Harness the Power of Facial Expressions to Boost your Presentation Confidence

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Facial Expression
Facial Expressions Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Giving a great public presentation is more than just having the right words – it also involves understanding the nonverbal elements of communication. Facial expressions are a key part of this, as they are one of the most powerful tools to convey emotion and have a lasting impact on our audience. In this blog post, we will explore the “seven universal expressions of emotion” and discuss how to use them effectively in public speaking. From understanding the importance of setting the right tone to connecting with your audience, we will guide you through the elements of facial expression to help you deliver an unforgettable presentation.

The seven universal expressions of emotion are happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, contempt, and disgust. Each of these emotions can be used to help you create an emotional connection with your audience. Here’s how:

The Seven Universal Expressions of Emotion

  1. Happiness: Smiling is one of the best ways to create an emotional connection with your audience. Not only does it make you seem friendly and approachable, it can also make your audience more likely to remember your presentation.
  • 2. Sadness: If you’re discussing a difficult topic, it can be hard to find the right words. But, by expressing sadness through your facial expressions, you can show your audience that you understand their pain and empathize with their situation.
  • 3. Surprise: If you’re delivering an unexpected message, surprise can be an effective tool to grab your audience’s attention. Just make sure not to overdo it, as too much surprise can make your audience uncomfortable.
  • 4. Fear: If you’re speaking about a topic that could be potentially frightening, you can use your facial expressions to convey the gravity of the situation. It can also help your audience understand the seriousness of the matter.
  • 5. Anger: If you’re trying to rouse your audience to action, anger can be a great way to express your passion and conviction. Just make sure to channel it in a positive way.
  • 6. Contempt: If you’re talking about a situation or person that deserves to be criticized, contempt can be a great way to convey your disapproval. However, be careful not to overdo it, as your audience may view it as an attack.
  • 7. Disgust: If you’re discussing a particularly unpleasant topic, disgust can be an effective tool to communicate your revulsion. Just be sure to use it sparingly, as too much disgust can turn your audience off.

By understanding the seven universal expressions of emotion, you can use facial expressions to create an emotional connection with your audience. This will help you deliver a memorable and impactful presentation. So the next time you’re giving a presentation, remember to use facial expressions to set the tone and connect with your audience.

What’s the science behind this?

The seven universal expressions of emotion, as identified by renowned psychologists Paul Ekman and David Matsumoto, are a set of universal facial expressions that are used by all human beings regardless of culture and language. These seven expressions are the basis of nonverbal communication and are considered to be the core of facial expressions and emotions.

As discussed above the seven facial expressions that Ekman and Matsumoto have identified as universal are as follows: happiness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, contempt, and sadness. Each of these expressions has a distinct appearance, which can be easily recognized by people from different countries and cultures.

It is important to note that these expressions do not always have the same meaning in different cultures and contexts. While a smile may indicate happiness in one context, in a different context it may represent something entirely different. This is why Ekman and Matsumoto stress the importance of being able to recognize the subtle differences in facial expressions and their meanings.

In order to properly recognize these seven expressions, it is important to observe the whole face and not just focus on a single feature. For example, a person may have a smile on their face, but if they are frowning or their eyes are narrow, the smile may not be an expression of joy. By looking at the whole face, it is easier to determine the true emotion that the person is feeling.

Over the years, Ekman and Matsumoto have conducted extensive research on the seven universal expressions of emotion. They have found that these expressions are universal and can be found in all cultures. They also found that these expressions are strongly influenced by the culture and context in which a person is located.

In addition to the seven universal expressions of emotion, Ekman and Matsumoto have also identified several other facial expressions that are more specific to a particular culture or context. These include expressions related to embarrassment, pride, and surprise.

Overall, the seven universal expressions of emotion identified by Ekman and Matsumoto provide an important insight into nonverbal communication. By understanding these expressions, people can better understand what emotions are being communicated to them and have a better understanding of how to respond in a given situation.

Here are two videos that further explain the seven universal expressions of emotion

Exploring Facial Expressions with Paul Ekman

Are facial expressions learned or innate? Dr. David Matsumoto

Stop Talking and Start Gesturing: 8 Ways to Make an Impact with Nonverbal Communication.

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Nonverbal communication is an important part of any interpersonal interaction. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors, including gestures, facial expressions, body language, and eye contact. Nonverbal communication is often referred to as the “unspoken language” and is a powerful tool for conveying messages and emotions.

