The next time you pitch an idea, pay attention to what you’re doing with your hands and arms. Your gestures communicate more than you think.
According to new academic research, entrepreneurs who use gestures to underscore their message are considered to be more impressive. For example, extending both arms wide open to explain the ‘sweeping’ size of a potential market gives an investor confidence in the speaker.
Hand motions help to communicate an abstract or unfamiliar idea by making it concrete, according to Joep Cornelissen, professor of communication and management at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University. Cornelissen explained his research in the May edition of the Harvard Business Review.
“We think this kind of information [nonverbal language] is especially important in uncertain, high-stakes contexts like pitch meetings, where investors are looking for a variety of cues that will help them evaluate ideas’ potential,” says Cornelissen.
In his MBA classes, Cornelissen asks his students to pitch an idea and to rate each other on the presentations. The students whose pitches are deemed more memorable and persuasive use gestures to support their main points. “In other instances, I first have students do a pitch on their own and then train them to change their story and strategically add hand motions. The whole class can then see the before and after versions and how much difference carefully crafted body language makes.”
I, too, have found that genuine and natural hand gestures energize a presentation. For example, for one of my early books on communication, I spoke to Dr. David McNeill at the University of Chicago. He had conducted exhaustive research into nonverbal language, especially gestures. McNeill said that gestures and language are intimately connected. Gestures help you speak more fluidly by clearing up the thought process. Gestures come so naturally to us, it takes concerted effort not to use gestures. In other words, if you feel like using your hands to make a point—as most of us do in casual conversation—use gestures in front of an audience, too.
Here are three public-speaking tips that apply to hand and arm gestures.
1. Use gestures
Don’t be afraid to use your hands in the first place. The day before I wrote this article, I was meeting with a senior executive at one of the world’s largest publicly-traded companies. As she was preparing for a major presentation, she asked, “Should I keep my hands still?” Armed with the new research, I confidently told her, “Feel free to use your hands. You’ll make a stronger impression.”
2. Use gestures sparingly
Any overused communication technique can easily turn into a distraction. In today’s political campaign, one candidate flails his arms about to punctuate nearly every sentence. It’s turned into a meme on social media. Too much of a good thing can backfire.
3. Use gestures at key moments
McNeill found that great speakers are more inclined to use definitive and purposeful gestures during “key moments in the discourse.” The best advice is to use gestures at those moments of a presentation when you’re communicating your most important message.
I’m glad we have new research into nonverbal communication. As an author, I naturally focus my writing on the words we use and the stories we tell. But you should also pay close attention to what your body is communicating. Your gestures matter.