Reflection Shorts - "Win that Communication" - episode #6
Presenting to hundreds of people is easy with this simple solution!
Most people fear public speaking, but the reality is, except for singing in the shower, all speaking is “public”.
Here’s the catch: Most people are okay talking to one person at a time. Even if that one person is a stranger, we often feel confident talking to them. The key is to apply the same technique when talking to the masses.
But we all know that’s not easy. Have we ever enquired ‘why’?
The main reason is that in a one-on-one setting, we can maintain eye contact — a key element used to maintain connection and convey a sense of commitment to the person we are talking to.
When talking to hundreds of people, we tend to lose that connection with the audience as we aren’t able to scale up talking to and maintaining eye contact with so many people at the same time.
When you enter a room full of people you have to present to, your brain takes in too much information to process. You notice someone is judging you, another person is yawning, and someone checking their phone. The brain, just like a computer, freezes when taking in so much information and kicks in a “fight and flight” response.
Your heartbeat increases, and you enter a panic mode, leading to a bad presentation.
Here is a solution and key-takeaway
Look at one person at a time for a complete sentence. And then move on to another person for the next couple of sentences and so on.
This works because then you aren’t talking to 200 people, you are just talking to one person, same as your one-to-one setting.
You look composed, and confident and immediately build rapport with the audience, increasing your confidence further.
But take care of a nuance here: Just don’t focus too much on one person, especially when in a small group. Imagine if, in a board meeting, you spend your whole time talking and impressing the CEO, and afterward, the CEO turns to the CFO: “What do you think?”, the CFO would have lost you already. In general, it takes less energy to be nice to everyone than to figure out whom you have to be nice to.
That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.
References
Interesting Reads
Junior (IC3) to Staff (IC6) via Job Hopping by Ryan Peterman about Zach Wilson
12 Ways To Tell If You’re A Difficult Engineer (And What To Do About It) by John Crickett
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Great tip :)
Often inexperienced speakers look above the crowd, as the wall, or at the presentation itself - which is a big miss of opportunity to connect with the audience (in addition to lowering the stress)