Today I was teaching public speaking to a group of twenty 15-year-old boys. They strolled in three at a time. Some of them proceeded to run around the sports hall, a group was seeing who could throw their bag through the basketball hoop, while others were just lying on the floor. I tried raising my voice to gather them into a standing circle but it wasn’t working. So I calmly and gently gestured to a small group of boys to join me while I sat on the floor, I smiled at the other students until they too stopped their game and came to join us. I didn’t speak until everyone had gathered in a circle sitting on the floor and then spoke very gently and very carefully almost quietly so they would have to pay extra attention to hear me. My intention was to calm their energy through my voice and to lower their energy by sitting in a circle (sending their energy down) instead of standing.
The point that I’m making is that your audience will mirror you, your energy, your body language even your passion and that will determine whether they engage with you or not. I was able to captivate the group for a whole hour. I was told the group was disobedient and would play up, instead they were calm, thoughtful, engaged and considerate.
Your ‘being’ really does create the atmosphere, so consider who you want to be for your audience and for your presentation.
If anyone would like training in public speaking either for yourself, your teams or in education please contact me via my contact page
#publicspeaking #leadership #education