We have all seen it. The presenters face is expressionless, wooden, devoid of emotion or life. It is usually well paired with a horrific monotone vocal delivery, to really kill off the audiencecompletely. Presenting is a serious business, so these presenters present a very serious physiognomy. Somehow, scowling is thought to be good too, to show the gravitas these heavyweights bring to the occasion. These are powerful people, who by definition, must look powerful. Technical people, in particular, love this no frills approach and smiling is definitely well off their list of possibilities.
To be fair, there are presentations where levity, smiling, frivolity are totally inappropriate. A remembrance ceremony for the fallen heroes and heroines in battle, would be an occasion for an austere face. Losing all the shareholder’s value through some idiocy would be another. A serious face however, doesn’t have to be an expressionless face. Recalling lost loved ones in a heartbroken community, can see the presenter’s face stricken and tortured with pent up emotions. When I gave eulogy for my mother at her funeral, my face was ashen and pained.
In business though, in most cases, we can use our faces as an additional communication tool with our audience. We are using tonal variety in our voice, our hands for gestures, our eyes for audience engagement. We should also be using our faces too. A raised eyebrow can speak volumes. It can indicate curiosity, incredulousness or doubt. Turning our face to the side and tilting our head to go with it, can show scepticism or cynicism. Pursing our lips together then pushing them forward in a pout shows disagreement or disapproval. Pulling our head back from the neck shows shock or surprise. Physicality is one of the tools available to the presenter.
When you think about it we are incredibly active using our face in normal conversation. If we filmed you speaking and played it back you would be amazed at how much facial expression you are employing. Stand you behind a podium or put you on stage in front of an audience though and maybe all that natural communication ability sails out the window and is replaced by a wooden you instead.
When we look at theatre performances, television, movies, comedic acts we can see facial tools being well employed to drive home messages. I enjoy the popular drama from Italy, Inspector Montalbano and the Italian culture really makes great use of the face to communicate emotions. They are just talking, but it looks like they are arguing and of course the gesturing is on fire. We should stop watching these shows just for the entertainment value and start re-watching them for what we can learn about how to employ our face more powerfully when presenting.
In the same way, when we are speaking, we hit key words with a louder or softer volume for effect, we should start employing our face to do the very same thing. When you want to raise doubt about some proposition someone else is putting forward, look for a suitable facial expression to back up that message. When you want to appear sceptical of some idea, then bring your best sceptic face to the fore. When you want to look happy, a huge smile will do the trick to convey that feeling.
This is very hard to coordinate when you are starting out. These days I have so much going on with my voice, eyes, gestures, body language I am not even aware of it. Watching myself on video with the sound turned off, I can see how much natural variety I am bringing to the talk. It wasn’t like that at the start. My very first public presentation in my life was in Japanese to the Sundai Yobiko cram school students who were forced to listen to me. I was so nervous, I managed to finish a 25 minute speech in 8 minutes. I am sure my face was not only wooden, but also bright red from all the stress I was feeling.
Like anything to do with public speaking this facial involvement takes practice. Presenting in front of a mirror is a good chance to see how animated you are. Video is better though and these days everyone has a smart phone with a very good quality camera lens included. Try doing the same piece with repetition to see if you are bringing your face into the communication. Also check you are doing it congruently with the content you are addressing. Over time, you will start creating appropriate facial expressions for that piece of the content without even noticing it. To be a more effective public speaker, get your face more involved!
