Many factors can inhibit people's ability or willingness to be good listeners in a corporate or organizational meeting. Some of these factors are under a confident public speaker’s direct control. Others are beyond a public speaker’s immediate control. However, an effective speaker can manage the negative impact of distracted listeners on his/her presentation with understanding and a few smart public speaking tips.
Listeners Can Be Distracted by Their Own Concerns
When listeners come into a meeting or a presentation with "bulging brains," they will be hard pressed to be good listeners. Because these concerns are important to listeners, they will tend to concentrate on their own concerns, not on the presentation. As a result their engagement, understanding, and processing of information will be weaker than it would otherwise be. Dorothy Leeds, author of Power Speak [Berkly Books, 1991] tells speakers, “What does your audience care about? Figure that out, and you’re well on your way.”
If people's concerns are at least recognized upfront, they will usually set them aside temporarily and give their attention to the presenter. For that reason, in effective speaking, especially in a corporate or organizational setting a presenter deals with audience concerns up front. The speaker recognizes these questions and concerns publicly, acknowledges their importance to some or all of the listeners, and helps the listeners put them aside – at least temporarily.
Plan to Address Audience Concerns at a Presentation
Step 1: At the start of the meeting or presentation the speaker announces: "Before we begin, are there any questions you need answers to or concerns you want me/us to address this (morning/afternoon)?"
Step 2: The speaker takes a few minutes to list concerns/questions on a white sheet or white board visible to all.
Step 3: The speaker reviews each item briefly to ensure the listeners that their question or concern has been understood correctly.
Step 4: Politely, but firmly, the speaker tells the audience that there is no available time to discuss these items at length, but it is important, nonetheless, to prioritize them. The speaker asks the audience to place each question or concern in one of three categories:
- Must know!
- Need to know but it can wait.
- Nice to know.
Step 5: With a marker, the speaker now checks off those items (if any) that he/she will address during the presentation. If some of the items have a quick, easy answer, the speaker addresses them briefly and checks off the item. If some of the items are beyond the speaker’s knowledge or his/her ability to answer, the speaker will say so.
Step 6: The speaker acknowledges the unchecked questions, issues, and concerns and promises to deal with them after the presentation.
Step 7: After the presentation the speaker returns to the checklist on the board or white paper. The speaker is especially interested in those concerns or questions in the category Must know! An effective speaker will want to deal with all concerns in that category un-addressed during the presentation.
For this to work, the speaker must have planned the presentation to accommodate several minutes at the beginning for this activity. The speaker must also exhibit genuine sincerity during this activity rather than irritation that some of the time has been robbed from the official presentation.
In ideal situations, audiences come prepared to engage the speaker, but in the real world ideal audiences seldom fill the seats in front of the podium. For that reason effective speakers in a corporate or organizational setting should be ready to assist listeners in unburdening themselves of their concerns and feel comfortable giving their full attention to the speaker.
References:
Harrington-Mackin, Deborah. The Team Building Tool Kit. New York: AMACOM (a divsision of the American Management Association), 1994.
Leeds, Dorothy. PowerSpeak. New York: Berkley Books, 1991.
Richard Methia - RICHARD A. METHIA Dick is an author, educator, trainer, and professional speaker with a career spanning more than forty years. In his ...
Join the Conversation