The Top 5 Non-Verbal Communication Mistakes to Avoid in Your Presentations

Is your body language aligned with your message?

As a presenter, your body language is an orchestra. The instruments in that orchestra include everything from your head to your toes. Sophisticated audiences notice the tone of your voice, the expressions on your face, and the gestures of your hands and feet. Like listening to a musical ensemble, your audience will notice if your instruments are out of synch.

Control your body language and you’ll control how well you connect with your audience. When speaking to your audience, you can look dominant, deferential, or comparable to them. You can come across as engaged or aloof, confident or timid. To send the appropriate message, conduct your orchestra well.

1. Untrustworthy eyes

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. At least in North America, effective eye contact signals confidence, competency, and trust. How purposeful is your eye contact during your presentation? What message do you convey?

Observe the audience in a slow, controlled fashion. If your eyes repeatedly dart left, right, up, and down when you speak, you won’t look credible. If you don’t look at your audience, they might wonder who you’re speaking to. You’ll seem hesitant, unsure, and untrustworthy. And if you speak while staring up at the ceiling, down at your notes, or turning your back to the audience, it’s a challenge to create and maintain an emotional connection with your audience. Whether someone is confused, supportive, or playing Candy Crush, you must first see them before you can engage them.

Look for a few friendly faces in your audience that your eyes can always return to. You will often have conversational eye contact if you focus on one person at a time while you complete a thought. But make everyone feel included. Connect the best you can with those in the front, in the middle, and in the back of the audience, as well as those who may be seated along the side.

2. Tense lips

When appropriate, smile and mean it. Feel it in your entire body.

A great smile can immediately engage and draw in your audience. But it’s a good idea to match your audience’s energy level at the beginning. Be mindful of plastering on a “permasmile.” In some industries, a permanent smile on a presenter is the facial equivalent of speaking in a monotone voice.

When in doubt, picture a happy, smiling, chubby baby.

3. Boring voice

As a presenter, you must pay attention not just to your words but also to the tone of your voice. You may seem confident, competent, and credible—or not—based on how you sound.

When speaking to your audience, you can sound dominant, deferential, or equal. You can sound engaged or aloof. You can sound like someone they want to listen to—or the opposite.

Try to sound conversational, as if you were speaking to a friend at a restaurant or a bar. We naturally speak with vocal variety in our everyday conversations.

Monotonous speakers have a flat and boring voice. They lack the musicality of a rising or falling inflection, tonality, and volume. Audiences find it hard to connect with a speaker when everything sounds the same, and they’ll often tune out. To avoid sounding monotonous, find something in your content that you find genuinely interested in and know your audience will, too.

To sound interesting, you must first be interested.

On the other hand, if your voice is quiet, imagine turning up the volume on your stereo, smartphone, or another music device—and increasing the projection of your own voice. Now slowly turn up the volume. Imagine increasing the volume of your stereo, smartphone, or another music device—and increasing the projection of your own voice.

In addition, do you use a lot of filler words, also known as crutch words, or worse—verbal vomit? These unconscious verbal tics commonly slip into our sentences when we’re buying time to think about what to say next. From your audience’s perspective, verbal vomit adds no meaning, increases distractions, and signals uncertainty. It dilutes your message. When used excessively, verbal vomit kills your credibility.

How can you sound more credible, confident, and concise?

Pause… and think before you speak. Let the words simmer inside your head before they come out of your mouth. As Mark Twain noted, “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”

4. Awkward hands

You create pictures in the minds of your audience through your arm and hand gestures. What image do you want to illustrate for them?

For visual interest, avoid clutching your hands together in complete paralysis when presenting. To keep your delivery fresh, avoid compulsively repeating the same arm and hand gestures. Practice a variety of relevant movements and learn to use appropriate gestures you have mastered.

Open-palm gestures give an inviting, sincere, and heartfelt impression. Be careful with closed-palm gestures, such as a fist or pointing a finger at your audience. Such gestures can leave a condescending, aggressive, or accusatory impression.

Your gestures should support your words, timing, and emotion. Consider choreographing and rehearsing your hand movements in advance. Make sure they are relevant and are neither distracting nor redundant.

Be aware that certain gestures have different meanings in other cultures. Giving your audience a thumbs up is a positive sign in many English-speaking countries. But it can be considered offensive in Thailand, Iran, and Afghanistan. Also, forming an “OK” sign with your thumb and index finger is acceptable in North America. But it’s considered a rude gesture in countries such as Brazil, Germany, and Turkey.

5. Distracting feet

Do you step with intention? Some speakers like to move, while others remain in one place. Either way, make your movement purposeful. Consider planting your feet firmly on the platform, like a tree. This stance conveys poise, authority, and confidence. As you transition to a new point in your presentation, consider stepping to the left or right. To emphasize an important point, step forward.

Whenever you move, do so with purpose. Some speakers pace; this can lull the audience or convey an impression of nervous energy. Erratic movements distract and detract from your message. Move with purpose and bring polish to your passion.

Remember that your audience doesn’t know how you feel. They only know how you appear. With that in mind, you should not be overly concerned about looking nervous. Instead, bring your chest forward, and stand upright as if you’re wearing a crown. Your face conveys trust, likeability, and competence. Whenever it’s appropriate, share your passion and enthusiasm for your message.

As entertainer Alexander Gregg said, “There are three things to aim at in public speaking: first, to get into your subject, then to get your subject into yourself, and lastly, to get your subject into the heart of your audience.”

Your words, your voice, and your body must be aligned with the needs of your audience and the nature of your presentation. Move with purpose.

Improve the delivery and quality of your non-verbal communication, and be the best version of yourself as you present.