Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes - The Goodman ...

pg. 40
Improving Your Delivery
Just Be Yourself. Only Better. – cont’d
Eye Contact: Read the Audience, Not Your Notes
Eye contact can be one of the most powerful tools at a speaker’s disposal. Used properly,
it can help you connect with your audience, recapture people who are drifting away, and
drive home key points. In my travels to conferences across the U.S., I have encountered
five different styles of eye contact among public interest presenters. Unfortunately, four
of them are bad:
Style #1: “I’m Studying My Shoes”
Somebody must have warned these presenters that eye contact with the audience will
cause instantaneous implosion, because they appear bound and determined not to look
up. Ever. The only thing their eyes contact during their presentation is their notes.
Style #2: “The Scenic Overlook”
As opposed to practitioners of style #1, these presenters clearly got the message that you
have to look up when you speak to an audience. So they look up, up, and over the audience’s
heads, giving the impression of eye contact without really connecting with anybody.
Style #3: “Sir Glance-a-Lot”
Despite the gender bias in the name, this style boasts male and female practitioners. It is
characterized (look down at notes) by a constant bobbing of the head (look up at audience),
and after a while (look down at notes) it can get to be (look up at audience) both distracting
(look down at notes) and annoying (look up at audience). Get the picture?
Style #4: “The Lawn Sprinkler”
You know those rotating sprinkler heads that spray water from one side of a lawn to the
other? The kind that makes a “chick-chick-chick” sound as it slowly traces an arc before
swinging back to its starting position? Some presenters appear to have drawn inspiration
from these devices because their eyes mechanically sweep across the room – looking at but
never really connecting with anyone in the audience – before swinging back to the starting
point and sweeping across the room again … and again … and again.
Style #5: “One for One”
As you have probably guessed by now, this is the only style of eye contact worth
considering. Gerry Tabio referred to it when he told us, “If I’m telling a story that takes
two minutes, I tell it to 10 different people one sentence at a time. I never talk to the room.
I talk to the people in their eyes.”
The key here is to think of your audience not as an undifferentiated mass of people, but
individuals who each want to feel like you are speaking directly to them. Eye contact
provides that feeling, and you want as many people in your audience as possible to have it.
Be advised, though, that a quick glance is not sufficient. You need to stay with each person
through an entire sentence or a complete thought, giving each enough time to feel some
sense of connection (otherwise known as the “Hey, she’s talking to me!” moment).