A Few Words About Gestures

It’s funny. Most people are comfortable using gestures when they’re in conversation. You can see them in restaurants, or at gatherings, their arms and hands moving about freely while they talk. Now take these same people and put them on a stage with an audience. Suddenly they don’t know what to do with their hands. They become self-conscious and stop gesturing. They hold their hands together, they put them in their pockets if they can, they hold them behind their back, they fold their arms across their chest, or if a lectern is nearby, they will grab onto it. Even experienced speakers can fall prey to the shrinking person syndrome: when we are self-conscious, we want to make ourselves as small as possible (we’d like to be invisible, actually). Gestures make us bigger so we work hard to avoid that.

The problem is, as listeners, we look for visual cues to supplement the spoken words–facial expressions, posture and gestures. Without gestures, a speaker can be perceived as stiff, aloof, uninvolved.

Without training, most speakers are unaware of what they do or don’t do with their hands. They’ve got a lot on their minds dealing with their nervousness and getting through the talk, gesturing is low on their list of priorities. When we’re speaking to a group our hands feel extraneous, in the way. So we can do some odd things with those alien blobs at the end of our arms. And we end up holding in and repressing our nervous energy when we need to be using it to our advantage.

Most of us have developed habits over time that help us deal with our nervousness but don’t help us communicate our message powerfully. It’s time to develop new habits. It’ll take some effort on your part but it’s doable, and it’s definitely worth it. Want to be a more dynamic speaker than you are already? Okay, let’s get to work.

PowerSpeaking, www.powerspeaking.com, an excellent corporate public speaking training program in the Bay Area, divides the forcefulness of gestures into three zones. Zone One includes gestures where the hands are held in close to the body. How you hold your hands when you’re showing someone how to thread a needle is an example of a zone one gesture. They can be appropriate at times, but they’re not dynamic. They look tentative.

In Zone Two gestures, the arms are out and away from the body. The elbows are bent and away from the rib cage. Hands are above the waist. Now you’re expressing energy. You may be thinking, so do I just wave my arms around? No. Think of a fisherman recounting his experiences with the big bass he almost caught. He shows you how he held the fishing rod, his hands dip when the bass takes the bait and he may get his whole body involved in showing how he fought the bass. And finally he’ll hold his hands far apart to show you how big the fish was. Whenever we can use our hands and arms to make our word pictures more vivid, our listeners are drawn in and are more involved. You may feel foolish pushing your arms out away from your body at first, but with practice, it becomes more natural.

With Zone Three gestures your arms are fully extended, “The bass was this big … but it got away.” Zone three gestures are the most dramatic, but should be used sparingly. They can seem phony if you use them too often. Save them for your biggest ideas, biggest moments. Stand in front of a mirror and see what the zones look like.

What about when you’re talking about something abstract rather than a fish, what do you do then? What do you do naturally when you’re not self-conscious? Observe yourself, observe others. Notice what you like (and don’t like) about other people’s gestures. It doesn’t matter if he topic is concrete or abstract, if the speaker is involved, the hands move.

The size of your audience and your proximity to it also come into play. If you’re sitting with a friend at a small table, you wouldn’t use many zone two gestures–you’re too close, the space is restricted. Conversely if you’re speaking to a conference congregation of 3000, you’ll want to use more zone three gestures so your physical energy will be picked up in the back row.

Okay, you’re saying, I’ve got it, descriptive gestures can help make my ideas come alive, that’s good. But I can’t gesture all the time. Is it okay then to grasp the lectern or put my hands together? No, it’s not. When you don’t have any gestures to make, let your hands hang at your side. I know, I know, it feels uncomfortable, but it looks fine. Don’t confuse how something feels to you when you’re on stage with how it comes across to a congregation. If being comfortable were the main consideration, many of us would sit down with our backs to the audience while we speak. The main consideration is presenting ourselves in a way that highlights our message and our emotional states. To do that, we need new habits.

Start by observing others in conversation. Notice when their hands are animated or still. Be analytical in your observations (oh, that was a zone two) but don’t be judgmental or critical. Just notice. And you might want to try observing your own gestures when you’re in a conversation. It’ll be hard not to be critical of yourself, but make the effort. And remember, hands above the waist, away from the body, elbows not pressed against the rib cage.

The best way to learn is to videotape yourself speaking, and watch it. It’s the best way, but not the easiest. I know. One of the easiest times to practice gestures is when you’re talking on the phone. The other party can’t see you.

There’s one more aspect that isn’t easy–being aware of your gestures while you’re giving your sermons. No, you’re saying, I have enough things to pay attention to during the talk, how can I add this? First of all, you don’t pay attention constantly; let it come and go. Check in with it now and then.

Is it worth the effort? I think it is, and I think you do, too.

Questions, comments? Write to me or call me at 503-427-0030, I’ll be glad to talk with you.