Importance Of Listening When Doing A Speech

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Try listening to other expert speakers as much as possible during a speaking event especially the guest speaker since they may be able to provide useful tips while hearing them talk. This could also eliminate redundancy and add more bits and pieces when it is time to speak in front of the audience. Also, this is to save a speaker from any embarrassment, since other speakers at some point try to use materials of the same kind.

Aside from listening to the other speakers, try to listen to the majority of the audience. By knowing the audience, a speaker can have a clearer idea on what is really sought after and what the audience may not like to hear. Here are some tips that can be accomplished before making that big speech.

· Whenever possible, go to the entrance hall and try to mingle with the audience as they arrive. Greeting them will remove the tension and putting a smile on their faces at the start could let it stay there when the speech begins.

· Feel the room. Being familiar with the people and the place can be helpful in knowing the audience type.

· Remember that people came there to listen and the event has been probably scheduled ahead of time and the last thing that the listeners would want to hear is a speaker giving apologies.

· Do some research. Knowing who you are delivering the speech to and the place where these people came from will definitely give ideas on how to properly talk to them.

· Study their facial expressions. They may not be saying anything but their actions and the way they tense their muscles would definitely mean either they do not understand what the speaker is saying or they have other questions to support what was earlier spoken. If this happens, open the floor for questions. Begin by raising one's own hand to invite people with questions.

· The audience would especially want a speaker who is interesting, very informative, and can provide entertainment.

· If they have questions, make sure to understand each and answer them in the most informative and non-offensive way as possible if the topic is very sensitive. Put seriousness in if the topic calls for it, but for minor issues, a little keynote for an icebreaker will surely help.

· A speaker must know when to halt during the speech. Practicing the speech at home by using a timer would help a speaker eliminate unnecessary words or phrases during the speech. Unimportant words are not needed since he would not like his audience to end up being bored and not having to understand the speech all together in the end.