You, like so many, are nervous when it comes to public speaking. Or maybe you downright hate it. Your remedy, when you’re called upon to speak publicly, is to pace around so that you feel better. Unfortunately, that habit doesn’t make your audience feel better. Even if you don’t mind public speaking, your pacing habit isn’t doing you any favors.
So says Anett Grant, CEO of Executive Speaking. (https://www.executivespeaking.net/) in “This Public Speaking Habit Is Annoying Your Audience.”
Why isn’t pacing working for you, even though a trusted colleague may have suggested that walking around while you speak would loosen you up a bit and reduce your anxiety?
First of all, according to Ms. Grant, when you pace too much, you can no longer use movement to punctuate what you say. In short, “you lose the power of the pause.” If you pause between one statement and the next and also move, you add impact to your words and grab your listeners’ attention. As in, “We need to economize significantly throughout our operations. (Pause your speech and walk a few paces.) To this end, we’ll be offering packages to Grade 3 employees as an inducement for them to leave the company.” Now that should get everyone’s attention.
Second, when you keep on moving, “your audience focuses on your body, not your message.” That’s because we’re hardwired to focus on movement. Just as hunter and prey do. You may feel calmer, but too much movement loses your audience and probably a critical part of your message. (Of course, if you were hunting, you might also get eaten.)
Third, your pacing dictates the rhythm of your speech—think marching to “1-2-3-4, we love the Marine Corps.” Keep on moving and “you flatten your delivery.” Pacing reduces your ability to vary your delivery, and you tend to go monotone.
Finally, “you might be creating sight-line issues.” If you move around a lot, some of your audience may not be able to see you at all or only by craning their necks. As with the second point, your audience loses connection with your message and may well end up tuning out or coming out of your talk with less information than you provided.
You may not end up ever having to speak publicly, which would be a shame, actually. But Ms. Grant’s ideas are bound to be helpful in some context or other. Up next week: how to use strategic pauses.
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