How often have you cast judgment on a presentation – from rambling on a conference call to someone bludgeoning the audience with jargon? The truth is that we know what we want. It does not take a communications expert to spot when someone is unconvincing, or just dull. We hear it in their voice. We see it in their body language. We judge the words they choose.
Here is a little test:
- Picture yourself in the audience of a pitch or presentation before the start
- List three things that you most hope the presenter does not do
- List three things you most hope the presenter will do
Did you get any of these? We like people to:
- Get to the point,
- Use language we understand
- Engage with us
- Speak at a pace we can follow
- Speak with some enthusiasm (though we Brits don’t want an enthusiam overload either)
We stop listening when people:
- Ramble without a clear point
- Use lots of language we don’t understand
- Read from the slides or a script
- Speak too quickly for us to follow
- Speak in a dull, dreary manner
In the coming blogs we will look at how to develop confidence, develop a story and build the skills to speak with conviction that we expect from others.
What would you add to these lists? Tell me via jeremy.adams@communicationmeans.com