Sorry? Pardon? What’s that again?

All phrases so common to our ears…have we ever asked ourselves why?

I was at a sixth form college in Leicester a couple of days ago, as I had to give a presentation to a group of AS-level students, within this presentation we obviously had the few people who were paying the most attention, and the others sitting on their Blackberry’s paying more attention to their worldly affairs…

It was right then when it struck me, that the art of communication is a very strong flag to  hold up, and it can sway in either direction and fall into both a successful presentation or unsuccessful. As I continued to work on my hour-long presentation, I kept glancing at my audience, giving eye contact to each one and making sure each individual was at least awake if not listening.

As this presentation became increasingly interactive almost midway in, I could sense the concentration being received, and I was looking out for those three key words, which we use each and every day, be it on the phone, in a class or even in your room!

The point of this article is to question myself and each reader about the attention we pay to what we hear, how often do things strike us much later in life?- by which time all things seem to be so distant from us, and we are left there to regret, thinking ‘if only we had heard…’.

Is it a human deficiency or a skill that each person doesn’t have enough off? Or is it that we just choose what to take in and discard the rest. Think about the last time you ever had to speak to an audience, aside from its nerve-wrecking factors, think beyond to how receptive your audience was, what is it that made them listen to you, as opposed to playing on their Blackberry’s?

And then question yourself again, is it the information that’s important or your style of speaking which is getting them to watch and listen to you.

Most people would agree with me when I say one of man’s greatest fears in life is public speaking, regardless of their age or position in society, when it comes down to speaking, we see equality on all fronts. Some would say the way to get out of our fears is by facing them, but how do you face such fears, when each time it’s a new audience? What is the general trick? I wish it were a simple answer, but the only advice is to know what you’re talking about, be able to answer your own questions and be able to refer your speech to some evidence down books or internet lane…

Share on Facebook