The head of TED says this is the first thing you should do when public speaking

YouTube/TED

As a the head curator for TED, the global nonprofit famous for its insightful talks, Chris Anderson knows a thing or two about what a successful TED talk looks like.

And all the best ones, he says, begin with eye contact.

"At TED, our number-one advice to speakers on the day of their talk is to make regular eye contact with members of the audience," Anderson writes in his new book. "Be warm. Be real. Be you."

Anderson is the author of the upcoming book "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking," a step-by-step instruction manual for putting on a great talk. His first piece of wisdom, aside from telling you why TED talks are so great and warning which kinds you should avoid giving, is to connect.

"Great speakers find a way of making an early connection with their audience," he writes. "It can be as simple as walking confidently on stage, looking around, making eye contact with two or three people, and smiling."

Anderson points to Kelly McGonigal's talk about stress, Raghava KK's talk about life as an artist, and Pia Mancini's talk about democracy as examples of successful TED talks that reinforce the importance of eye contact. Whether it's a warm, open form of eye contact or a hard, lingering gaze, Anderson believes the connections we make begin with our eyes.

"There's a reason for this," he says. "Humans have evolved a sophisticated ability to read other people by looking at their eyes."

It's true, we have.

One experiment involving Rhesus macaques led to the discovery of new so-called "eye cells," or neurons, in the monkeys' amygdalae. Out of 151 neurons being tested, 23 of those neurons only fired when the monkeys made eye contact with a monkey in a test video. 

"These are cells that have been tuned by evolution to look at the eye, and they extract information about who you are, and most importantly, are you making eye contact with me," Katalin Gothard, the lead researcher and University of Arizona neurophysiologist, told New Scientist.

If someone gets on stage and stares at the floor the whole time, the audience has no choice but to remain distant — even imperceptibly. Only the speakers that engage the audience themselves are able to create that crucial connection.

"When you walk onto the stage, you should be thinking about one thing: your true excitement at the chance to share your passion with the people sitting right there a few feet from you," Anderson writes. 

There's no need to rush into the speech you've prepared for hours on end. Soak up the moment. But look at who you're speaking to first.

NOW WATCH: How Richard Branson gets over his hatred of public speaking