If you are someone who refers distractions during a speech as audience centric like ringing of cell phone or technical glitch like crash of a laptop , basically those who think these are the only distractions and are beyond human control. You may be surprised to know that you could be a cause of distraction to your own speech. Here’s few habits which can turn even the best of speech to a total disaster :
- Starting on an Apologetic note : You may be running late , your laptop has crashed or you are missing on the materials and the worst that you could do is to apologize in advance that how this might affect your presentation. By doing this , you are setting a negative tone as it makes you seem like a victim and nobody wants to deal with a victim. Instead start on an upbeat note, as if nothing is wrong. This communicates that you’re cool under pressure–the opposite of being a victim.
- Not sticking to the scheduled time: You feel you don’t have sufficient time to communicate your important information, so you request extra time to communicate it..If it’s because your presentation is too long, well, adapt your presentation down so that it fits the allotted time. If you’re late, end your presentation when it’s scheduled to end.
- Talking too fast: You’ve got a lot of material to cover, so you talk fast to get through all of it. Fast talk makes you sound either nervous or like a stereotypical “fast talking'” salesperson. Cut your presentation down so fast talk isn’t necessary. If you’re talking fast because you’re nervous, write “SLOW DOWN!” on each page of your notes.
- Nervous Body Language: You keep fiddling with your papers, fingering your jewelry or scratching yourself, this distracts your audience from your message and is making that message less effective. As you rehearse your presentation, rehearse how you’ll stand and where you’ll put your hands. Rehearse enough.
- Reading from your slides: Your slides reflect your thinking on a subject, so you read your slides aloud to the audience in order to replicate your thought process. Presumably everyone in your audience can read, so you’re not just being boring, you’re insulting them. Use slides as visual signposts for the points you’re making rather than a written version or summary of those points.
- Using Jargons : It can be a major distraction when your audience is not being able to understand the message you are trying to put across.The presentation should always be written in a lucid manner.