 There's no question that what you say when you're giving a speech and presentation and business is incredibly important but there's also no question that What you don't say is just as important and how you deliver that presentation is equally important to the words that you choose This video will talk about the importance and some tips for effective nonverbal delivery in presentations First let's briefly outline the different delivery styles that are available to the speaker First is manuscript where you have every word of your speech Tighted out presented right there in front of you and you're delivering it then from essentially that script You could also have a memorized speech where you don't have any notes in front of you You don't have any note cards or you don't have a manuscript. You're just giving it totally from a memorized Recitation in prompt to is where you have little to no time to prepare and maybe just sketched out a few ideas on what it is You want to talk about but you have very little time if any to prepare what it is. You want to say in advance Extemporaneous sort of combines these other formats where extemporaneous speeches are given with lots of time and lots of preparation but they're delivered from a series of Outlined notes not a manuscript and they're not memorized you have the notes there in front of you typically But they're not a full manuscript in the sense that you have every word Typed out and planned out you have your general ideas and and the structure of your speech Put down in bullet point type format But then you deliver the speech and select the wording in that moment Now that we know the different types of delivery styles Let's take a look at the two different major categories of delivery, which are vocal and physical So we're going to take a look at each of these the vocal elements of nonverbal delivery as well as the physical elements For vocal delivery that to offer a few tips for vocal delivery first You want to use vocal variety most people don't think of their voice as nonverbal Delivery they think of it as verbal but verbal involves only the words that you choose Vocal delivery is incredibly important and we want to to provide some variety within that vocal delivery Including variations in the volume that we're using we ought to be softer or louder depending on what it is We're trying to convey Well to infuse some different pitch think of this as different notes if you read sheet music You know, it's a different notes on the piano keys a different piano keys have a different pitch And we ought to vary the pitch of our voice as well if we do not then we become monotone like this and and It's very unpleasant to listen to for long periods of time and you sound like a robot So we want to throw in some differences in pitch and vary the pitch of our voice We also want to vary the rate of delivery the speed at which we deliver our words depending on what Emotion we're trying to to elicit from the audience or what we're trying to convey We may speak slower or we may speed up our rate of speech We can also think of pause as a type of vocal variety and use it for vocal variety when we want to add some emotion We can we can insert a bit of a pause Or if we're starting or ending a quote we can pause before the end of the end or beginning of that quote to indicate the Separation of that quote from our own words. There are all kinds of reasons and ways that we can use pause As a part of our vocal variety and to infuse effective vocal delivery Whatever variations we're using we ought to have vocal variety again. We want to avoid being monotone We want to avoid being too Repetitious so that we're not putting the audience to sleep Another tip is to match your emotion and enthusiasm with the message if you're giving a really somber topic he shouldn't be really upbeat and Kind of hyper like this you should be have a more tone of voice that is more somber and slow things down a little bit whatever it is we ought to match our emotion and enthusiasm with the Words that we're actually speaking now they ought to match up We ought to be careful to properly pronounce words If we can't pronounce a word that we ought to replace it with something that we can pronounce But hopefully we'll just be able to work on that so that we can effectively pronounce a word and we'll practice it in Advance so that we can properly pronounce any words or terms We need to properly articulate our words in other words We need to use our mouths to form More crisply the words so that they're easier to understand We need to remember the impact of dialect Dialect meaning you know an accent or something like that or even just turn or up turn a phrase that would be more verbal But but but dialect in terms of an accent It can be endearing to an audience when you have a similar accent or one that they enjoy It could also be detrimental if it's an accent that they Look down upon so you want to be sure that your dialect matches the expectations of that audience and The very least doesn't distract the audience or make it more difficult for them to understand what it is you're saying So in addition to using our voice as an element of nonverbal communication during delivery of a presentation We can also use our body our physical delivery to enhance our presentation So a few tips for physical delivery first of all be sure that you're maintaining eye contact with the audience now This does not mean just stare singularly at one person in the audience to an uncomfortable level But your eyes ought to be on the audience more than they are on anything else They shouldn't be buried in your notes or looking far Above the audience or off to the side or whatever We ought to be maintaining eye contact with the audience as much as possible and certainly more than we are not It's okay to look at your notes. That's why they're there but be sure you're giving a brief glance down and then Re-engaging the audience with your eye contact We want to be sure we're dressed appropriately and notice we don't say that we ought to be dressed up or dressed down or whatever It's dressed appropriately depending on who you're speaking to and what you're speaking about the appropriate dress attire Maybe different for every crowd But but we need to be sure that we're dressed appropriately in a way that is not going to distract the audience from our message That's the number one thing we want to avoid distraction So dress in a way that is appropriate for both the content of your speech and the context of your speech We ought to stand confidently If the audience can't feel like we believe in what we're saying ourselves and believe in ourselves in general Then they're not going to believe in us either They need to have that confidence in us So we need to stand confidently whether we feel it or not if you're not feeling confident then fake it till you make it But we need to stand with confidence and deliver that presentation We ought to gesture naturally Some people will say well you need to have X amount of gestures or you need to use your