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What transforms your speech from a simple auditory or intellectually interesting piece into an emotional experience, a theatrical event, a compelling performance—is movement.
After all, you could put your ideas into an article for your followers to read, like this one. Or you could share your message in a podcast for your community to listen to. But a speech is the complete package. It’s an intellectual, auditory, visual, three-dimensional experience.
And on stage, when you move you must know when to move, where to move, and the why behind it all.
When you do, this intentional movement on stage creates a powerful visual experience for your audience that actually makes it easier for them to digest and comprehend your message. It evokes powerful emotions that make them feel your words, and motivates them to change and take action. It also makes it easier for you to learn and internalize your material in a way that will surprise you.
But, if your movement doesn’t match your message, it can distract, confuse, and bore.
Is this your Achilles heel?
For most speakers, movement on stage is their Achilles heel. You see, how a lot of speakers typically handle movement on stage is largely unplanned—and therefore at the mercy of their subconscious.
After watching speakers perform over the years, I’ve noticed three specific types of behaviors speakers often resort to that benefit them as the speaker but that create a subpar, distracting, or uncomfortable experience for their audience.
#1 Self-Soothing Tactics
You’ll often see speakers pace back and forth, or rock, shift, or sway from left to right. They shift their weight from one foot to the other, or repeat the same types of movements throughout their entire speech.
These actions are the byproducts of pre-event jitters and performance anxiety taking hold of your brain. Your subconscious impulses your body to move with one simple goal: to make you feel better.
Repetitive actions like the ones mentioned above are common examples of self-soothing tactics that attempt to decrease stress and alleviate anxiety. It helps you feel better on stage, but these repetitive movements make your audience lose track of what you are saying. To them, everything you say seems to have the same weight and value—because there is no intentional variation or contrast in your movement.
#2 Exaggerated Emotions or Movements
Actions like running on stage while enthusiastically shouting: “How are we doing? Can I get a round of applause?” can be your sneaky subconscious taking control. Overenthusiasm and attempts to “pump up” your audience shift the focus to you and your needs, and leave your audience long forgotten.
This type of exaggerated energy (in the theater it’s referred to as “pushing”) usually doesn’t resonate because it’s not honest—your actual energy levels don’t match your movement, and your audience’s forced response is not genuine either. Overacting is not beneficial to your audience. But honesty is—in fact, it’s essential for a first-rate performance.
Building energy on stage doesn’t depend on your emotional state, it’s produced by the transformational experience you create and how you make your audience feel—honestly and authentically.
#3 Common Confidence-Building Techniques
Some traditional advice teaches speakers to “stalk” the audience—to walk with power and confidence while keeping a laser focus on each person.
This could make you feel more comfortable, but it’s more likely to create an awkward power struggle between you and the audience. And it’ll likely make your audience feel very uncomfortable. (After all, how would you like to be stared down from the stage?)
As with most performance techniques, to make an impact, your movement needs to be intentional, focused, and fully aligned with your content. If it is, you’re then able to focus completely on your audience, making them feel what you want them to feel—so you can transform how they think and act.
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