"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly"

Jerry Weissman

 The most frequently asked question of presentation coaches is “What do I do with my hands?” In a previous post, I cautioned against choreography; I’ve seen far too many presenters attempt to illustrate their narrative with specific gestures and wind up tying themselves into pretzel knots.  Instead, use your hands and arms as you do naturally, to illustrate what you are saying. However, I do recommend one gesture: to extend your hand and arm periodically, bridging the gap between you and your audience (as AT&T says, “Reach Out”), while simultaneously replicating the universal handshake.

Ronald Reagan provides an alternative point of view. Throughout his career, The Great Communicator rarely used any gestures. A commercial DVD called Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator contains clips from more than 100 public appearances during his eight years as president. In all the clips, he made an expansive gesture with his hands and arms only once.

Mr. Reagan actually began to use this style during his formative years as a presenter. Between the twilight of his days as an actor and the start of his political career as the Governor of California, he spent eight years as a spokesman for General Electric Corporation which gave him many opportunities to present in many venues. One of them was as the host of GE Theater, an anthology series of television dramas. In one 1954 episode, he delivered his introduction standing, framed by stage lights, in front a blank wall of a movie studio. Attired in a smartly-tailored tweed coat sprouting a natty pocket kerchief, he had his right arm propped on a stage light and his left hand in his trouser pocket. During the entire introduction, neither arm ever budged.

You might call this the “Look, Ma, no hands!” approach, taken from the common phrase that a child riding a bicycle might call out to its mother—and used in countless other variations. The style worked—wonders—for Mr. Reagan. Would it work for you? The answer, as always, is to do what comes naturally for you.

An unnatural approach is to treat gesturing as performing.  One variation of performing is to divide the use of hands into two camps known as “Anchorperson or Weatherperson.” As we all know from television news programs, Anchorpersons sit stock still at a desk, rarely  using their hands; while Weatherpersons wave their hands and arms about broadly to indicate weather patterns on a map. This division parallels the Ronald Reagan no-hands style vis-à-vis the gesture-to-illustrate style, but it does so as performance.

If you are reading this post, it is highly unlikely that you are a performer or that you were auditioned for your position or that you were hired because of your acting skills. You were hired on the basis of the personality you presented during your interview and vetting process; and that personality was your natural style.

            Heed the advice of Irving Berlin’s song in the classic musical, Annie Get Your Gun, “Doin' What Comes Natur'lly.”

 (Thanks to Jeff Paine for sharing the “Anchorperson or Weatherperson” concept.)

Photograph courtesy of Reagan Library