Present While Sitting - Wow Them From Your Chair

Present While Sitting – Wow Them From Your Chair

Posted On: July 16, 2015

I stress to everyone who has to present while sitting – including when speaking on the phone or during online meetings (with or without the video) for client meetings to maintain good posture, and to keep their hands away from their face.

The elements of good posture include:

Sitting up straight
Do not bend your neck
Keep both feet on the floor
Do not lean with you arm on your face/neck/chin (It will bend your neck, reducing air flow, strangling your voice)

Why does good posture help you?

If you are doing a face to face presentation or over video, the other team members will see that you are engaged in the discussion.
Good posture helps you to stay awake, because you’re able to breathe more deeply.
Good posture can help you to improve your eye contact as you will be more alert.
Good posture helps you to feel more engaged and confident in your interaction (due to the points above).

There are a few points I am purposefully missing here. The remainder of the points are demonstrated in the below video. This is not a video made by Authentic Journeys, though Jennifer Kumar does teach these techniques in her training programs to Indians who frequently make seated presentations to their colleagues and US clients.

Take a look at the video tutorial here.

Jennifer’s additional suggestions for US facing Indian offshore and onsite teams:

Always, always, always smile! Even if you are on the phone, the listener can tell if you are happy, grumpy, serious or upset. Of course, if you are trying to be serious or you are angry, a smile may defeat the purpose!
Make eye contact with everyone! In India many may be used to making eye contact only with the manager or the person who asked the question. The others at the table will not feel responsible to listen. Likewise, if you were on the receiving end of another speaker who did not make eye contact with you when many others were at the table, how would you feel?

Learn how to professionalize and polish your virutal, online, and phone presentations and demos with your American colleagues, stakeholders or counterparts by signing up your team for this innovative training program on presentation skills.

For more clear speech exercises, click here.
Podcast with demonstrations of pronunciation tips for virtual meetings

Photo: Top Photo by Dani Hart from Pexels, Bottom, Jennifer Kumar

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik