Friday, October 14, 2022

Are You Talking to Me?

Want to do your job better? When taking part in meetings or presentations, pretend that the speaker is talking to you directly

Newsletters National

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

Any good presenter will tell you that one of the secrets for an effective presentation is eye contact with the audience. This isn’t just to gauge what material is working and what is not, but to also make it seem personal.

According to the online article 10 Reasons Eye Contact is Everything in Public Speaking, “when you don’t look people in the eye, they are less likely to look at you. And when they stop looking at you, they start thinking about something other than what you’re saying, and when that happens, they stop listening.”

Many presentations since the pandemic began have been done online. I’ve found this especially challenging because I love feeding off people’s reactions when I’m speaking, and oftentimes online meetings and presentations make this difficult.

Sometimes, people will have their cameras off, so I can’t see them at all. Sometimes, because they’re looking at a monitor, their eyeline isn’t looking at me (the camera), and so it seems like they’re distracted. And sometimes, because of other things going on wherever they are, they really are in fact distracted.

As M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, wrote, “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.”

Psychiatrist Karl A. Menniger notes that “listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”

One of my daughter’s high school teachers actually gave out an award at the end of the school year (after months of forced online learning) to the student who “saved” them the most, who demonstrated they were paying attention. The act of “saving” was simply the student who answered questions or contributed a comment. It seems like a simple thing, but only two received the award out of a class of almost thirty.

When I’m coaching soccer teams, young or old, one of the ways I make sure I have my players’ attention is simply to ask them how many fingers I’m holding up. Only after they’re looking and responding and waiting for the next set of fingers do I know that they’re really listening.

Interestingly, I recently had a discussion with one of my staff who said that one of her challenges with online meetings is that when someone says something like “we should do that” or “that’s a good idea,” she feels like they are talking directly to her because she can’t tell who the online speaker is actually speaking to. This active interest in what others are saying keeps her engaged and informed, which helps her do her job better.

So, while one of the keys to being a good presenter is eye contact, one of the keys to being a good worker is also eye contact and engagement. You don’t have to rely on the presenter to draw you in; you can draw them in.

Want to make your next safety or labour-management meeting more meaningful and effective? Pretend that the presenter is speaking directly to you, and actively listen and engage with them.

Are You Talking to Me?

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