hands less or whatever The truth is again here. The goal is to avoid distraction It's distracting when we use our gestures too much and too wildly that can take away from the audience Retaining and and accepting our message But in the same way if you're somebody who talks with your hands and you shove them in your pockets So that you don't use them at all Then that's going to be a distraction as well because it's going to look like you're in a straight jacket You ought to gesture naturally so long as those natural gestures don't distract the audience from from your message We also ought to move freely now again. We need to be careful here This is not encouraging you to pace or do jumping jacks or you know Summer salts or whatever on the stage, but we ought to move about the stage freely So long again as it does not distract the audience from our message now If you're tied to a particular spot because of a microphone or something like that then that is also a consideration But if we have the ability then we ought to feel free to move freely so that we can engage more of the audience And so that it releases some of that nervous energy that we no doubt have about giving a presentation in the first place But feel free to move freely so long as it does not distract the audience And don't forget to smile. Don't forget to smile. This is so important The audience should feel like you're having fun like you're enjoying what you're talking about again Even if you're not fake it till you make it Just smile let the audience know you're happy to be there You're happy to be talking about what you're talking about and that will help them relax and enjoy the presentation more as well Yeah, a few more tips. So I wanted to provide for you We've touched on this a few times now, but we want to eliminate distractions in general No matter what we do we want the audience focused on our message And so that means eliminating whatever distractions we can that are within our control In addition to the things that I've already mentioned we want to do things like avoid gum That's a pretty basic public speaking standard But nobody wants to hear or see you Chomping your gum while you're up there and it's going to make your Articulation suffer and you're just not going to be as effective as a speaker when you're chewing gum You got to ditch the hats and I say this fully as somebody who wears hats as much as possible throughout the day I love wearing hats, but hats for distraction. They're not considered appropriate for a speech So unless they're a specific part of the dress that you have you have a specific reason for wearing that hat You got to ditch the hat Avoid wearing graphic t-shirts or things now probably while I've been saying this you've been reading this t-shirt That's on the on the screen right now, right? That's the problem if you have graphics on your t-shirt or graphics on whatever That's what the audience is going to pay attention to now if it's part of a visual aid That's great. You want them to pay attention to it, but otherwise it's just a distraction and it's something that you can control Try and control your fidgeting as much as possible These are repetitious movements that that don't really serve any purpose. They're just releasing nervous energy But but they can be just a distraction for the audience the audience is going to focus more on that than they are what you're saying Avoid dancing swaying or pacing You know dancing meaning literal dancing first of all unless again, it's part of your speech or You know swaying back and forth dancing like you got to go to the bathroom or whatever. That's not great That doesn't serve your purpose and is a distraction for the audience Avoid as much as possible vocal fillers like Yeah, those types of things that Again, they're just there to fill silences. They're not there to Provide content or help the audience understand or be connected to your message. So just leave them out We also need to have the ability to adapt to a location or situation This may include things like the number of audience members Is this going to be a smaller audience or a larger audience and if you know that in advance? How can you prepare for that? But what if you get in there too and it's different than you expected you expected a smaller audience? But you have a bigger one or vice-versa you have a smaller audience than you expected We need to be able to adjust to the number of audience members We have to be able to adjust to the size of a room Are you giving this presentation in like a traditional classroom setting where everybody's? Facing forward net a desk and has a writing space and things like that Or is it more of an auditorium where they're in these different kind of auditorium style seats? Or is it some other type of arrangement? So we need to think about the size of a size of the room as well as the arrangement of these seats That will determine how big door? Presentational aids need to be how loudly do we need to speak are we going to need to use a microphone? How's this going to affect? Engagement throughout the presentation those types of things so consider the size of the room as well as the seating arrangement What technology is going to be available? Are you going to have access to a computer? And and projector are you going to have access to the different software programs that you might want to use as part of your presentation? Are you going to be using a microphone? And if so what kind is it a is it a handheld is it a lavalier mic is it connected to a podium? Are you at a podium? We got a stick to that Is there going to be a whiteboard those types of things we ought to be adjusting to all of the different technologies that are available and different? Speaking options that we have So keep those things in mind as well So in a nutshell When giving a presentation it should be our goal to be as natural as possible as a speaker Pretend it's a conversation really more than a presentation We ought to be enthusiastic because if you don't care about your topic then the audience won't either We need to be confident because again, we if we don't believe in ourselves the audience is not going to believe us Or believe anything we have to say You need to be direct don't beat around the bush. Don't try and be too fancy. Just get out there and give your best presentation Now we need to practice practice is probably the most underrated aspect of public speaking in terms of effectiveness then that there is because with with You know when we practice while we get more comfortable with our speech the audience is going to gain confidence in that they're going to pick up on that so Practice is an absolutely essential element in giving effective presentations If you have questions about the nonverbal aspect of presentations or anything else related to giving a speech Please feel free to email me in the meantime I hope this has provided some insight into things you ought to consider for the next time that you are tasked with giving a Business presentation and how you can do so more effectively