The “Eyes” Have It!
“Great speakers find a way of making an early connection with their audience. It can be as simple as walking confidently on stage, looking around, making eye contact with two or three people, and smiling.” – Chris Anderson, TED Talks curator
No soldier would go ill-equipped into battle. Nor should you give a presentation without your full complement of presentation delivery equipment in good working order. Beginning speakers often overlook this.
So what is your full complement of presentation delivery equipment? You have your voice with all the variety it brings. You have the way you look which has more effect on your presentation than you think. You also have your body language which conveys the most communication to your audience. Believe it or not!
In this article we will concentrate on one of the most important parts of your body language – eye contact.
Great eye contact builds rapport with your audience, shows and builds your confidence and treats the audience with respect. Read on to learn why.
Good Eye Contact Builds Rapport with Your Audience
The value of good eye contact is easy to prove. Remember the last conversation you had with a friend or acquaintance when the other person was not looking at you while he or she was talking? How did this make you feel? There is a better than even chance you felt the person was not listening to you or he or she doesn’t think I am important enough to look me in the eye, or he or she does not really want to connect with me.
When you avoid eye contact with your audience, you cause the formation of the same thoughts in audience members minds. As I mentioned above, eye contact is a powerful part of your presentation delivery equipment. You should use it to build rapport with your audience. So how do you use eye contact to build rapport with your audience?
You can start before the presentation gets underway. Get to your presentation’s venue at least an hour before the presentation. If you are not the first presentation, get to the venue an hour before the first presentation. Mix with the audience and ask them questions about them; don’t make statements about yourself.
Think back to kindergarten and how you made friends there. Start with, “My name is ___________, what’s yours.” Look audience members in the eye and show true interest in who they are, why they came, and what they hope to take away and use from your presentation.
The most interesting people at cocktail parties, weddings, or at your presentations are not the people you know; they are the people you don’t know. Introducing yourself to audience members before your presentation and making eye contact with them is a winning combination to build rapport with your audience.
So, great eye contact builds rapport with your audience. Another great benefit of great eye contact both before, during, and after your presentation is it increases your confidence about your subject matter and your ability to convey it to your audience.
Great Eye Contact Shows Confidence
Great eye contact increases your confidence, because you can actually feel the audience connecting. What is a greater reward for you as a public speaker than to get through to your audience?
Positive audience reaction actually gives you confidence. Number one, you know they are listening. Number two their positive reaction gives you the indication that they are, if not agreeing with you, at least “in tune” with what you are saying. Number three, there is no greater need of humans than to be understood. (There’s that rule of three again.)
Author Steven Covey’s fifth habit of highly effective people is, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Why is this? You and all other people have a craving to be understood by others. This understanding by the audience of what you are saying will encourage you to speak with confidence and authority. Believe it or not, you will find yourself enjoying speaking to your audience and this, also, will give you confidence.
So your great eye contact has built rapport with your audience and you are gaining confidence because of their positive reactions and you know the audience is getting your points. There is another benefit for your great eye contact?
Great Eye Contact Shows Respect
When I was growing up, my father had this preoccupation with respect – respect for him and my mom, respect for my friends, and respect for myself. What is this thing about respect that is so important and will draw you closer to your audience?
Showing respect to your audience means they feel they are in a safe place where they will be able to express themselves when the question and answer period arrives. Respect for your audience also will build the audience’s trust in you. Your audience will trust you to tell the truth, properly attribute material not your own, and accept their opinion even if you don’t share it.
Be fair in your treatment of your material. You can only look at the headlines of today to prove there is much division in this world mostly caused by both sides of an issue not respecting the other side’s opinion. Try presenting both sides in your next presentation and then let your audience decide which side won.
In his law career, Lincoln used the technique of arguing his opponent’s side as well as his own side. However, he was able to subtly hint that his side was best. Because of this and other traits he was nicknamed Honest Abe and won many cases. When you present both sides of an issue, you respect your audience and gain much respect yourself from the audience.
So, great eye contact builds rapport with your audience, builds your confidence and showing respect to the audience members draws them closer to you as a speaker.
No doubt you have other reasons that come to your mind about the importance of good eye contact. I invite you to send me these reasons at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com. Please let me know if I can use your attributed thoughts in a future article.
Remember, the eyes have it!
“Eye contact is often one of the most overlooked methods we have to connect, build rapport and be effective as a speaker and leader.” – Joseph Guarino, professional speaker and trainer.
Looking for professional services to help you significantly increase your influence with your audiences? Contact DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI) at info@speakleadandsucceed.com or (703) 815-1324