A Simple Gesture
Broca’s area of your brain writes your sentence, and the neuron carrying that sentence is sent to your motor cortex so you can say that sentence with your voice, face, and hands and fingers (aka gestures).
I’ve been in front of the camera, and I’ve been behind it. The pressure is real when all eyes (or the eye of the camera) are on you.
I cannot tell you how many times someone has come to me with very little time to prepare for an upcoming talk. Their focus is always on their content and slides, as if any audience member ever left any talk going, “Wow! Those slides!!!”
An audience member will remember how you made them feel, what you made them picture, and think about. Story is one way to reach minds, but even before that, how you talk to them matters.
Gestures matter because they are a crucial part of communication and cognition. Gestures are used to emphasize points, draw pictures in the air, and express emotions, making our communication more memorable and compelling. They make spoken communication more dynamic and effective.
Gestures are even something we do before we learn to speak! Gestures are an early form of communication that help babies express needs and desires, and research shows a link between early gesturing and later vocabulary growth.
Gesture is something most people do every day in casual conversation; however, as soon as you start thinking about gestures, they can feel artificial. When I coach someone, and they don’t gesture at all, it’s often because they were told their gestures were too distracting.
Yes! That can happen. Gestures can be distracting when they are flailing rather than targeted to the person you are talking to. Remember, your brain is only designed to talk to one person at a time. Even if you are in a group, you talk to one person at a time. Your eyes, voice, feet, hips, shoulders, and gestures are all aimed at that one person. You give them 1, 2, or 3 sentences, and then in between sentences (your Zip) you shift to another person.
When playing sports, you always have a target. It can be a basket, a net, a line, or the arms of the person you are passing to. Athletes are told to follow through with their arms as the ball goes in the direction of their follow-through.
Use every day to practice treating your listeners as if there is no one else in the room. They are your priority. Make them feel it!
Please take 3 minutes out of your day to watch this spectacular meltdown.
Copy/paste in your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2NC25GWdtM
Jo
www.333-communications.com