Making a Connection: Eye Contact in Public Speaking

Making eye contact is essential to a great presentation. But for many speakers, it’s one of the trickiest presentation skills. And that’s understandable; eye contact can feel pretty intimate, almost like reaching out and touching someone. When that someone is a complete stranger, it can feel especially uncomfortable.

But an audience is there to hear what the speaker has to say. They’re investing their time into listening. So it’s essential for the speaker to make them feel included and welcome, and eye contact usually helps accomplish that. Lack of eye contact creates a barrier between the speaker and the audience; it can make the speaker appear untrustworthy, shifty, or unsure of themselves. At minimum, missing eye contact can suck the life out of an otherwise winning presentation.

Here are some key points that can help public speakers give their audience members the personal attention they deserve.

Skip the “hack” to scan the back wall.

Some speech teachers or speaking coaches advocate for a nervous public speaker to scan the back wall to give the appearance of making eye contact without the uncomfortable intimacy of real eye contact. Seems simple, right?

But does that always look like genuine eye contact? Not really. Granted, in a small classroom with only one or two rows of listeners, scanning the back wall might make it look like the speaker is maintaining eye contact. But if a speaker is addressing a larger crowd and they only scan the back wall, then it’s likely that the people at the front will wonder why they’re only looking at the back wall.

It’s best to make intentional eye contact with people in the audience. If a speaker must use an eye contact “hack,” it’s better to try to look at a person’s forehead, hair, or nose. That approach might feel a little less intimidating than actual eye contact, but it’s more convincing than a back wall scan.

Make friends with audience members.

Before someone plans to start speaking, they can make it easier to establish eye contact by making friends (or at least acquaintances) in the audience. This could be a casual chat while the speaker is setting up their technology, mingling with people who arrive early, or attending other presentations beforehand to connect with other attendees.

For example, a speaker could greet each participant as they walk into the room, introducing themselves as the speaker. They could leave it at that, or they could ask a simple question to spark conversation, such as “How did you hear about the workshop?” or “What part of this conference are you most excited about?” Even a little small talk can help a speaker make a connection with an audience member, which will serve them later.

Even if a speaker only makes a connection with a single person before it’s time to begin, that budding relationship can be very helpful. The speaker can find that friendly face in the audience and make eye contact with them. Once that first eye connection is made, subsequent ones feel a little bit easier.

Mentally divide the room into sections.

Some speakers find it helpful to break the audience into sections, maybe by front, middle, and back of the audience, or left, middle, and right. This mental approach allows a speaker to avoid overlooking part of the audience by accident. For example, a speaker might make eye contact with one person in the front row for their main point, and then for their next sentence, they might make contact with someone in the back before moving to the middle. That way, they’re engaging with the whole room, not just people in one section.

Of course, no speaker will want to frantically move their eye contact from front to back and back again. That would make them appear skittish. But shifting eye contact every three to five seconds can help keep the audience engaged while seeming genuine.

Look for audience members giving positive body language.

When a speaker is busy talking and monitoring their own body language and nonverbals, they might forget that the audience is giving them feedback, too. Listeners can (and often do) show that they’re engaging with a speaker by making their own strong eye contact, nodding, smiling, taking notes, or leaning forward in their seat. Speakers can make it a point to connect with the people who are obviously “getting it” when they need an energy boost in their speech.

Wise speakers also keep in mind that audiences engage with speakers in different ways. Just because someone is leaning back with their arms crossed and frowning doesn’t mean that they aren’t enjoying the presentation. They could be cold because the AC is blasting, or they might be considering a thought-provoking point that the speaker made. Even if they’re avoiding eye contact themselves, they could still be engaged in the presentation.

If a speaker notices that an audience member is repeatedly giving negative feedback through their body language and facial expressions, that’s one thing. But generally speaking, a presenter shouldn’t let themselves get too discouraged by someone who doesn’t look engaged; they might even come up after the presentation and say how much they enjoyed it!

Remember, eye contact is a public speaking skill that takes practice.

Very few people are comfortable making eye contact with strangers in the audience during their first presentation ever. Maybe a very extroverted person with through-the-roof confidence might feel comfortable from the get-go, but most speakers have to practice making eye contact, just like they have to practice enunciating clearly and not speaking too fast or too slow.

Practicing eye contact is an essential part of growing as a public speaker. And a speaker doesn’t have to be presenting to practice this skill, either. Anytime they talk with a stranger, they can intentionally keep their gaze connected (but not to the point of being creepy). The more they do that, the more natural it’ll feel in the moment when they’re making a presentation.

With these tips, speakers can feel more confident making eye contact and, by extension, making meaningful connections with their audience members.

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