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You’re
giving a great speech and the audience seems to be very
involved. But there’s one fly in the ointment: one audience
member has her eyes closed!
What do
you do?
Nothing.
Ignore
her.
Trying
too hard to connect with that one person might disrupt your
presentation and ruin it for the majority of the audience
that is paying close attention.
No
matter how good you are as a presenter, some people just
can’t be won over.
Our
coaches, all excellent speakers, can attest to this.
·
One woman
at a public speech given by one of our coaches sat in the
corner of the room, looking down, refusing to look up.
·
At another
event, an old man sat in the front row slumped down with his
eyes closed.
·
One of our
coaches was invited to speak at an industry meeting only to
have a young man smirk and scowl throughout the
presentation.
What do
you do?
Simple.
Don't look at those people. Simply look at the people that
are interested.
It's easy
to get rattled by individuals in the audience who seem to be
openly rejecting you by refusing to return your eye contact
or are returning it in a negative way. But you have to be
there for all your listeners. You can’t allow yourself to
get distracted. So focus on the ones that are interested.
Usually
you’ll find out that inattention by particular members of
the audience is no reflection on you. More likely, it’s the
listener’s problem.
When a
woman refused to make eye contact with one of our coaches
during a recent presentation skills workshop, it turned out
that the woman had a problem with eye contact all her life.
Speaking to her later, we learned that she never looked
anyone in the eye, ever.
Another
time an elderly man appeared to be sleeping. Speaking to
him later, we learned that he loved the presentation and was
listening to every word. He simply had an odd way of
showing his fascination.
At
Speechworks we help our clients learn how to communicate in
a way that connects and persuades. If you’re interested in
becoming a great communicator give us a call at 404-266-0888
or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net |