Gestures are an especially powerful form of nonverbal communication and are used to supplement verbal communication. Gestures can be used to indicate a desire or need, to show approval, or to ask for help. There are a variety of different gestures that can be used, and the specific gesture that is used will depend on the culture and context in which it is being used.

One of the most popular forms of body language and gestures used in public speaking is the Laban Eight Efforts: Punch, Slash, Dab, Flick, Press, Wring, Glide, and Float. By incorporating these movements into your presentation, you can emphasize your points and create an impactful presentation.

Below we have provided a description of each of these movements and provided a link to The Drama Coach, Lisa Southam’s YouTube channel, where you can see each of these demonstrated.

Punch Gesture

Laban Punch is a powerful gesture that involves a quick thrusting action with your arm, as if punching someone. This gesture is great for expressing anger, frustration, or intense emotion. It can also be used to emphasize the importance of a point. The Drama Coach – Punch

Slash Gesture

Slash is a gesture that involves a slicing motion with your arm. This gesture can be used to draw attention to a particular point or to suggest confidence and authority. The Drama Coach – Slash

Dab Gesture

Dab is a gesture that involves a downward motion of your arm, as if dabbing something away. This gesture is often used to express dismissal or to convey a more casual attitude. The Drama Coach – Dab

Flick Gesture

Flick is a gesture that involves a quick movement of your arm, as if flicking something away. This gesture can be used to indicate dismissal or to punctuate a point. The Drama Coach – Flick

Press Gesture

Press is a gesture that involves a pressing motion of your arm, as if pressing something down. This gesture can be used to emphasize a point or to express determination. The Drama Coach – Press

Wring Gesture

Wring is a gesture that involves twisting your arm, as if wringing something out. This gesture can be used to express frustration or to draw attention to a particular point. The Drama Coach – Wring

Glide Gesture

Glide is a gesture that involves a slow, graceful movement of your arm, as if gliding through the air. This gesture can be used to suggest a feeling of freedom or movement. The Drama Coach – Glide

Float Gesture

Float is a gesture that involves a light, floating motion of your arm, as if floating on air. This gesture can be used to express a feeling of peace or contentment. The Drama Coach – Float

By incorporating these powerful gestures into your public speaking, you can capture the attention of your audience and make your presentation memorable. With practice and confidence, you can become a more effective public speaker and make a lasting impression.

So who was Rudolph Laban?

Rudolf Laban was a Hungarian-Austrian dancer and choreographer who is known as the father of modern dance. Born in 1879, Laban was one of the most influential figures in the history of modern dance, helping to develop its scientific foundations and introducing a system of movement analysis and evaluation.

Throughout his career, Laban wrote numerous books and articles, including Kinetographie, a book on the mechanics of movement, The Movement Alphabet, a book about body language, and The Dynamics of Movement, which focused on the physics of movement. He also wrote a series of essays on the history of dance and its relationship to human behavior. Laban’s work was recognized by the International Dance Council and in 1984, he was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame. Today, his legacy lives on through the work of his students, who continue to explore and develop the principles of modern dance.

Donald Trump has a lot of Charisma. What!

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As Jonah Goldberg, said in his article of the same title “let me finish.”

Whether you love him or abhor him Trump has charisma, otherwise, why would anyone follow him?

Now that potentially casts charisma in a bad light, a tool for evil some may say. However, we know that charisma is a highly sort after quality in leaders and the good news is we all have it.  But be careful because “with great power comes great responsibility” according to Spider-Man and others.

I just heard you say that there is no way anyone could see you as charismatic! How do you know you’re not? As we have said everyone has some charisma – so then it’s just a matter of dialing it up when we need it!  Which begs the question of course, how do you do that? 

A lot has been written on ways an ‘uncharismatic’ leader can exert a positive influence, but I would like to refer you to Donald Riggio who has been studying 45 years of charisma research.

Donald Riggio describes four ways that we can stretch ourselves to build our charisma.

The first one is emotional expressiveness

Charismatic people he says are “very good at conveying emotions through their body language – tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures”.

These are all things we can work on.  Depending on your personal circumstance we can all vary either our voice, facial expressions and gestures or all three. For example, we can modulate our voice, we can smile and tilt our head quizzically as a gesture.

The second one is empathic concern

Donald describes empathic concern as “the ability to read others’ emotions, feelings, and attitudes, and the ability to demonstrate that you are sympathetic.”

As we know empathy and sympathy are two different things and don’t often go hand in hand.  Have a listen to Brené Brown describe the difference. I would also like to suggest that whilst reading people is an enviable skill Marcia Hughes suggests we can still engage empathetically by noticing the other person’s communication from the dimensions of the words and tone they are using, their movement, facial expressions, and gestures. If appropriate,  then try to uncover the feeling they are experiencing and why they are feeling that way. Just listen.  Don’t try and solve anything just listen.

