As a presentation skills trainer, I’ve always intuitively felt how important gestures and expression are when it comes to being an effective presenter.
They help you bring your story to life, connect with your audience and make sure your message gets across.
- But did you know that using your hands can actually help you think?
- That gestures can make it easier for your audience to understand complex ideas and remember what you’ve said?
- And that you can even use your gestures to help change the way you speak?
I’ve always felt there was more to gestures than meets the eye. Now, as I read more about the science behind them, I’m discovering just how fascinating this is.
Let me share three ways your hands can help you become a more effective presenter.
1 Your hands help you think
Have you ever noticed that you naturally start gesturing when you’re trying to explain something complicated, even when nobody can see you?
There’s a reason for that.
Research suggests that gestures don’t simply reflect what we’re thinking. They can also actively support our thinking processes.
When we move our hands, we activate motor regions of the brain that are connected to regions involved in creativity and problem-solving.
In other words, gesturing engages parts of your brain that support how you process and organise information. Moving your hands can help you explore ideas, organise your thoughts and find the words you need.
Researchers call this embodied cognition: the idea that thinking is not just something that happens in our heads, but is also influenced by our bodily experiences and movements.
And it gets even more interesting.
Gestures can sometimes help us express ideas that we haven’t yet managed to put into words. In other words, moving our hands may help us work out what we want to say.
What does this mean when preparing your presentations?
Instead of simply reading your slides or repeating what’s written on them, practise explaining the ideas in your own words while letting your hands move naturally.
Combining speaking aloud with gestures helps you integrate the content in a firmer way and help making the presentation your own. By combining language with movement, you engage different processes in your brain, helping you connect with the story you want to tell and deliver it more naturally.
2 Your hands help your audience understand and remember
Gestures don’t just help you think. They also help your audience understand and remember what you’re saying, especially when you explain complex ideas.
Gestures give your audience a visual reference for your words. You can use your hands to show how ideas relate to each other, illustrate a process or make an abstract concept more concrete.
But gestures can also benefit you while you’re presenting.
They can help you stay present as a speaker, keeping you connected to what you’re saying rather than getting lost in your thoughts.
So, while your hands help your audience understand and remember your message, they can also help you stay present and connected to what you’re saying. A win-win!
3 Your hands can help you change the way you speak
Let’s say you tend to speak too quickly when presenting. You know you should slow down, but when you get excited or nervous, you speed up again.
What if, instead of focusing only on your words, you paid attention to your movements?
Our gestures and speech are closely connected. They tend to work together in rhythm, and research suggests that changing how we gesture can influence aspects of how we speak, including fluency, vocal intensity and speech patterns.
This doesn’t mean that every slow gesture automatically makes you speak more slowly. In fact, encouraging people to gesture can sometimes make their speech more energetic or fluent.
But you can experiment with using deliberate, unhurried movements as a physical reminder to give your words more space.
One important thing: don’t force your gestures
After reading all this, you might be tempted to plan exactly what your hands should do with every sentence. But that is not what I would encourage you to do! 😉
When you’re genuinely engaged with your story, speaking from understanding rather than simply reciting something you’ve memorised, your gestures will often emerge naturally. They reflect your enthusiasm, help you explain ideas and express what matters to you.
If you try to control every movement, you risk focusing on your hands instead of connecting with your message and your audience.
The point isn’t to learn gestures by heart, but to become aware of how much your hands can do for you. They can help you think, communicate and present with greater impact.
Good luck!
Want to explore this further?
In my Presenting with Impact training, we work on more than just finding the right words. We explore how to bring your message to life through your voice, body language and connection with your audience. Because an impactful presentation isn’t just about what you say. It’s about how you bring your story across.
Curious to experience this for yourself?
Join my Presenting with Impact open training on 27 November and discover how to present with more confidence, authenticity and impact.
Interested? Find out more about the training or get in touch if you have any questions.
Inspired by
- Think Faster, Talk Smarter — Matt Abrahams
- Full Body Thinking — Wouter de Jong