How Not To Speak To An Audience

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When speaking from a position of expertise, say, as a college lecturer or speaker at an event, probably the worst thing you can do is speak with uncertainty in your voice during the intro, and then to joke about your financial position (I’m not a millionaire, wink) and talk about ‘personal’ achievements. The first will only deplete any confidence your audience may have had in you, and the second will make you appear insecure. And insecure can easily translate to incompetent. Your audience may still leave with more knowledge and information than when they first walked into the room, but won’t necessarily link that knowledge to your talk. The upside to all this for the listeners, is that they walk away knowing how not to speak, should they ever find themselves in a position of speaking to an audience. I understand, such speakers most likely do not realise the effect they have on their listeners, and if they were ever confronted on their speaking, they would argue that they bring their personality to their talks. No, speakers’ personalities need to inspire. 

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