Eye contact is one of the most valuable technique , you can use to enhance your presentation. Effective eye contact improves your connection with the audience, and that is always a good thing. So, let’s examine a few simple things we can do to produce more eye contact and better eye contact.
- Take time for better preparation: Most speakers look up on the ceiling or down to the floor, when struggling to “find the right words” to express a certain thought. Do it once or twice — no problem. Do it for minutes at a time, and you risk disconnecting from your audience. Better preparation means you spend more energy and focus talking, and less time thinking of what to say.
- Ensure eye contact as you deliver critical lines: Nobody expects you to sustain eye contact for an entire 20 minutes presentation. However, be sure to elevate the effectiveness of key lines by making sure you are looking at your audience. This includes your opening, your closing, and all other critical lines throughout. If you couple this with expressing suitable emotion, the impact of your words will be much stronger.
- Connect early with the audience: Most speakers have poor eye contact at the beginning of their presentation, improving only as the bond with the audience improves . This is natural for humans; it’s hard to connect immediately with total strangers. So, warm up to your audience as early as possible. How? The best way is to meet as many of them as possible before your presentation begins. By the time you start speaking, at least some of them won’t be “strangers” anymore.
- Respect people who are uncomfortable: Some people in your audience may show that they’re uncomfortable with eye connection by looking away. Different cultures have different norms regarding eye connection. Respect that by spending less eye connection time with them – but don’t ignore them!
- Get Closer to audience members: Do what you can to reduce the physical distance between you and your audience members. If the setting allows it, encourage them to sit in the front rows. Move their chairs closer during room set-up. Getting closer makes the setting a bit more intimate, like those one -on -one conversations with friends where eye contact comes easy.
Eye contact alone will not make or break your next presentation. Great eye contact won’t save a poor presentation, and poor eye contact won’t doom an otherwise fantastic presentation. Compared to your content, eye contact is clearly secondary.