Sometimes It’s the Audience!
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As John Dipietro says in the article below sometimes it really isn’t the speaker but the audience that failed to get the message. In the same way, sometimes it isn’t the call center trainer that is off key.
Professional speakers know when they are ready to give a great presentation. When the evaluations come back with less than glowing results, sometimes speakers need to realize that it was the audience that got things wrong!
Sometimes when you give a presentation and feel that everything went great because you really did your best to prepare for the event, but get evaluations below what you expected, it can be disheartening.
That happened to me recently and if I had not felt that my preparation was exceptional and the delivery was great, I may have started to think that the problem was with me. But then, I realized that the audience was totally made up of lawyers all with over 25 years of experience. Then I felt vindicated since I realized that all of the creative material in the presentation was somewhat foreign to them, since their life is based upon precedence rather than creativity. This is certainly not a knock on this highly respected group of lawyers, it just proves my point when I say that there are several different personality types that we will encounter in our speaking careers.
The topic was THE POWER OF ONE and I discussed how one person could make a big difference in the reputation and efficiency of the firm. I spoke about various principles and I backed up each principle with a specific story about a well known local or nationally known person. In the past, this format of explaining the principle and following with a real life example has proven to be a very effective way to reach an audience.
Upon reviewing the evaluations, which are a great aide in figuring out what to keep in or delete from upcoming presentations, I noticed that many of the attendees felt that I had included too many stories in my presentation. Evidently, they felt that they wanted more facts, while most other audiences enjoyed the stories.
Each time you are evaluated, you set yourself up for disappointment or elation. The real learning comes in realizing that different audiences require different styles and content. Take each evaluation seriously, but not serious enough to let it destroy your confidence. Get out there again real soon and chalk up some evaluations that will make you feel great!
Let me invite you to learn more about the fascinating world of public speaking. John DiPietro is the author of YOU DONT HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO BE GREAT and speaks world-wide to companies and trade associations about increasing their productivity. Find out more at http://www.perfecttogreat.com
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