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What Your Posture Screams Out To Your Audience!

Presumably one of your personal objectives whilst speaking in public is to appear confident. I have never heard of any speaker wanting to appear nervous. So what are the main things that will affect your audience's perception of this?

The single biggest thing that betrays a someone's anxiety about public speaking is without doubt their posture. In the animal kingdom, the most vulnerable parts of the body are the throat, heart and genitals. Ever watched two dogs fight until one decides he has had enough and calls it a day? He seems to visibly shrink in size, makes himself seem as small as possible ('small' in the animal world = 'no threat') and holds his head down. All this is done to protect these most vulnerable areas.

We do the same type of thing, only we're a bit more sophisticated about it.

Barrier Signals

When we were small children, our instinctive reaction in time of danger or uncertainty was to stand behind our mother (hence the saying, ' hiding behind your mother's skirts' ). Failing that, a convenient piece of furniture would do just as well.

Although hiding behind your mother would be considered socially unacceptable by most people by the time we reach adulthood, the desire to put a barrier behind ourselves and what we perceive as a threatening situation remains. Nervous or anxious people subconsciously do it in one of four ways.

The Arm/Leg Cross

The first is to fold their arms and/or cross their legs. We first learn to wrap our arms tightly around ourselves when uncomfortable as small children, and this gradually becomes less obvious and more relaxed as we grow into adolescence, and accompany it with crossed legs (NB: crossed legs is far more common amongst females than males, who tend to adopt what is known as a 'figure 4' leg cross, i.e. with the ankle of one leg resting on the opposite knee).

In the photo on the right, Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero clearly looks uncomfortable, despite the smile on his face, when compared with French President Jacques Chirac's open, comfortable body language.

The standing equivalent of crossed legs is crossed ankles, the common stance of early arrivals at cocktail parties who are waiting self-consciously for others to arrive.

Men often use a groin hold gesture similar to the way footballers stand when forming a wall at a free kick, i.e. with their hands held protectively at groin level. It is an emasculated pose often used by speakers who don't have a lectern to hide behind but who lack the confidence to move about, or people who are onstage but not speaking and are unsure what to do with themselves.

You would not normally imagine Adolf Hitler as lacking in confidence, but the groin hold was an extremely common gesture for him. Perhaps he did it to compensate for his famous lack in the testicular department (informed opinion is that the wartime ditty about this particular deficiency was, in fact, correct, though the song's other suggestions that his mother took it off him at birth and kept it in the Albert Hall are slightly more dubious).

Compare the impression you subconsciously pick up from the stances of the four defence lawyers in the Hamdan case (challenging the legality of Guantanamo bay) at a press conference in the photo below. Compare the nervous, non-confident posture of the three on the left with Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift's military confidence. They look like schoolboys standing outside the headmaster's office.

If you find yourself 'in the spotlight' but without anything to do, DON'T stand with a groin hold. You'll look like one of these three. Put your hand behind your back like a soldier standing at ease, like Jacques Chirac in the photo to the right.

Now some might argue they cross their arms or hold their hands in front of their groins because they are comfortable like that. Well, people are comfortable when their body language and mental states are in synch. If you're feeling defensive, folding your arms will feel comfortable.

But it would probably feel un comfortable if you were in a very positive mood. Can you imagine sitting in a bar with a group of friends having a great time with your arms folded?

The point to remember, however, is that the important thing is how others interpret your gestures. Whether you are defensive or just comfortable is irrelevant; your audience will think you're defensive, and that's the important thing.

So NEVER cross your arms when speaking unless you deliberately want to show that you don't agree with something.

The Defensive Shield

The second way is to use a prop of some sort by holding something in front of them as a defensive shield. This could be a handbag, briefcase, folder (demonstrated by British politician John Gummer using both hands to hold a folder, left ) or glass. Ever noticed how those same early arrivals at parties need to use two hands to hold a wine glass, as if it's really, really heavy? By using two hands to hold it, they are subconsciously creating a shield.

Queen Elizabeth is rarely seen interacting with the public without something held in front of her - notes, folder, bag, flowers, etc. Even when speaking (as in the first photo below) the simple act of holding notes can be a barrier in itself.

The Body Cross

The third way is to use an excuse to place an arm across their body, often called the body cross. For example, a woman might fiddle with a necklace or play with the earring in her opposite ear. A man might adjust his tie or fiddle with his watch, ring or cufflinks.

Blair plays with his ring, Prince Charles adjusts his cufflinks and Straw and Brown fasten their jackets

Next time you are watching politicians assembling before a phalanx of photographers for a photo shoot (at an economic summit for example) you will see that amongst those confident, smiling people, a number of the men have suddenly discovered a terrible fear that their cufflinks are about to fall out, and are trying desperately to ensure it doesn't happen.

The same happens when government ministers arrive outside 10 Downing Street in their official car and have to run the 'gauntlet' of a number of photographers. Note how many choose to take that exact moment to use both hands to fasten their jacket. The smiles, erect postures and squared shoulders are often just playacting. The body cross tell us how they really feel.

Some people will make sure this doesn't happen by adopting an over exaggerated posture of confidence by holding their hands completely away from their body, an example is President George W Bush's 'John Wayne walk', where he rolls his shoulders in a macho walk like he is about to draw a six-shooter.

The interesting thing is that when the UK Prime Minister is with him, Tony Blair feels compelled to adopt the same walk so as not to be ' out-macho'd' (if there is such a word). He doesn't walk that way when in the UK without him. Compare the walk of the two statesmen with that of George Bush senior and Bill Clinton, or even how Blair walks when with another head of state (e.g. Russia's Vladimir Putin), when his arms are held loosely at his sides.

Physical Barriers

The fourth is to hide behind something. Some people use a large desk as a safety shield, or have their briefcase open on their desk with the top raised. In terms of speaking in public, however, they stand behind a lectern. People can kid themselves the lectern is there to be a focus of attention, or raise the height of the speaker to make her more visible, or even to provide a place to put notes and a glass of water all they want ......

...... but the real reason is to give the speaker a sense of security by providing something to stand behind.

Power Posture

I mentioned earlier that we do all this subconsciously protect our most vulnerable areas. So body language which boldly displays these areas (and no, I'm not suggesting you display your genitals in public, before you ask .) sends the subconscious message that you are confident and unafraid.

What is the stereotypical stance of the unarmed British policeman? That's right - shoulders back, chest out, hands behind the back. Displaying all three areas in a show of confidence and bravado (interestingly, armed policemen don't tend to stand that way. They either adopt a macho 'gunfighter stance' or stand with their thumbs hooked into their belts). Who else stand like this? Soldiers standing at ease, nightclub doormen and the headmaster patrolling the school yard.

All figures of authority. So:

•  Stand erect. Don't slouch and don't lean on things. Just because there's a lectern in front of you doesn't mean you have to lean your elbows on it. Or even hold on to it. Or even stand behind it.

•  Expose your chest. Most people fasten their jackets as they get up to speak, but this is an unconscious excuse to put a shield in between themselves and the audience (explained in greater detail below). So do the opposite. Unfasten yours and expose your chest.

•  Stand with your legs slightly further apart than normal, but don't overdo it. You don't want to look like you've just got off a horse after a long ride into Dodge City.

•  Point your toes slightly outwards. Standing with 'pigeon toes' (i.e. facing inwards) implies submissiveness.

Most people have appalling posture, especially those who spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen or behind a desk.

Imagine a cord attached to the top of your head which is pulling you upright. Do this several times a day. Better still, visualise it every time you walk through a doorway. How many times do you walk through a door during the day? Twenty? Thirty? If you do this every time, it will soon become second nature.

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