Untether Yourself!
The other day I was at a leadership seminar. The speaker is a seasoned trainer and veteran speaker. The room was small; a restaurant dining room. This is a six-month series I have signed up for, though I missed the first installment due to a previously scheduled engagement.
Apparently, at the first session some of the participants had trouble hearing the speaker so this time he decided to use a hand held mic – and not a cordless one. He also had a PowerPoint – and not the ceiling mounted kind either – but one that sat on a rolling cart in the middle of the room.
He was literaly boxed in, held by outside forces – the mic and the PowerPoint set up – to a small corner of the room. He was constantly fiddling with the cord as he talked, trying to keep from being entangled and tripped by it. He was distracted from what he was saying, not connecting with the audience, completely absorbed by these physical issues.
Untether Yourself!
Then the microphone started buzzing and crackling.
Finally, smartly, he did away with the microphone. -
Immediately he was more engaged and more engaging. Vocally he became more dynamic, physically he was freer – able to move about the room, between the tables. He was more relaxed without having to worry about the mircophone – I felt the energy room shift as we all shifted our attention from his struggles with the mic to the content at hand.
In speaking, as in fashion - less is more! Drop the handheld notes, put down the mic, step away from the podium. Flashy Powerpoints are meaningless without real communication. The most relavant material is rendered irrelevant by a distracted speaker. Focus less on the trappings of speaking and more on the meaning.
Disconnect from technology to connect with your audience.
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