Are Your Speech Gestures Too Small, Too Big, or Just Right?
You are aware by this point that gestures should be used to enhance your discourse.
Do you know how large these gestures ought to be, though?
This post will teach you how to adjust the size of your gestures for the audience and the setting.
What does "gesture size" mean?
Your motions might be big or small, just like your voice can be loud or subtle.
Think about the range of hand and arm gestures, for instance.
- Small gestures are those that you make with just your fingers.
- The size of gestures that hinge at your wrist varies.
- Even greater gestures involve turning at your elbow.
- Finally, there are enormous motions that pivot at your shoulder.
- So, how do you pick the appropriate size?
- "Gestures that work well with one audience may be useless with another audience."
It varies. A gesture that works well with one audience could be useless with another.
Factors to consider include:
- Cultural and environmental aspects, as well as the distance and sight lines between you and your audience
- We can extract some fundamental rules for good body language from these aspects.
Distance
In general, your motions need to be bigger and more noticeable the further away your audience is from you. Little audience, little gestures big gestures go with big audiences.
For instance, you might make a little hand motion while seated at a boardroom table. You must use full arm movements when you talk in front of an audience.
Seeing Lines
You can perform smaller and more complex movements if your sight lines are unobstructed. You require bigger (and higher) motions if your line of sight is partially obscured.
Contextual and Cultural Aspects
“Your movements need to be bigger and more prominent the more away your audience is from you.”
The ideal size for your gestures may vary depending on cultural and social considerations. Several instances are:
- More restrained movements might be required based on the audience's culture. (In general, if you are unfamiliar with the culture of your audience, avoid using huge motions.)
- Your gestures should be restrained when giving a eulogy or breaking news about layoffs.
- Your gestures can be seen more clearly when chatting to children.
- In every situation, it is best to conduct this research as part of your audience analysis, especially if you are addressing a brand-new audience.
Examples of Speech Gestures Scenarios
To demonstrate how the size of your audience (and, by implication, the size of the space) affects which gestures are most effective, let us look at a few hypothetical scenarios.
1. Small Group Speech Gestures (2-6 people)
Example Situation: You are chatting with a coworker in an office or seated at a table with clients.
For this small group situation, follow these rules:
- Because everyone is near to you, your gestures can be little and still have an impact.
- Wrist-pivoting hand gestures and finger movements can be useful.
- Think about the man's finger gestures in photo A on the right, for instance.
- Face expressions and eye movements naturally make little gestures. In a close-knit small-group situation, where everyone can see every subtlety—conscious and unconscious—they are crucial.
- For instance, the woman in photo B is merely using her eyes and demeanor to convey nonverbal messages.
- Your chances of capturing their whole attention increase with the size of your audience. They will usually be casting a focused gaze toward your eyes. As a result, raising your hands up toward your eyes may be the ideal way to make modest hand movements.
- Look at the individual in shot C, who is making a gesture with his hands lifted.
- Watch out for tense hand motions that can be seen more clearly in this environment, such as tapping your fingers on the table or clicking your pen frequently.
2. Medium Group Speech Gestures (7-40 people)
Example Scenario: You are giving a presentation to a group of people who are gathered around a boardroom table or in a small conference room. Either you are standing or seated, depending on your preference.
For this medium-sized group, follow these rules:
- As the average distance between you and the audience members grows, you should scale up your motions a bit.
- Still crucial are your facial expressions and eye movements. Every subtlety, conscious and unconscious, may still be visible to spectators in the front rows.
- Gesturing with your hands or arms should start at least at your elbows.
- Consider President Obama's action in photo D, where his arm swings from his elbow.
- Keep your sight lines clear! It is possible that wrist-pivoting hand motions are too small for others to see, especially if you are speaking from a podium or if they cannot see your face (e.g., by computer screens).
- For instance, because the computer screen is blocking the man's motion in photo E, his audience may not see it (making it ineffective).
- You might be able to use your upper body to make some greater movements depending on how the place is set up.
3. Large Group Speech Gestures (40-100 people)
An example scenario might be that you are giving a conference break-out session in a sizable meeting room or a lunchtime presentation at a business. There is not a large stage or elevated seating (i.e., you are standing at the same level as your audience).
For this large group situation, use these rules:
- Increase the size of your gestures by extending your arms away from your torso.
- For instance, the woman in photo F is making a gesture with her swinging arm from her shoulder.
- Eye and facial expressions lose their significance since, unless you significantly exaggerate them, most of the audience cannot see them.
- This can be the most difficult crowd size because they can only see you from the chest and higher due to the obstructed sight lines for much of your audience behind the first few seats. Most of the audience cannot see any gestures you make at a lower level.
- Take note of the motion the man is making in photo G by raising both of his arms to his sides. The audience can see him over the head of the person in front of them thanks to this.
- Smaller motions can be emphasized by holding them for a longer time and turning your body slightly as you make them. The possibility that more people will observe the gesture rises as a result.
4. Huge Group Speech Gestures (100+ People)
Example Scenario: You are giving the conference’s keynote speech. As you move from the front to the back of the audience, the seating is elevated, and you are speaking from a stage that is usually placed back from the front row.
Rules for this large group environment:
- You should scale up your gestures once again. There must be gestures with the entire body. Do not be reluctant.
- Like small objects, tiny gestures are imperceptible. Finger gestures are not visible, such as raising three fingers to signify your third point. Your viewers will be able to see your arm raised, but not your fingers.
- Take Steve Jobs' introduction of the MacBook Air in photo H as an illustration. He is aware that most of his audience cannot see what he is carrying in its entirety. (And his face and hands are much more diminutive!) To make up for this, a picture of a manila envelope emerges on the screen behind him.
- Eye and facial expressions are imperceptible. This does not imply that you should appear lifeless. On the contrary, you should continue to make expressive eye and facial motions because doing so will help to maintain an elevated level of vocal variety.
- You can employ "low" hand/arm gestures that are concentrated around your waist and abdomen due to enhanced sight lines.
- Additionally, your legs are now clearly visible, and you can take full use of this by strolling or kicking.
- In certain rare instances, such as with the woman presenting in photo I, a video system may be employed to enlarge you for your audience. Smaller gestures can once again be seen if this is the case. The effectiveness of large motions remains higher.
To sum up
Always be conscious of your audience’s distance from you as well as the room’s sightlines. Scale your gestures in accordance with this understanding to be efficient.
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