WHO IS RUNNING THE SHOW ?
Do you think you know
yourself very well ?.........I also thought so, until I realized ‘I better
know me better’…..Having lived in this body for all these years, I still discover
new things about myself, which I didn’t know earlier….hold your breath, I’m about
to reveal my latest discovery……. Mister Suranga Fernando is right
handed, but Toastmaster Suranga Fernando is left handed !!!
Fellow Toastmasters &
distinguished guests,
My Right hand is the king…having
said that, even a king is very obedient when faced with his wife…..My right
hand is so dominant when I write, type, eat & so on, except of course,
for when I speak. Whenever I speak, the queen takes over control, or in other words, unintentionally almost
all of my gestures are shown by my left hand, while the king calmly hangs down by my right side.
The desire to overcome this shortcoming prompted me to research
about 'body gestures during speech', more with hope than conviction that
I'd find some comfort…In the process, I came across some very interesting
gestures that we seldom see on this stage. I’ll share a few with you today, so
to increase your repertoire.
The 1st technique is to be a ‘mover’. A
mover is a speaker who makes various different exaggerated, animated or funny
body movements during his speech. This technique not only grabs a lot of
attention but you’ll also get captured in some very interesting positions in photographs.
But, the downside of it is that using this technique ‘You walk on thin ice’.
An action that is funny & interesting to one person might look stupid to
another.
Another interesting technique is to be a “thrower”. Although
‘Thrower’ is a term more associated with sports, a little known fact is that it
is also an effective body gesture. Whenever I talk about throwers the 1st
person who comes to my mind is Mr. Sugathadasa. He is one of my teachers in 8th
grade and was a fantastically accurate thrower. This is how it works. When Mr.
Sugathadasa delivers a lecture, if he notices that someone is not paying
attention, he would set the chalk duster in motion. The duster would slowly fly
through the class and kiss an unexpecting cheek….. “Puff”……someone gets
a chalk make up all over his face and thereafter the rest of the class would not
loose eye contact with Mr. Sugathadasa, even for a millisecond for the rest of his
lesson….I know what you are thinking now….”Toastmasters International would
not allow us to throw Dusters at Toastmasters”….besides, “Mr.
Sugathadasa never had a speech Evaluator closely monitoring his every move”…..but
still, it is a good concept which we could make usable with a small fix. The 2nd
thrower I saw did so with great success.
Instead of a duster, he brought small gifts to the lectern.
During his speech He asked simple questions from the audience…The first was
“who loves Cooking ?” the initial response was slow & discouraging. To the
only person who belatedly raised a hand, he said “very good, this is a valuable
Cookery book, and now it’s yours” and threw the book to him. Guess what
happened there after ? The whole audience was waiting impatiently for his next
question, to jump up with the answer, ‘I know, I know’….The mood of the
audience changed from boring to lively in no time. Trust me; this is a short
cut to become a popular speaker overnight. But let me warn you at the same time;
this popularity comes with significant damage to your wallet & bank account.
The 3rd & last technique doesn’t cost you
anything. It is to be an “involver” As the word would imply the
whole idea is to get involved with your audience. During the speech the speaker
would walk among the audience, talking to them, joking with them, and blending
with them. He would even invite a volunteer on stage and do a role-play to add
another dimension to the speech. But here again you have to be very cautious on
time management & to remain topic oriented.
Toastmasters, body gestures significantly enhance the
effectiveness of your speech. A speech without body gestures would look like a ‘talking
dead body’. But having said that, the gestures must also be natural expressions,
or at least you need to practice them well so that you pretend the gestures
flow naturally. ‘Just like how I did throughout this speech! ‘ :D
Before I conclude, let me do a confession…the reason why I
love these 3 gestures in particular. It is because they all have one aspect in
common. Being a mover, thrower or an involver requires major body movements,
and that deceives your audience to the extent that they fail to notice
something very obvious….The obvious fact that “it’s not the king but
rather the queen who is still running the show ! “
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