Public Speaking and Presentation Skills: Work the Crowd!

If you are giving the same presentation to a number of different audiences, one of the best ways to make your listeners feel you wrote the presentation just for them is to modify every one of your takeaway hooks to suit them in particular.

For example, when I gave a presentation to a group of newly hired assistant professors on how to give a compelling lecture, among the takeaways I planned to include was one about confidence. 

If you’re addressing people who are working in a corporate culture that’s more freewheeling than traditional, your audience is more likely to enjoy interactivity, so you should be prepared to ask extra questions.

If your audience will consist partially or entirely of Traditionalists and Baby Boomers, you can assume your listeners will have years of experience in the field. Your questions might be designed to draw on that expertise. For example, you might ask, “As a leader in your industry, what are some of the things you do to motivate your employees?” Or you might say, “Based on your observations, what is the most important thing new customers care about in this field?”

You’ll feel a lot more secure if you can gauge when things aren’t going well. This is easier than you might suspect. You already have the tools. After all, if you were talking one-on-one with someone, I’m sure you’d have no trouble sensing whether the other person is engaged, because you’d spot at least a few of the signs:

• Making eye contact

• Nodding or showing some other expression that signals comprehension

• Asking questions about what you’re saying

• Responding to questions you might ask about what you’re saying

• Taking notes if there’s something to follow up on

  Now, imagine that each of the individuals in your audience is the only person in the room. If the presentation is working, each of them should be giving you the very same signs. If this isn’t happening, you have to react immediately, in real time. 

Even if you prepared using all the techniques I suggest, it is possible your audience will want to know even more than you had planned to cover

You can find out what the audience hopes to learn while you are actually delivering the presentation, and you can make sure to deliver it.

To show an audience you’re responsive to them, the first thing you have to demonstrate is that you’re listening, you know what’s important to them, and you know how they’re feeling. They have to be sure you have heard them before they will feel that what you are saying is meant directly for them.

This means they don’t want you to offer solutions until they have asked for them, so your job is to get them to tell you what they want to know. Then, when they’re convinced you’re tailoring your approach to their needs, they’ll be responsive.