For this post we will be examining someone who has a bit of practice in terms of public speaking. Seth Godin is an author, who primarily writes about marketing. In this particular video from Ted.com, he is speaking about making your ideas stand out in a somewhat crowded market. It is quite interesting and I do recommend watching just for the good information that you can get from his speech. However this blog focuses largely on one thing, non-verbal communication.
That being the case let us start to analyze some of his actions and see what makes him a good speaker and some things that he could work on. Lets start by pausing at second 00:33 give or take a few frames. Here we see 2 good things and one not so good thing. Lets start with the not so good.
See how his arms are clenched up to his sides and hands directly in front of his abdomen? This tells us that he is being a bit defensive. At this stage he is probably thinking thoughts like “the audience is bored” or “I might be talking too long on this section”. While this is most likely not really the case, it may be thoughts along these lines that have led him to subconsciously “defend” himself.
Lets look at the 2 things that he is doing right. He is smiling. Smiling leads to other people smiling. When someone is smiling back at you it can lead to feelings of comfort, which can then lead to better presenting. The second gesture he is on his way to getting right is the palm up gesture. You can tell he is at least a little experienced by his almost natural tendency to keep his palms pointing up.
As shown in an earlier post, palm up gestures tend to make the listeners feel less “threatened” and therefore allows the listeners to trust him a little.
“The palm facing up is used as a submissive, nonthreatening gesture, reminiscent of the pleading gesture of a street beggar and, from an evolutionary perspective, shows the person holds no weapons.” - Allen Pease, writer of The Definitive Guide to Body Language
Now if we move all the way to minute 14:07, we see a very good gesture. This gesture is completely open. Palms are relatively facing up and the arms are all the way out. This tells us that what he is saying at least in his mind is true, which can lead to the listeners feeling trust towards Seth.
So to summarize a bit, try to avoid bundling your arms in front of yourself during a presentation. Open those arms and hands up; tilt those palms a bit upward. This can lead to confidence when speaking as well as instill trust in the listeners.
To the animators – If you want a character to look confident in what he is speaking about, open his arms and hands up, and try to move them almost on beat with words of importance.
Reference: [Video] – Seth Godin on Standing Out, from Ted.com
[Quote] – Allan Pease from the book, The Definitive Book of Body Language
These are some very good points, and I am glad that you analyze both what he did right and what he did wrong. I am always more engaged in any type of presentation if the presenter is smiling. I think that if you display a positive attitude and passion for the subject that you are presenting it's hard to go wrong. I also think it is important that you tied this TED talk into the overall subject of your blog by addressing the animators who read your posts specifically.
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