Can You Really Listen While Speaking?

In our last newsletter I discussed listening skills for speakers – more specifically finding out as much as you could prior to the speaking engagement so that you can make sure that your presentation is as relevant as possible for them.

The next question is “What can you do during the presentation to draw the audience in?” We have talked about interacting with the audience before, but here we are going to talk about it in terms of listening to your audience or getting feedback from them.

The more you effectively interact with your audience the more you are going to captivate them. The more you captivate them the more they are going to comprehend and retain your message. The more they comprehend and retain the more you are going to be able to motivate/lead them – and isn’t that the whole point of your talk in the first place?

You can think about interacting with the audience even before the presentation starts. One excellent suggestion is to greet your audience as they come in. Get to know their names and their ideas/thoughts/concerns about your topic. Then during the presentation when you cover a point that was discussed with one of the members you can draw him/her into the presentation by saying something like, “Now before the presentation I was chatting with Bob and he brought up a very good point about this…” and then go on to discuss your point.

This technique accomplishes two things. It draws your audience into the presentation so that they feel like participants rather than spectators. In addition it can make an effective transition from one point to another.

What about during your presentation? Well one very important behavior that I have touched on previously is eye contact. The more you make eye contact the more the audience is going to feel like they are interacting with you. If you avoid eye contact your audience is going to feel that you are being aloof. If you make eye contact they are going to feel like they are interacting with you.

Try making eye contact with an individual while you speak. Hold it for 5 to 10 seconds. Then move on and find someone else that you can make contact with. The whole audience will feel that they have interacted with you as a result of this.

You will find that some audience members react better than others to eye contact. Some will become shy when you make contact with them while others respond openly. Make sure that you try to reach the entire audience, but for your own confidence you might want spend a little more time focusing on those who appear to appreciate it. You also don’t want to make any shy members feel uncomfortable by focusing on them too much.

I have said this before but it is worth repeating. Don’t try to read too much from any individual audience member’s reactions. If you are connecting with them that is great; but if they appear to be aloof don’t worry about it. I have had experiences where I thought someone was disinterested only to have them come up after and tell me that I had the best talk they had heard.

Along with they eye contact you want to speak conversationally. Generally speaking audiences don’t want to be lectured – they want to be spoken to/with.

This of course goes back to the composition and practice of the speech. Put it together as if you were having a discussion of points with an individual or small group rather than a discourse that considers the audience to be largely irrelevant. By combining this with the eye contact you will be very effective in connecting with your audience.

Make use of the techniques of greeting your audience, making eye contact and speaking conversationally to connect with your audience- by doing so you will captivate their attention and be more effective at motivating them.

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