Are you self-centered...or audience-centered?

At what point do you become an experienced and effective speaker? It's not something you magically arrive at by speaking a certain number of times. You may have delivered 50 speeches, but that doesn't make you an effective speaker. The key to making that leap, I believe, is to be more audience-centered than self-centered.

In your early speeches you are self-centered. The main goal is simply to get through the speech without passing out. You worry about the presentation being too short or too long. You are concerned about appearance. Will this suit or those slacks be appropriate for this group? A new speaker constantly thinks about the things that can go wrong with the content or delivery of the presentation.

After a while, you begin to enjoy the adrenalin rush you get in front of an audience. Soon you find you're not relying on your notes as much and you're making more eye contact with the audience. Eventually, when you grow more comfortable presenting, it's time to move to an audience- centered performance.

The questions of the audience

You reach the effective-speaker stage when you begin to research and deliver each presentation with the audience first and foremost in mind. The questions you need to answer should be: Will they understand? Does this material give them what they need to improve their skills or be persuaded? What questions will they want answered? Which terms need to be defined and explained as I speak? What will they do as a result of my presentation? How can this material keep them engaged throughout the presentation? How much evidence will I need to convince the people in this audience?

If you are an expert in your field, you are already good at delivering a lot of information on the subject matter. But as you begin to consider the audience more, you need to think about narrowing your material to a digestible level. In other words, learn how to limit your material by determining how much listeners already know and what additional information they need from you on the subject.

This is an important skill for experts, because even though they are presenting the same material and speech over and over, each audience is different. Your major concern should be to influence that specific audience, and ensure your content fits their needs — not the audience from two weeks ago. Adopting this attitude keeps your material fresh. Because even though you are familiar with the speech, you need to remember that this audience is hearing it for the first time.

Involve the audience

Another key approach to becoming audience-centered is to have a goal of making the audience think "Me, too," rather than "So what?" You must connect with the audience throughout the presentation by touching on specific points that put you in the audience's place. You might refer to the bad weather and how it has affected the commute by saying something like, "I know we all had some challenges coming to this gathering with the snow-covered roads." Or, if you're close in age to most of the audience members, you might say, "As baby boomers we all remember when television became a part of our family life." Use this technique to show that you are concerned and can relate to your audience.

You also need to take into account an audience's nonverbal cues. If you notice a person looking disinterested, you can speed up the rate of delivery or vary your volume to bring the attention back to you. If there is a quizzical look among some in the audience, back up and explain your point another way. If you see shifting of weight and lots of movement of legs and arms, you can cut the presentation short as you become aware of their desire for the speech to end.

Avoiding the swing back to self-centered

One trap of presenting the same material several times is that your thoughts may turn to how to get through the material or how boring it is to deliver this report for the tenth time. These are signs you have become self-centered again.

Anytime you start thinking of yourself instead of the audience, it's time to go back to the basics of speaking. Consider choosing a new topic that excites you, or reorganize your material in a new way. Then, practice the new speech to ensure it is clea and well-supported, and that you are familiar with how to deliver it.

Certainly, experience is important in becoming an effective speaker. But to make the most of experience, work hard to become audience-centered. This will help you progress more quickly to the next stage of your speaking career.


Stephen Boyd is a professional speaker, seminar leader and communication consultant. He can be reached at info@sboyd.com or www.sboyd.com.


Originally published in the September 2005 issue of Presentations magazine.

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