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Andy Harrington

@andyharringt0n

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Sunday Times best selling author of Passion Into Profit and founder of The Professional Speakers Academy teaching people to stand up, and speak out.

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5 months ago

Most speakers scan the room and lose connection. The secret? Don’t talk to everyone, talk to someone.
Pick one person, hold eye contact until the comma or full stop, then move to another. It’s one of the simplest but most powerful ways to create real connection and command attention on stage.

#PublicSpeaking #PresentationSkills #Leadership #Communication #SpeakingTips #Confidence #StagePresence #PersonalDevelopment by @andyharringt0n

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a year ago

From boardrooms to big stages, here’s what a week in my world really looks like. by @andyharringt0n

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a year ago

Comment STRESSFREE for my free presentation training, and I will send it straight to you.

This hand habit quietly costs you trust.

No words needed in this one. On the left, hands wringing and rubbing together, palms hidden from the room. On the right, palms open and visible, hands up above the waist. It is a few seconds long, and it shows a lesson that changes how audiences respond to you.

Constantly touching your own hands is a self soothing habit. It is what the body does when it is nervous, and almost every speaker does it without noticing. The trouble is that the audience notices, even if they could never put it into words. Busy, hidden hands read as a person holding something back.

Open palms do the opposite. They are one of the oldest signals we have that nothing is being concealed. Add the second rule from the video, keep your hands above your waist, and your gestures stay where people can see them, close to your face and your words, which is where trust is built.

Try this in your next meeting. Every time you notice your hands finding each other, let them separate and turn the palms slightly up as you make your next point. It feels strange for a day or two. After that it simply becomes how you speak.

What do your hands do when you are nervous?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #Trust by @andyharringt0n

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19 hours ago

Strong and certain, or a little wobbly?

Before you say a single word, your feet have already spoken. In the video I put two stances side by side. One is feet crossed, weight on one hip, the body angled away. It can look relaxed and attractive in a social setting. The other is grounded: feet roughly hip width apart, weight even, facing the room square on.

Here is the problem. A social stance sends a social signal. On stage, the audience is not deciding whether they like you. They are deciding whether to trust you with their money, their time or their next decision. If your posture says open to support rather than ready to lead, part of the room quietly stops buying.

It is rarely a confidence issue. It is habit. The crossed or tilted stance feels natural because it is how many of us stand when we are chatting. Nobody has ever pointed out that the stage asks for something different.

The fix takes seconds. Before you walk on, plant both feet, unlock the knees and let your weight settle evenly. If you need to move, walk with purpose to a new spot and plant again. Stillness from the ground up gives every gesture above it far more power, and your hands are free to do the rest of the work.

Next time you watch a speaker you trust instantly, look at their feet first.

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #StagePresence by @andyharringt0n

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2 days ago

Comment STRESSFREE and I will send over my free presentation training.

This gesture adds authority, until you aim it.

I call it the warrior. One finger raised, held still, at about head height. In the video you can see it working for presidents and for me on stage. It tells the room that what comes next matters, and it does it without you raising your voice. It works on a keynote stage, in a boardroom and on camera.

The finger is your sword. Held up, it is a signal of conviction. The moment you turn it and point it at the audience, the same gesture becomes an accusation. Your troops become the enemy. People stop listening to the point and start defending themselves against the finger.

What catches speakers out is that the switch happens in the heat of the moment. You are passionate, you want the point to land, and the hand drifts forward towards the front row. Nobody in the audience will tell you afterwards. They will just remember feeling lectured.

So use the warrior deliberately and sparingly. Save it for the one or two lines you want quoted back to you. Raise it, hold it, keep it pointing up, and then release it. Authority comes from the stillness, not from the jab.

Which way does your finger point when you really mean something?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #Authority by @andyharringt0n

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3 days ago

Move your eyes on the comma, not the full stop.

Most presenters were told to make eye contact, so they do. They sweep the room like a lighthouse, or they fix on the friendly face in row three, or they look just over everyone's heads because it feels safer. None of that is connection. In the video I show the simple rule I teach instead: one person gets the start of the sentence, someone else gets the end.

Why the comma? Because it gives your eyes a natural place to travel. You hold a person long enough for them to feel spoken to, then you move while the thought is still alive. The audience never sees the switch as nervous scanning. They see a speaker who is talking to individuals, one at a time, in a room full of people.

This matters more than most people think. Eye contact is a gesture in its own right, every bit as much as your hands. When it is missing, the room quietly decides you are reciting rather than talking with them. When it lands on real faces, people sit up, because each of them half expects to be next.

Practise it on a short paragraph before your next talk. Mark the commas. Pick three people in the room, or three objects if you are rehearsing alone, and travel between them on each pause. It feels mechanical for about ten minutes, then it disappears into your delivery.

Who in the room do you usually end up talking to?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #EyeContact by @andyharringt0n

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4 days ago

Pointing up looks wise. Pointing down looks evil.

Five seconds, no sound needed. The same steeple gesture, side by side. On the left, fingertips pointing down: it looks evil and untrustworthy. On the right, fingertips pointing up: it looks wise and knowledgeable.