Third Savoir-fare

Charismatic people are also “good at “working the room,” engaging others in social interaction and thinking on their feet.”

This is a bit trickier, as some people would rather die a thousand cuts than work a room. I don’t mind working a room, but unfortunately, I don’t get any further than the first person I meet, much to their displeasure. What you might like to do here is to pick your battle.  Pick the event that you are going to make an all-out assault on, take a buddy and go for it.  Make it a game and see how many people you can meet.  Make it fun, not a nightmare.

Lastly verbal elements

Here charismatic people “speak in “picturesque” language, make good use of metaphors, use vivid storytelling to convey images and meaning”

We can do this as well.  If we know there is an event coming up, do some homework and prepare a

  • short anecdote about something that happened to you recently and practice it so it comes out  the way you want.
  • Find a metaphor. Humorously refer to your partner as a couch potato” or quote an artist like Bob Dylan describing your life by saying “Chaos is a friend of mine”
  • Memorise a vivid short story.  You’ll need a new one each time though.

Thanks to Donald Riggio we have four tactics to make us more charismatic and some ideas from me.

Public Speaking Rehearsal techniques to maximize your success

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Lynda Katz Wilner in her blog article “Tee Up your Speech – Golf is like Public Speaking” gives twelve terrific tips for delivering a successful presentation. I like all of them but in particular tip #4 and thought I might add my thoughts as well.

Tip #4: Practice on the Driving Range to Develop Muscle Memory; Play When You’re on the Course.

Lynda highlights the importance of rehearsing out loud, so you know exactly how the words sound. I remember participating in a debate and as a public speaking coach, I was confident that I could effectively deliver my message and content. Because the topic was familiar my preparation involved just using self-talk – going over the content in my head. At the event the next day I started my 3-minute piece and as the words came out, I realised they were wrong in this context! So, the lesson is no matter how confident you are, or how many times you have given a speech, always rehearse out loud. So that’s the verbal element, we also need to look at the nonverbal.

When rehearsing we need to make sure we practice all the nonverbal elements such as pace pause, projection, movement, gestures, and facial expressions. One way to ensure success is to over-accentuate the nonverbal element. For example, if you were saying that something was a big opportunity, then when rehearsing stick your arms out as far as possible to emphasise the size of the opportunity – to the extent that it feels silly. The reason we do this is threefold. First, so we know what it feels like and can refine it and become comfortable with it. Second, because we know that if we rehearse at 160% of where we need to be, then when we go to do it live, we will be closer to 100% of where we need to be. The last reason is to ensure that our nonverbal aligns with the verbal. As Albert Mehrabian discovered in his research “one would be hesitant to rely on what is said when the facial, or the vocal, expression contradicts the words.”  For example if we say we are excited and don’t sound excited, then people are less likely to believe us.

Video for business communication 5 keys to success

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For 13 weeks each year starting in March, I teach at Swinburne University in The Media and Communications Department. Covid and teaching in lock down has meant that lectures needed to be recorded and tutorials done online in 2020 and face to face in 2021. So, what did I learn? Lots of things, but one of the most powerful tools was the use of video.

Five things to know about video

  1. Show your face.  This doesn’t mean all the time but at the beginning or end is important
  2. Make sure each video doesn’t go for any longer than 10 minutes.
  3. Be prepared to do a lot of editing the first few times through.  You’ll pick up a lot of delivery and content issues you didn’t know you had!
  4. Production quality is important.  Put time and effort into working with your camera, lighting, and sound quality – your audience will appreciate it.
  5. Write a script – if only for an opening few minutes.  If it’s important – script the whole thing.

In a corporate context, think about how any applications there may be.  Here’s  list by Shahan Zafar from Vidizmo: 10 Ways to Use Video for Your Company’s Internal Communications

  1. Conduct live CEO broadcasts and announcements
  2. Modernize and streamline corporate governance strategies
  3. Announce regulatory updates and policy changes
  4. Administer safety, health and organizational training sessions
  5. Broadcast organizational events live
  6. Take charge of corporate transition communication & change management
  7. Record and share team meetings and presentations
  8. Promote social learning, collaboration and knowledge transfer
  9. Reform your recruitment and induction strategies
  10. Manage departmental communication and realignment

But why video?

