunciation:
People tend to judge speakers based on the their ability to pronounce words correctly and clearly.
Variety of pitch levels.
1. Be enthusiastic. Turn up the energy.
This will communicate your interest and excitement for your topic and help generate audience interest, too.
You need to be larger than life on stage.
Project your voice and presence to the back of the room.
2. Exaggerate voice inflection and
punch the key word in a sentence.
Exaggerate inflection when you are making points or demonstrating some kind of emotion appropriate to the emotions that you are trying to stir in your audience.
3. Do not speak in a monotone.
Monotone usually means speaking in a low, droning voice. You can be monotone with a high and loud voice, too.
Notice radio announcers as models for how to speaker with vocal variation. http://odeo.com/audio/10135073/view
T. D. Jakes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MZpatXx4V8
5. Avoid MannerismThese are distracting movements or habits that limit how the audience perceives your nonverbal credibility.
5. Avoid MannerismThese are distracting movements or habits that limit how the audience perceives your nonverbal credibility.
Think: slightly more formal than daily conversation.
Hands in pocket, tapping foot, leaning on the speaker’s stand, holding a pen.
Move in Ways that Help Communicate Your Ideas
Do not pace with no purpose, but don’t be static either.
Movement, as well as gestures, is vital to maintaining speaker and audience enthusiasm for the presentation.
The good speaker follows three principles in ensuring lively (but not irritating) movement.
Link the right and left hemisphere of the brain.
a. Be aware of Proxemics – how you use space to communicate with an audience.
b. If you move about on the stage, make your movements purposeful. Don’t wander about. Use your movement to reinforce or emphasize a point. Use it in concert with gestures.
c. You may try the diamond movement technique.
d. Never turn your back on the audience while you are speaking.
6. Develop a Style that Fits Your Personality
“The Style is the Man.” — Aristotle
Be authentic and genuine in your nonverbal demeanor.
Also, be aware of the expectations that the audience has for the occasion.
Effective speakers usually conform to the cultural values and norms of the audience.
7. Avoid MannerismThese are distracting movements or habits that limit how the audience perceives your nonverbal credibility.
Hands in pocket, standing on one foot, leaning on the speaker’s stand, holding a pen.
Question:
Can you think of an example of a Speaker who has great delivery?
Examples of poor delivery?
Example of great speaker: Billy Graham
Example of great speaker: Billy Graham
Stage presence and Gestures
Stage presence is expressing your confidence in front of the audience.
- The strong speaker will project a confident demeanor – demeanor is your overall poise and the impression that you project.
- The strong speaker is knowledgeable about his or her topic. In public speaking there is no substitute for the hard work of researching and grappling with a subject until you are able to speak about it at length, extemporaneously, with limited prompts.
- Frequent rehearsal is crucial to gain confidence and project the image that you know what you are talking about.
- The strong speaker knows how to harness nervous energy.Abraham Lincoln once said, “When I see a person talk, I like to see them talk as though they’re fighting a swarm of bees” — A Master Guide to Public Speaking
- Avoid mannerism.
- Do not lock your arms in front or behind your body. Allow your arms to hang naturally and use them for emphasis just like you would if we were having a conversation.
Eye contact
- Connect with audience members non-verbally.
- Eye contact communicates confidence and warmth. Great speakers make a point of engaging their audiences by moving around the—ensuring that they make eye contact with everyone.
- If you do not have the courage to make eye contact with your audience, then the audience will quickly lose interest in your speech.
Movement
- A speaker should not be static throughout a speech. Movement, as well as gestures, is vital to maintaining speaker and audience enthusiasm for the presentation. The good speaker follows three principles in ensuring lively movement.
- Project confidence from the time that you get up from your chair to take the podium.
- Never turn your back on the audience while you are speaking.
- Move purposefully. Use your movement to reinforce or emphasize a point. Movement should be consistent with the meaning and emotion of your words.
- Be aware of all potential obstacles on the stage.
Articulation and Vocal Variety
“Psychologists believe that the voice is only second to facial expressions in influencing others”. — Robert Montgomery
- Articulation is speaking clearly.If you have difficulty pronouncing certain words you need to limit your vocal vocabulary. In the long term you need to acquaint yourself with the correct method of using a dictionary to facilitate proper pronunciation.
- Show energy in your voice. Be enthusiastic. If you are excited, the audience will catch on and mirror your enthusiasm.
- Exaggerate voice inflection. Punch key words. Exaggerate inflection when you are making points or demonstrating some kind of emotion appropriate to the emotions that you are trying to stir in your audience.
- Do not speak in a monotone. Monotone does not necessarily mean speaking in a low, droning voice. Some speakers speak in a loud monotone, and worse yet some yell in monotone. Have variety in vocal expression.
- Notice radio announcers as models of how to use vocal variation.
Thanks to the United States Naval Academy for help in preparing these notes.http://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/Deliver.htm
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