Introduce variety!
Losing the attention of your audience is disheartening. You are in the middle of your presentation and you see that you have lost the attention of many of the attendees. It’s easy to tell that they have stopped listening: some are looking at their phones or laptops, others are dozing off or looking away. Don’t despair. Try these techniques to win them back.
Structure your presentation to keep the audience engaged.
When you design your presentation, ask yourself the following questions:
- Why would this audience want to listen to me? What do they want?
- How can I fulfill their needs?
- What is my main message?
Write a “headline” with your main message.
If your audience will only remember one thing from your presentation, what would you like that to be? That’s your main message. I find that writing the main message as a headline (think of a newspaper or magazine) makes it engaging and interesting. Writing headlines is an art. Practice it so it becomes easier. Once you have your headline, make sure that you repeat it often during your presentation. At a minimum you should use it at the beginning, in the middle and when wrapping up the presentation.
Interact with your audience.
It’s important to interact with the audience from the beginning to grab their attention. Remember, your presentation is not a speech, it’s an opportunity to interact with the attendees and share your message. Some of the strategies that work:
- Tell a joke or a funny story about how you got to deliver that presentation
- Ask for a show of hands with a provocative question
- Make a connection with them with a short story and ask “has this ever happened to you?”
Make eye contact.
Have you noticed that the most engaging speakers seem to be talking to you and not to the whole audience? This is one of the techniques that I find most useful to keep people’s attention. Instead of delivering your message to the collective audience, talking over their heads, chose one person from the audience and talk to that person for a moment, making eye contact. Talk like that is the only person in the audience. Then make a pause and move to the next person. With practice this will become second nature when delivering a message. It also helps you regain the attention of people that may be drifting off.
Occupy your space.
It’s common for speakers to find a comfortable place and not move during the whole presentation. This is not very engaging. Move like you own the place. But don’t move around randomly. Do it with purpose and intention. You may decide on three spots on the area that you have available, like a triangle. Start the presentation on the first spot, move to the second at the middle of the presentation and go to the third when getting close to the conclusions. You can return to you starting point to take questions, for example. What is important is to make the audience follow your movement.
Use gestures.
Gestures involve the use of your arms and hands during your presentation. Use expansive gestures. Avoid what I call “penguin syndrome”. That is the tendency of pinning the elbows to the waist and only gesturing with the forearms. Audiences are most likely to respond positively to open, dynamic speakers who convey the feeling of being at ease with their bodies. As I described in this article, expansive movements will also make you feel more confident.
Show your energy.
One of the things that grabs people’s attention is an energetic speaker. Show your passion during your presentation. Let your energy flow. Energy is contagious. In this article I describe the five elements that are essential to generate and sustain a great level of energy: Smile, Posture, Articulation (clear pronunciation), Respiration and Kinetic Energy (movement). Notice that they spell SPARK. Next time you deliver a presentation, make sure to include a SPARK. You will notice a positive difference in the level of attention you get.
Use your voice.
Speaking in a monotone isn’t engaging. Same goes for delivering your presentation at the same volume or not making any pauses. To keep your audience’s attention, speak with energy. Use higher volume to highlight a main point and lower your voice for emphasis. Remember to make pauses. There is nothing wrong with brief silences. They give diversity to your speech, allow the audience to digest what you have said so far, and let you catch your breath.
Paint a picture.
If you are making a proposal, describe the desired result. Use a real-life story to make your case. Use examples to make your point more clear, special if it’s a complicated one.
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