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How to use the audience for dramatic effect when public speaking

Guest post by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: Many of us would love to start mastering public speaking. One particular technique that works wonders in any public speaking engagement is to involve the audience. Think of when we converse with a friend. Unless we are extremely self-centred, the chances are that we don’t just talk and leave all the listening to the other person. We ask questions, we seek verbal as well as visual confirmation, we pause and we use rhetorical questions to improve the communication process.

How to use the audience for dramatic effect when public speaking

Many of us would love to start mastering public speaking. One particular technique that works wonders in any public speaking engagement is to involve the audience.

Think of when we converse with a friend.

Unless we are extremely self-centred, the chances are that we don't just talk and leave all the listening to the other person. We ask questions, we seek verbal as well as visual confirmation, we pause and we use rhetorical questions to improve the communication process.

And so it is with our public speaking.

Rhetorical questions are wonderful at creating drama, especially when employed with a long pause afterwards. ‘Why do you think so-and-so happened?' we ask, looking around the audience, who will normally be unlikely to respond. (long pause) ‘It's because....' And off we trot on to the next theme of our exposition.

We shouldn't be afraid of using facial expressions as we use the rhetorical question either. It might be appropriate to stare into the distance as we ‘try' to find the answer to our own question and then smile as we ‘find' the correct answer! We look quizzically at several members of the audience too, just so long as we don't embarrass them by lingering too long holding their gaze.

Above all else, enthusiasm is infectious. It also can make up for a whole load of other deficiencies and, if we sound enthusiastic, the chances are that our audience will be similarly enthused.

Another way to raise enthusiasm is to move around the stage.

As a general rule of thumb, we can move around when we want to involve the audience in some way, such as asking rhetorical questions; but when we want the emphasis to shift back to us, we should simply stay put.

Of course, this works far better in large rooms with large audiences than for small-scale presentations where if we walk around a lot we can end up driving our audience crazy. Generally we should aim to appear purposeful in our movements, not random.

One particularly effective use of this technique is when we are changing the focus of our presentation. Walking across the room saying absolutely nothing can be dramatic, while also signalling to the audience that we are moving on in our subject matter.

Has engaging the audience help you start mastering public speaking?

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Article Tags: develop management skills, management skill set, manager competencies, manager skill



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