Save this one, because it is the whole lesson in a single frame. Earlier in the week I explained why the steeple splits audiences so sharply. This is the version to keep on your phone and look at before you walk on.

The steeple is a thinking gesture. Done well, it tells the room you are weighing something carefully, which is exactly the impression you want when you are about to answer a hard question or make a big claim. Done badly, low and pointing at the floor, it tells them the thinking is private. It is also one of the few gestures that looks stronger the less it moves, so hold it still rather than tapping the fingertips together.

Three checks before your next talk. Are the fingertips touching lightly rather than gripping? Are they pointing up, roughly at chest height? And are you using the steeple during a pause, then releasing it to gesture as you speak? Get those right and one of the strongest confidence signals there is starts working for you.

Which side of the screen do your hands usually end up on?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #Confidence by @andyharringt0n

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7 days ago

Want my free presentation training? Comment STRESSFREE and I will send it over.

This hand habit makes you look like you are up to something.

Rubbing, wringing, fingers picking at each other. Hands that keep touching each other are never a good sign on stage, because to an audience it starts to look as though you are working something out that you would rather they did not see.

It is almost always nerves. The hands want something to do, so they find each other. To you it feels like a small private comfort. To the third row it reads as a speaker who is not quite telling them everything, and trust drains out of the room a little at a time.

The answer is not to freeze. Rigid hands look just as uncomfortable. The answer is to give the hands a better job. Open palm gestures increase trust, so every time you feel your hands reaching for each other, separate them and turn the palms out towards the audience on your next point.

Do that a few times and something useful happens. The open gesture replaces the fidget, and your body starts agreeing with what you are saying instead of quietly contradicting it. It is one of the fastest changes you can make, and audiences notice it even when they could not tell you why.

Which gesture do you fall back on when the nerves kick in?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #Trust by @andyharringt0n

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8 days ago

I love you can mean four completely different things.

Same three words, said four times. Angry, flat, warm, and something close to pleading. If you only read the transcript you would think nothing changed. If you watch the video you would think you had met four different people.

That is the whole point. The words are the smallest part of the message. Tonality and body language carry the rest, and when they disagree with the words, the audience believes the tone and the hands every time.

This is where a lot of capable people lose a room without realising it. They say they are excited about the plan with a flat voice and still hands. They say they are open to questions with arms folded. They say this is the most important slide in the deck and rush through it. The words are right. Nothing else agrees with them.

People will only believe in you when all three line up. Words, tonality and gestures pointing the same way. That is what congruence means on stage, and it is the difference between a speaker the audience understands and a speaker the audience trusts.

The practical test is simple. Take the one line in your next talk that matters most. Say it out loud three ways and notice which version you would actually believe. Then make sure your hands are telling the same story as your voice.

Which line in your talk do you say one way and mean another?

#PublicSpeaking #Communication #Tonality #BodyLanguage #Gestures by @andyharringt0n

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9 days ago

Comment STRESSFREE and I will send you my free presentation training.

The steeple can make you look wise or sinister.

Fingertips touching, palms apart. It is one of the most recognisable confidence gestures there is, and in the video you will see why it splits so sharply. Point the steeple up and you look like Steve Jobs on a launch stage. Point it down and you look like Mr Burns plotting something in his office.

The hands are doing almost exactly the same thing. The only difference is direction, and the audience reads direction instantly. Upward reads as considered and open. Downward reads as concealed, as though the thinking is happening somewhere the room is not invited.

What interests me is that almost nobody does the downward version on purpose. It creeps in when the arms get tired, or when a speaker is listening to a question and lets the hands drop to the belt. Nobody tells them, so it becomes a habit, and the habit costs them trust every time.

So treat the steeple as a deliberate gesture, not a resting position. Bring it up when you are pausing to consider something, keep the fingertips pointing up, and let it go when you start speaking again. Used that way it signals thought. Left hanging low it signals something else entirely.

Film yourself answering a question this week and check which way yours points.

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Presenting #Leadership by @andyharringt0n

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10 days ago

Four world leaders. Four hands. Four different jobs.

Want my free presentation training? Comment STRESSFREE and I will send it over.

Watch this one with the sound off. It still works, because every gesture in it carries its meaning without a single word.

Trump, thumb and forefinger joined, the rest of the hand open. Precision: this exact point, nothing wider.
Gandhi, palms pressed together at the chest. Respect and greeting, offered before anything is said.
Churchill, two fingers raised. Victory, in a shape a whole country could copy.
Obama, fingertips pinched in front of the chest. Weight: this is the word that matters.

Here is what most speakers miss. None of these leaders used their hands to fill space. Each gesture had one job, it turned up when that job came up, and only then. That is why the shapes are still recognisable long after the speeches are forgotten.

Most people on stage do the opposite. Their hands move all the time and mean nothing in particular, so the room quietly stops reading them. A gesture only lands when the audience can tell what it is for.

So before your next talk, ask one question of every movement you make. Is this precision, respect, victory or emphasis? If you cannot name the job, drop the gesture. Fewer gestures, each with a purpose, will make you look more certain than any amount of movement.

Which of the four do you already use without thinking?

#PublicSpeaking #BodyLanguage #Gestures #Leadership #Presenting by @andyharringt0n

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14 days ago