Are you a fiddler on the hoof?

How should I hold my hands?  What do I do with my feet?

These are strange questions.  We don’t normally give thought to our extremities.  It’s enough that they stay attached and do what they’re supposed to do.

But presentation nerves can put a sudden and unwelcome spotlight on them.

They become an unexpected source of embarrassment, like Grandma whipping her clothes off at your dinner party.  They intrude into the proceedings, demanding attention at a time when we've plenty else to think about.

"What do I do with these things?  Put them in my pockets?  Hold them stiffly down my sides like a guardsman? Play with my hair?  Pick up a pen and see how quickly I can click it?  Or perhaps hold them up casually behind my head, displaying the evidence of my nerves, in two saturated patches around my armpits?"

"And what about these other things? I don't want to look frozen.  So perhaps I'll sway from side to side.  Or pad about like a caged panther.  Or maybe stand on one leg? And now on the other.  Whoops, I’ve fallen over."

There's only one thing worse than fidgeting and being painfully conscious of it.  And that's fidgeting and being painfully unconscious of it.

Why? Because you can bet that your audience will be aware of it.  After all, they've got nothing better to watch.  And as they become fascinated by your erratic motion, they will cease to regard you as a source of information and start to see you as a source of entertainment, however appalling.  Which of course destroys your credibility, let alone distracting the audience from your message.

Happily, there's a simple rule here.  The only movement on-stage or on-screen that does not distract an audience is movement with purpose.

So if you use your hands in normal conversation, use them in the interview or presentation. If you don't, then put them behind your back. What's natural for you, works for you.  If your hands become a visual aid to support what you're saying, that's movement with purpose.

Similarly, if there's a good reason to walk from one part of the stage to another, such as to change a slide, that's movement with purpose.  If someone on the other side of the audience asks you a question, walking towards them is movement with purpose.

Pacing about just for the sake of it is distracting and irritating.  A bit like a film director trying to make a scene more interesting by getting the cameraman to shake the camera.

Pointless movement makes you look uncomfortable and unconfident, as if you're trying to escape.  When it comes to stance, the key is to stand still.  Let all movement be from stillness and return to stillness.

Here's something that may help you remember what to do with your hands and feet.  Think of a tree.

Trees do not move about the terrain, occupying one spot today and a different one tomorrow.  They are rooted in the ground.  But only dead trees are motionless.  Living trees have branches that move with the wind.

So unless you're moving with purpose, keep your feet rooted to the ground.  But allow your upper body - shoulders, arms and hands - to move naturally.

Be like a tree.