Public speaking is all about stage presence. This is the energy you bring when you either step on a podium or stand up at the front of a big board room.
Good stage presence is created with body language, emphasis, enunciation and confidence. It sets the tone for your presentation and plays an essential role in how an audience receives and engages with you and your material.
But what happens if your presentation delivery lacks these elements? Public speakers are constantly told about the importance of creating stage presence when delivering a presentation. What is less spoken about, however, is how great stage presence can actually impact your speech.
To truly create an effective stage presence, a presenter needs to understand how it impacts your speech delivery and audience reception:
It Can Prevent You from Reading Off of Your Slides
When you are making eye contact and speaking with confidence, you are a lot less likely to read off of your slides. To be honest, stage presence is the opposite of reading off of your slides. It’s presenting information directly to your audience in a dynamic way.
It Can Captivate an Audience
An electric presence is what will draw in an audience. It’s when audiences are captivated that they truly listen to what you have to say. There’s a reason why whenever Steve Jobs delivered a speech, he had his audience hanging on his every word.
When delivering a presentation, Steve Jobs always spoke with intention, made use of his stage and used body language like gesticulation to engage with listeners. This captivated his audience and kept them interested in his speech.
When you lack that presence, however, it can cause your audience to get bored and tune out. This does a great disservice to your presentation.
It Can Create Visual Interest
If you deliver your speech standing still, you’re not likely to inspire intrigue and curiosity. A presentation gives off a different energy when it’s expressive, whether that be through a presenter’s body language, facial expressions or a balance of both.
When you incorporate physical aspects into your speech delivery, it provides another point of visual interest alongside your presentation. This physicality will also help you put emphasis on a point or can help you illustrate a point.
It Can Reduce Distraction
When you stumble your words or gesticulate widely, it is distracting not only to your audience but to you as well. When you present yourself adequately with moderate yet engaging body language, you are far more likely to engage your audience. This makes them less likely to get distracted by external factors.
It Can Create Audience Connection
When you speak directly to an audience, you create a connection between every member and yourself. By creating that connection with your audience, your audience is able to relate with your material and interpret it better.
No two presentations are the same, but every presenter has a common goal — to be listened to. When an audience is invested in your speech, they listen to what you have to say. This keeps their attention and makes them more likely to really reflect on your speech.
It Is More Convincing
When you deliver your speech with confidence, your arguments are a lot more convincing than when you deliver them quietly and with an air of unsureness. Be confident in your material, because if you aren’t confident in what you are saying, how can you expect your audience to have confidence in you?