The audience for a public speaker should be their top priority. What are the audience’s needs? Imagine that you are seated in the audience. What do you want to hear and learn? Always remember that communication is two fold, speaking and listening. Speaking is knowledge and listening is wisdom.
Become aware of four major signals of every audience. The first is observing the audience’s non verbal communication signals. Are they focused on the speaker or are they whispering to the person in front, behind or beside them? Are they playing with their iPads or telephones? Are they sleeping? You must be able to change some aspect of your presentation immediately to get their attention back.
The second signal is hearing your audience for innuendos or positive and negative comments. These can be a clue to you as to how to be flexible and alter the presentation to fit with the audience’s reactions or expectations.
The third signal is the audience’s reaction to your power point visuals. Are they connected to your voice and screen or ignoring this portion of your presentation.
The forth signal is the type of questions that are being asked. Are they thinking questions filled with reflection, experiencial learning or no questions at all?
Becoming an audience guru will catapult your presentations to a professional level of valuable and memorable speeches.
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