Trainers who make eye contact with learners and who use body language and vocal control effectively are more likely to engage their audience than trainers who don’t,
It is important for trainers to convey a sense that they are comfortable and in control of a training session by using “open and authentic body language,” she says. “If you naturally use your hands when you speak, feel free to use your hands during your presentation. You will appear more comfortable and energetic.
“Conversely, if you don’t naturally gesture, just let your arms and hands fall comfortably to your side. Avoid fidgeting with a pen, pointer, etc. Also, keep your hands out of your pockets. Putting your hands in your pockets looks less professional and tells the audience that you may be nervous.
“Once the audience knows you are comfortable, it’s much easier for them to just listen to what you say,” Espinoza says.
She encourages trainers to avoid using a podium and to position learners’ seats in a horseshoe shape rather than traditional rows of seats, because that provides more opportunities to make eye contact with, move closer to, and connect with learners.
“You want to take the time to make sure you have looked each participant in the eye,” she says. If you look at the floor or at the back wall of the room, “you’ve missed an opportunity to connect with them.”
However, “vocal control—or vocal presence—is the most important aspect of a presentation,” Espinoza says, referring to trainers’ ability to project their voices so that learners “hear you and hear that you’re passionate about the topic and that you want to be there.”
She adds, “Vocal presence is the number one indicator to the audience that the speaker is in control and comfortable with the material.”
Trainers will pay more attention to their own body language, vocal control, and eye contact, Espinoza says, if they approach each training session as if it were the first time they presented on that topic.
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