Making eye contact with your audience

I rolled my eyes when I read a public speaking article yesterday that recommended looking at the back wall instead of your audience, to make it appear as though you are giving eye contact to the whole group.

This falls under the old-school category of advice where you'll also find "imagine them in their underwear" and "grip the lectern for dear life."

Eye contact is an uncomfortable part of speaking for many people, but it's critical to making the human connection with your audience.

If you're in a large room, you can look at sections of people, but you will eventually need to connect with individuals. The good thing about a large group is that, if you connect with one person, everyone around that person feels part of the connection. In a small room, you have no choice but to look right at people. They can tell if you're avoiding them!

I find that eye contact is more comfortable when I've made friends before the presentation has begun. That is, as people arrive, I say hello, maybe ask a few questions, and get to know the audience members a little.

Once I start my talk, I feel like I already know a few people in the room, and those friendly faces are the ones I seek out first.

It's always easier to make eye contact with the friendly faces than the scowly ones, but don't give up on those folks! They may just have a different way of learning and engaging.

On another note, why do articles and blog posts that suggest things like looking at the back wall make it into my Google alerts, but not my own articles?

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