Eye contact is interactive

What are you doing with your eyes?

Of all the forms of non-verbal communication between speaker and presenter, eye contact can be the most intense. The right amount of eye contact can help you build trust with your audience.

Poor eye contact (or no eye contact!) can totally creep your audience out.

So let me ask you: what do you do with your eyes when you give your presentation?

Whatcha looking at?

And what are the essentials of eye contact?

My take:

In a small audience, I like to take time to connect eyes for a few seconds with everyone in the room while I'm speaking. Makes us both feel more connected.

In a larger audience, however, this approach is impossible. So I perform three eye-contact approaches:

1. I slowly scan the entire audience
2. I'll focus on audience segments
3. And I will connect eyes with individual audience members for a few seconds

Now, that's what works for me. You might have a different approach.

But I know that eye contact during a live presentation is oh-so important for developing trust. Try giving your presentation into a video camera, and see for yourself what you are doing with your eyes. ¶ 12/13/2006 11:45:00 AM