Incorporate a wide-arm gesture early in speeches to jumpstart confidence

One of the most common critiques I hear given to public speakers is the following: “At first, you were a bit nervous, but you loosened up as you got going.”  Of course, telling someone to “loosen up” is easier said than done.  Here’s a trick: try incorporating a planned wide-arm gesture early–as in, within the first 30 seconds–of your presentation, to jumpstart confident body language.

One of the surest tells of an under-confident speaker is the use of meek, inhibited gestures.  If you watch a nervous speaker, even one who has practiced hand gestures for hours before the presentation, you’d be amazed at how many are able to nail every word and every hand gesture in the presentation, except for one critical error: the person’s elbows never leave the ribs.  That is, from the shoulder to the elbow, their arms seem glued to their sides, but then from the elbow down, the wrists and hands freely (often wildly) move, making the hand gestures appear low and inhibited.  Over the course of the presentation, the speaker tends to become more comfortable, and if lucky, the glue melts away just in time for the big finale.

This habit is extremely common.  Ideally, you should watch yourself on video to see the habit in action, and in time, you can develop a muscle memory that snaps you out of these gestures when they happen.  But you can also trick yourself into using more open, confident body language by incorporating a grand gesture early.  What is a grand gesture?  Elbows and arms out, hands extended, palms open… not unlike the fisherman telling you how he once caught a fish “thiiiiiiis big.”

This gesture is a simple way to broadcast confidence right from the start, and it’s easy to incorporate in any speech.  For example, a trial lawyer might start an opening statement by saying: “We are all here for the same reason – to find the truth about what happened on the night of April 2.”  On the words “we are all here,” the lawyer could use an open-arm gesture, as though referring to all the jurors or all the people in court.  The gesture can also be used to underline phrase dealing with size or scope.  For example, in a business presentation that starts with, “We have identified twenty million dollars in new opportunities,” the gesture could be used to highlight “twenty million dollars.”

They key is to plan the gesture into the speech early, and be confident in its delivery.  In doing so, you will kill two birds with one stone.  First, you will appear confident early on to your audience (first impressions are everything!).  Second,  you will loosen up your spatial awareness so that the gestures that follow will naturally be more open and more confident.  Try it in your next presentation, and I’m betting the audience won’t remember the early gesture, but they will remember a more confident, natural you.