The other day, my son brought home the evaluation form for his next school presentation. It outlined success criteria so the kids would know exactly what the teacher would mark them on. The very last point stood out to me as odd...but remarkably brilliant: Listening skills
Seems strange that a speaker should be listening to their audience - but I couldn't agree more. After all, communication is a two-way street.
The best speakers treat their presentation like a conversation. And in any great conversation, you've got to do some listening.
Read below to see how you can listen while you present. (You can even do it in virtual presentations.)
1. Listen with your ears.This may sound obvious but here are some things to listen out for:
comments - e.g. insight, feedback, objections, support, random thoughts
questions - can allow you to clarify a confusing point or assuage a doubt
reactions - e.g. laughter, sighing
silence - might indicate that your audience is bored, confused, distracted. Be careful with this one because they may just be very attentive, respectful, shy...
...or simply on mute! That's right, a virtual audience can be unnervingly quiet - due to the mute button but also because they are less likely to speak out of turn. So give them the opportunity to share, ask questions and participate throughout your talk.
2. Observe - 'listen' with your eyes.There's so much you can glean from body language. Nodding heads, smiling faces, folded arms and glazed eyes can all be quite telling. Of course, you've got to consider the big picture, not just one observation in isolation.
Obviously you can't do this on virtual when cameras are turned off. When they are on, maximise your screen so you can see lots of faces and scan the boxes regularly to check for reactions. Also, a virtual audience can communicate through the chat, reactions and other interactive features so be sure to monitor participation in those.
3. Tune in to your 6th sense.Sometimes it's not what you see or what you hear, you can just sort of feel how things are going. When combined with what you hear and see, you can usually get a pretty good indication of audience reactions.
Admittedly, this one is challenging in a virtual environment.
So what do you do with all this information?
In general, it's good practice to react to what's going on. It helps you connect with the audience and communicate more powerfully.
Consider the following examples:
If people look bored, spice things up in your delivery.
If they look confused, ask if they have questions.
If they have objections, address their doubts.
You can respond directly by acknowledging what you hear/see/feel. Or you might choose to be more discreet, simply adjusting your content and delivery as you speak.
Of course, there will be times when you cannot respond, or shouldn't. I'll trust you to use your best judgment on that.
Either way, it is certainly worthwhile to brush up on your listening skills to improve your presentations. Kudos to Mrs. Grimsby for pointing that out!
Comments