  1. Accessible – you can listen, read (subtitles) and watch anywhere at any time.
  2. Engaging.
  3. Adds life to the subject matter.
  4. Cost effective.
  5. Easy to do.
  6. Gives you clarity on the subject.

If you haven’t already – give it a go, you might surprise yourself as to its effectiveness.

How to Deliver your Presentation and Crush your Fears at the Same Time

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There are three types of pauses:  silent pauses (no sound), filled pause (filled with ums ahs etc), and breath pauses. Consider consciously taking a diaphragmatic breath, so that’s its not really obvious, at key points in your presentation, such as when you change slides. In addition to giving time for your audiences to think and you time to think it can have positive effect on public speaking anxiety (Kimani, Shamekhi & Bickmore 2021). We also know that this type of breathing can be effective in helping us to think more clearly even if anxiety is not present.

Kimani, E, Shamekhi, A & Bickmore, T 2021, ‘Just breathe: Towards real-time intervention for public speaking anxiety’, Smart Health, vol. 19, 2021/03/01/, p. 100146.

How to tell an amazing story that grabs the audience by the throat

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A participant on a program recently worked on a presentation that was due in two days time. He delivered the presentation and I called him the day after: “How did it go Jim?”

“Not so good Justin”

“Why was that Jim, did you achieve your objective?”

“Yes I achieved everything I wanted to, but it just turned into a conversation”

Jim was stuck in an old school mindset of presenting – the “sage on the stage”.  What happened was his presentation turned into a conversation and he started to engage the audience because he was talking about things that are important to them – he nailed it!

So, the formulae we use to get the audience involved is what Andrew Abela calls the SCoRE method which is based on the work of Henry Boettinger in his book Moving Mountains. It works by juxtaposing tension and release – the formulae for all good stories.

SCoRE stands for:

Situation – what are you there to talk about – put simply in a few words

Complication – What’s the biggest problem the audience is facing.  This creates tension and the need.

Resolution – what’s the solution to that problem.  This creates the release and satisfies the need.

Example – provide some evidence as to why your resolution will work.

Then continue on with the next CoRE (Complication Resolution Example) for as long as you need to.

This simple formula enables us to craft a story, engage the audience and achieve our objective.

Boettinger, HM 1974, Moving mountains; or, The art and craft of letting others see things your way, 1st Collier Booksedn., Collier Books, New York,.

How to give amazing eye contact on the web

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Link: A methodology to improve eye contact

When we are presenting using a webcam we want to be able to replicate what we see and do live i.e. gestures, body posture, facial expression and eye contact. This is not easy. We can to a certain degree control what we do, but we can’t control what our audiences does.

A lot of the presenting we do today in VC requires us to do a whole range of different tasks while presenting. We have to manage the technology, monitor the chat room and manage our software, which requires us to to be hands on and close to the computer. We do similar things when presenting live, but we can move away from the technology when we are done.

The advice that follows is taken from research on working one on one with a client, but I think we can still take some lessons from their findings. (Grondin et al. 2020)

The context for these guidelines is that we want the audience to see as much of us as is practical and for us to maintain eye contact as best as possible. We are going to assume that we are giving a presentation that doesn’t require us to have a lot of interaction with the technology. Either we just have to load it up and click through some slides or we have someone else doing that for us.

We can easily deal with all verbal and nonverbal elements by positioning ourselves so that we have our torso and head in shot. However there is one nonverbal, eye contact, which is our biggest challenge. What follows are guidelines for setting up our webcam so that we give the impression we are making eye contact with everyone in the audience. You can click on the link here for the whole article with pictures.

  1. Use a gooseneck webcam mount to position the webcam upside down and inside the monitor frame
  2. Use the application settings to flip the image so you are the right way up.
  3. Sit 130cm away from the camera
  4. Position yourself, either sitting or standing so that you are looking very slightly down at the camera.
  5. Preferably use a headset with a microphone. Relying on the webcam microphone from 130 cm probably wont give the best results.

When I was installing my gooseneck I noticed you can have the camera (logitec C920 in my case) the right up, but it protrudes a long way out, verses having it upside down where it sits closer to the screen.

This will work perfectly when we are communicating one on one. Because in essence we have positioned the camera just above the eyes of the other person. So when we speak we have the comfort of looking at someone not the camera. However because of the position of the camera the other person feels as if we are looking at them straight in the eye.

I think it works well for groups also if the platform we are using allows us to highlight an individual. If it doesn’t then its just a little more challenging because we will be directing our thoughts to the camera only.

Until technology like Microsofts i2i is launched we are going to have to use more practical solutions like the above.

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