Why is eye contact important in public speaking?
Of all the techniques that a public speaker can use, good eye contact may possibly be the most powerful.
Even though we spend every day of our lives using our eyes in one-to-one conversations, we are never really trained for eye contact in public speaking.
In this article, we will offer some public speaking tips for effective eye contact, and some simple secrets to overcome eye contact anxiety.
How to Have Better Eye Contact in Public Speaking
All humans use eye contact as a signal of engagement. If you display poor eye contact when speaking in front of an audience, it will instantly cause them to start to lose interest and trust in you.
In personal conversations, if we aren’t interested in a person, or we aren’t comfortable around them, we typically don’t maintain good eye contact.
As a public speaker, effective eye contact is perhaps the easiest way for you to connect to your audience without saying a word.
If your audience is engaged with you, they will reward you with good eye contact as well.If they are bored or don’t feel connected, they will typically have poor eye contact or avoid looking at you.
Why is Eye Contact So Hard In Public Speaking?
Despite eye contact skills helping you as a public speaker, it’s not a natural habit to look a group of people in the eyes.
Looking at a large audience of people can feel intimidating, which makes it hard to maintain. Eye contact in public speaking is much harder to train than gestures, strong body language, and improved voice tone.
Why is it so hard to look at an audience that is in front of you? Because you are one person, and they are a group. There are many sets of eyes looking at yours, and this can be overwhelming for your brain. Over time, having effective eye contact with a live audience gets easier, but it is intimidating and awkward when you first start.
But the good news is that direct eye contact is also the most powerful form of nonverbal communication available to you as a public speaker. If you can master eye contact skills, it will set you apart from others in your presentation skills.
Three Eye Contact Mistakes in Public Speaking
On the path to developing eye contact skills, here are three mistakes that I have learned, and that many public speakers make when speaking to an audience.
The ‘stare down’
This is when you look too long at any one person in your audience. Some speakers will choose one person in the audience and look at them far too much, or too long. They may do this because they believe the person is interested, or they feel comfortable looking at them.
Looking at one person too long creates a ‘stare down’ effect. As a rule, more than 7-10 seconds of constant eye contact starts to become domineering, especially when a speaker is looking at one person in the audience for too long.
The ‘scanner’
On the opposite end of the spectrum from staring, you’ll notice some speakers who won’t look at one single person. Instead they scan back and forth across the audience constantly. This makes everyone in the room feel uncomfortable as they can’t get a clear read on the person speaking.
The ‘up and down’
Another type of eye contact avoidance comes from looking up or over the audience, or down at the ground too much. It can be useful to use an up or down glance to symbolize a feeling or change of thought. However, doing it as an avoidance strategy will break the connection the audience has to you.
How Do you Practice Eye Contact When Speaking?
You might now be wondering ‘Where do you look during public speaking?’ and how to get better at practicing eye contact during a speech.
The good news is that a lot of the rules of effective eye contact that work one-to-one also work in a small or large audience for public speaking.
Generally speaking, the smaller the audience, the more you should try to give eye contact to every person around the room. Giving balanced eye contact time and focussing on everyone, will each audience member feels a connection to you.
For more impact with eye contact, you can trying looking at one person for one complete sentence at a time.
You will find your speeches have more punch if you finish a thought while looking at one person. Once the thought is done, you can then move to the next person.
When it comes to bigger rooms, you can focus on parts of the audience. It is still important to look out into the group and speak to a section of the room the same as your would to one person. If you are elevated on a stage or podium, this can be tricky but it gets easier with practice.
If the audience is dark, and you have lights on you, it may be almost impossible to see people’s eyes. Even so, you should imagine that you are speaking to one person and keep your eye contact consistent with this conversational approach.
Keep your eye contact ‘soft’
Another idea I learned from the excellent book The Charisma Myth is to be careful not to have a strained/focussed look in your eyes when speaking. This is a habit that some people have, and it is almost always unconscious.
Generally speaking, the more you focus your eyes, the more strained and aggressive you look. Even if you smile, your eyes will make you look intense.
It is far better to practice having ‘soft’ eyes. This means relaxing the muscles around your eyes as this creates a more open and relaxed look. This practice of soft eyes will also relax you as a speaker, so it has the double benefit.
Practice your eye contact one-to-one
To get better at speaking with confident eyes, try working on stronger eye contact in your one-to-one everyday conversations. Try to consciously look at people when speaking to them, and also when listening. Make this a habit and you will find it easier as you incorporate it into your speaking on stage.
How to Overcome Eye Contact Anxiety
Looking people in the eyes can be intimidating in any situation. And it is a skill that you must practice if you want to have better eye contact.
The key to overcoming eye contact anxiety is to do it in small bursts with people you feel comfortable with. Don’t try to go in public and just eye ball strangers. Start with friends, family members, and people you have some familiarity with.
Start with better eye contact when you are listening, and it will slowly become more normal to have direct eye contact when you speak as well.
Eye Contact is a Communication Skill
Whether you are using eye contact in public speaking, or in a one-to-one situation, it’s important to know how much it will impact people. Using appropriate eye contact will increase your confidence, influence, and build rapport with a person or a large audience.
Take the time to pay attention to a person through your eye contact, and they will return the favor by giving you their attention as well. Eye contact is a win-win for all, and truly one of the most effective communication tools you can develop.
– Daniel Midson-Short
Speaker Skills is dedicated to real-world public speaking skills to grow your influence and impact. Everything we share on this site is tested and used on stage by us.
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