Impress Your Audience by not trying to

 

 Does Making an Impression Really Build Confidence in Public Speaking?

Once an individual gets beyond the outright fear of getting up in front of the audience s/he is usually inclined to try and impress the audience.

BAD IDEA…

I must admit, I occasionally fell into this trap. Like many people I probably did it more when I still had a fear of public speaking – for me it was an attempt to increase my confidence. It didn’t really work and the effect on the audience was even worse. 

If I’m trying to impress the audience with my wealth of information, my extraordinary vocabulary or my exceptional presentation skills then I’m making at least two mistakes.

First, I’m changing the purpose of the speech. 

A speech is about passing information from the speaker to the audience – information that the audience needs. If I set about to impress the audience with my abilities then I will miss this primary purpose. It may be subtle, but the speech becomes less about the transfer of information and more about my ego – how much do you think my speech (and therefore my audience) is going to suffer because of that.

Second, I am putting my audience on the defensive.

If I set out to impress my audience with my knowledge and abilities what I am essentially doing is trying to let them know how smart I am.

ANOTHER BAD IDEA…

Think about it from the audience’s point of view. If I’m smarter than they are, then the obvious conclusion is that their dumber than I am. Now this obviously isn’t the case each of us has strengths and weaknesses in different areas – but if I instill this emotion in my audience then I am the one who is truly dumb. 

If my audience members are busy focusing on how much they don’t know or understand as opposed to how much they do know and how much they are learning then they certainly not going to be focused on the content.

Here’s an idea.

Structure your presentation according to your audience’s needs. If they don’t have the background that you have then share some of it with them before you go in depth (or just don’t go in depth). 

Some presenters may argue that they have a certain amount of information that they have to cover and they can’t afford the luxury of sharing background information. 

Really? Does that mean that they can afford the luxury of an audience that is wasting it’s time because it doesn’t understand them? 

Rather than looking for speaking opportunities to boost our own ego we need to look at using opportunities to help our audience feel good about themselves. If we do, then they will most likely receive and learn the information that we are sharing. There is a greater chance of them being motivated, inspired, and influenced by us… and ultimately, we will have succeeded. 

At that point, the audience will be impressed (and you will experience increased confidence).

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie All Rights Reserved

 

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