SUBTEXTwith biased eyes—your own—and you may not pick up little de-
fects. A better method is to enlist an audience of your friends
and colleagues to evaluate your performance. The best way to
handle this is to make a videotape of yourself in a mock presentation
or speech and play it back for your friends. Let them point out
your weaknesses, then play it over and over until you yourself
see these weaknesses and understand them. A second tape could
be made to eliminate the trouble spots. For some, two tapes will
do it. For others, half a dozen or more may be needed.
In a recent seminar on gesture and subtext, I taped an executive
in a mock presentation to his board of directors. He was a man
who had been in business for many years, yet watching himself
was a startling and revealing experience. "My God!" He shook
his head in shock. "I wring my hands when I talk. I never realized
I do that. What an asinine thing to do!" It took him only one
tape to change.
While it's important to learn the proper hand gestures, it's equally
important to make sure that the gestures are natural and not artificial
or used to excess. Excessive or random gestures diminish the
strength of your delivery. Gestures must accentuate and confirm
your words, not distract from or contradict them. Watch the gestures
of the person you are talking to or the audience you are addressing
and try to understand what their hands are telling you.
THE RITUALS OF NERVOUSNESS
It is not only the hands that can send out different subtexts but
also what the hands hold. Tapping a pencil or fiddling with a
bracelet or earring can send a subtext of nervousness, uncertainty,
uneasiness, or tension.