You are leading the room when you step up to present in front of an audience. As a leader, you take on a certain level of responsibility. Your responsibility lies in helping your audience understand the most important information, as well as clarifying anything they don’t understand. This mindset is what separates the average communicators from the great ones.
External Focus
Imagine you’re being graded as a speaker in a public speaking class. You’ve been assigned a topic to present to your audience. However, your instructor has notified you that your grade will be determined by how well your audience can answer questions on the topic after the presentation. If your grade rests in the hands of your audience and you want to ace this presentation, you may start thinking differently about how you will present the information.
If you are giving a presentation to share information with your team, you should approach it by equipping your team with a clear understanding of what will be shared. Approaching it this way ensures your team benefits from not having missed any important information, and they move forward to help the team succeed because of this information.
Needs of the Audience
Now, to determine what will be most helpful for your audience, start by asking this: Am I speaking in a way my audience understands? If the purpose of your presentation is to help your audience, the language you use should reduce the chances that someone will be confused or left out. If you use terminology that someone in your audience does not understand, they may be mentally side-tracked from listening to you because they are stuck in their head wondering what the terminology means.
Next, do your visual aids help them grasp the information you want them to walk away with? To answer this, look at a visual aid you plan to use in your presentation. Let’s say it’s a graph. If you were to place the graph on a screen in front of your audience, does it only show information that is relevant to them? Or does it show an overwhelming amount of information that your audience might get distracted by while you focus on one key point within? Keeping this visual aid both simple and relevant helps your audience stay on track with the points that you are trying to make.
Is your audience able to keep up with your speaking pace? Think of presentation pace like the planning of a multicourse meal. For your guests to get the most enjoyment out of the meal, you cannot force them to eat all of the courses at once or in rapid succession. You might overwhelm their taste buds if their stomachs don’t fill up first. If you speak at a pace that is too rapid, your audience may not be able to mentally digest and process the information you are trying to share with them. During your presentation, using strategic pauses can be an excellent way to emphasize information, build emotion, and allow your audience to simply process what you have to share.
Finally, can your audience hear you? At Vautier Communications, we like to use a 1 to 10 scale when discussing vocal projection. If 1 is a whisper and 10 is a shout, we recommend you speak at a volume of 7-8 in a group setting. What’s a group? Any number greater than 2. This ensures all of your audience members, yes, even those furthest away, can hear every word and they don’t miss out on any important information. We say that a 7-8 volume should feel slightly uncomfortable. If you are at the front of the room and feel as though you are speaking in a 1:1 conversation, drive that volume up more.
Ultimately, when you focus on the needs and the success of your audience, you unlock the door to presenting information in the most effective way possible.
