How to Use Your Eyes for Better Presenting BY BILL ROSENTHAL
You’re thinking hard about the words and phrases you’ll use at that upcoming speaking opportunity. You’re also giving a lot of attention to your visual aids. But how you use your eyes is even more important, according to an academic study. Effective use of your eyes contributes to presentation success more than anything else does.
The study evaluated the relative importance of the different factors that contribute to a successful presentation. Effective eye contact with the audience ranked number one, use of visuals was number two and choice of language (defined as the wording and organization of the content) was third. Fourth most important was speech (rate, volume, inflection and pitch). Body movement (gesturing, foot position and balance) ranked fifth.
The study was conducted by Carolyn M. Anderson, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Akron’s School of Communication. She studied videotapes of presentations made by participants in Communispond’s two-day Executive Presentation Skills training program and used regression analysis to make her conclusions.
Building on this research, here are some tips on how to make the most effective use of your eyes to improve your presentations:
Making an Emotional Connection
Every successful speaker knows that you have to be liked and trusted for your message to be accepted -- that you must appeal to both the head and heart. Your eyes are invaluable for making the needed emotional connection.
As you’re speaking, make friendly, smiling eye contact with members of the audience, one person at a time, for as long as it takes to express a thought or say a phrase. Then move on to another person. (Don’t lock eyes with anyone because that can cause discomfort, especially with a small group.)
With a large audience, single out individuals in different parts of the room. All those around them will sense you’re making eye contact with them. Be certain you cover the entire audience as you speak. You can mentally segment the audience into four or six parts so you’re sure you’re giving everyone attention. It’s a good idea to begin in the back of the room so those who are there will feel connected right away. People in the back tend to lose their concentration more easily than others.
As you speak, be certain that you avoid looking down at the floor, up at the ceiling or at the back wall. These are signs of speaker insecurity. Don’t dart your eyes around the audience either. Apart from showing you’re unsure of yourself, this increases nervousness because the brain has too much information to process. If you are uneasy, you can increase your confidence by looking for smiling faces in the audience to connect with.
Happily, making eye contact one person at a time, what we call eye-brain control, increases confidence while also helping you make an emotional connection with the audience members.
Visuals as the Enemy
Visual aids can help you explain complex material and connect the different points you’re making. But when the visuals and not the speaker become the star of the show they undermine the presentation because they rob the speaker of the opportunity to use the eyes to make an emotional connection with the audience.
Inexperienced speakers sometimes use visuals as cue cards for what to say next. They talk to the visuals instead of the audience. They darken the room, making eye contact impossible. In all these cases, visuals are the enemy of the presentation.
PowerPoint software that allows speakers to make impressive slides is seductive. Resist that temptation. Apart from disconnecting you from the audience, super-sophisticated technology provides lots of opportunities for glitches. Particularly with a small audience, the simpler the visuals the better. This is especially true if your message is intended to inspire and move the audience to action rather than present information to them.
The old reliable flipchart often is best for connecting with the audience as you present. Stand to the right of the easel. Turn to it and point to the item you’re discussing with your left hand. Turn to face the audience again before speaking. You can point to another item on the sheet but be sure you’re addressing the audience and not the flipchart as you continue.
Read the Audience
You’re speaking without a script, of course, because nothing deadens a audience more than the reading of prepared comments. Like talking to your visuals, reading from a script keeps you from making an emotional connection with the audience.
Ongoing eye contact will help you learn how the group is reacting to your presentation and give you a chance to make adjustments. Are people looking inattentive? Shake things up by asking a provocative rhetorical question. Are they looking perplexed? Go back and explain yourself better, perhaps with an example or an analogy. Do they seem particularly interested in a point you made? Put more emphasis on it.
Be ready to adjust throughout the presentation. Consider your talk a dialogue with the audience. You aren’t talking to the group; you’re talking with them.
Need Glasses?
Speakers who wear glasses tend to keep them on even though the glasses may not be needed in a small meeting. You’re better off presenting without them if you can because the reflection can keep the group from seeing your eyes.
If you need to put on glasses to read something during the presentation, that’s fine. It will get the audience’s
attention and perhaps make you look professorial. On the other hand, if you are wearing glasses you can take them off to make an emphatic gesture that stresses an important point.
When It’s time for the Q&A
Your eyes are a powerful tool during the Q&A. Look intently at each questioner as the question is being asked. This signals that you’re serious about the question and also helps you hear it. Reading the questioner’s facial gestures also can help you understand if there’s a hidden agenda behind the question.
Keep your eyes on the questioner as you begin to answer. Then look away to establish that the answer is for
everyone in the room. Look back at the questioner as you end as an added sign of respect. If you keep looking you may invite a follow-up question from that person. If you don’t want that, look at the opposite side of the room for the next question.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Using your eyes to maximum advantage takes practice. As you rehearse your presentation, it’s best to do it in front of three or four widely-spaced chairs and that many pairs of eyes to relate to. If family or friends are unavailable to help you do this, paste drawings of eyes on sheets of paper and set them atop the chairs. As you rehearse, don’t simply run through your speech. Project the same level of passion that you expect to show during the actual presentation.
Before the Presentation
Try standing at the entrance to the room so the moderator can introduce you to the audience members as they enter. This allows the moderator to identify who’s particularly important so you’ll be certain of making eye contact with them as you speak and recognizing their questions. For everyone you meet and greet, you’ve already begun developing an emotional connection. (And it’s less likely that someone who has shaken your hand will ask a hostile question.)
This early interchange also will help confirm your understanding of the audience’s viewpoint and level of knowledge about your topic. Doing this also will give you insights about the particular value your viewpoint or product or service has for an individual audience member. Use this knowledge to make your message real and compelling as you speak: “Joe, over here, tells me there’s a great need for … because he ….” Pepper your presentation with these examples to demonstrate the value of what you’re proposing.
Let the Light Shine Through
The eyes are, indeed, “the mirror of the soul” because they give others a unique understanding of your meaning, mood and motive. At the same time, more than any other of your senses, they help you understanding others and learn how they view you. This is true in every culture world-wide. The language of the eyes is powerful. Use it.
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Bill Rosenthal is CEO of Communispond Inc., www.communispond.com. The company, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009, has trained more than 600,000 managers and sales executives to communicate more effectively. Go to the company's website for free access to articles, audiocasts, videocasts and subscriptions to e-newsletters on communications and selling. The website lists free webinars that Communispond sponsors and the schedule of upcoming public seminars. Bill created Prospeak, an iPhone app that's a guide to making an effective presentation that can be ordered via the Communispond website. Prior to joining the company Bill was CEO of Digi-Block Inc., a K-12 education publisher. Bill also served as President of Kaplan College, a division of Kaplan Inc., the well-known test preparation company. Bill developed and launched Kaplan College. In his previous role as President of Ziff-Davis Education (now called Element K). Bill oversaw the leading supplier of computer training products worldwide and supervised the operations of ZD University, the leading web-based computer skills site. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Rochester in 1983.
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