Great performers have quiet eyes.

I coach my clients to speak to an individual in the audience – to stay with that individual for one, two or sometimes three sentences before finding a new target. Perhaps there is a quiet-eye component to this approach.

The speaker's eyes dwell on their target for a period measured in seconds. Other speakers – those steeped in the room-based approach to speaking – their eyes dart around a room and seldom land on a target for more than a fraction of a second.

The vast majority of my clients will tell you the quiet-eye approach has calming effect on them, allowing them to maintain focus and control throughout a talk. It's a nice fringe benefit to a behavior that is meant to work in concert with the brain's natural conversational design for talking.