Tearing Down Walls
October 19, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
We are trained to expect walls between speakers and
audiences. These walls can take many forms –
notecards, lecterns, body language, even slides.
Often, we don't even notice them, but they are there,
creating barriers to our audience members being able
to fully absorb the message of our talks.
image from stock.xchng
Look Up. Look Out. Staring down at notecards or back at slides creates a separation between speaker and audience. The speaker is not giving them his/her full attention. The audience will have a hard time giving undivided attention in return. When reading your talk, you tend to not sound interested, and you lose eye contact with with those you are trying to communicate. The only solution is to know your talk well enough that you don't need these aids. Yes, you should have notes if your mind blanks, but they should not be the primary focus of your attention.
Open Up. Body language is powerful. Keep your hands free. Walk around a bit while you talk. Smile. Avoid the humorous mistake of folding your fingers during a presentation No one likes being compared to Mr. Burns!
image by apple
Come Out in the Open. The
lectern is a powerful barrier between you and the
people in your audience. It's more than a
psychological separation. It's a physical one.
Standing behind a lecturn and staring down at notes
is a convention of many veteran speakers, but it is
not the best method of communication. Get out where
your audience can see you. Just gaining the comfort
level to discard this barrier will be a huge step in
more closely connecting with your audience.
Too many public speaking classes actively promote these bad habits as "best practices." We are taught to hold notecards. We are encouraged to create crutch slides. We are trained to stand behind podiums, remaining stiff and formal as we present. However, tradition is not always correct. If we want to connect with the people in our audiences, we have to be willing to tear down those psychological and physical walls and expose ourselves to some extent. To make an impact, we must be open to being vulnerable.
image from stock.xchng
Look Up. Look Out. Staring down at notecards or back at slides creates a separation between speaker and audience. The speaker is not giving them his/her full attention. The audience will have a hard time giving undivided attention in return. When reading your talk, you tend to not sound interested, and you lose eye contact with with those you are trying to communicate. The only solution is to know your talk well enough that you don't need these aids. Yes, you should have notes if your mind blanks, but they should not be the primary focus of your attention.
Open Up. Body language is powerful. Keep your hands free. Walk around a bit while you talk. Smile. Avoid the humorous mistake of folding your fingers during a presentation No one likes being compared to Mr. Burns!
image by apple
Too many public speaking classes actively promote these bad habits as "best practices." We are taught to hold notecards. We are encouraged to create crutch slides. We are trained to stand behind podiums, remaining stiff and formal as we present. However, tradition is not always correct. If we want to connect with the people in our audiences, we have to be willing to tear down those psychological and physical walls and expose ourselves to some extent. To make an impact, we must be open to being vulnerable.