I ran a lunchtime session for the Law Institute of Victoria recently, and one of the topics mentioned was if you’re a confident speaker, pitfalls that disconnect audiences. If this is you, you might recognise 1 of the 2 issues I mention specifically!
There are 2 common issues I see time and time again. And when they’re pointed out, it can lead to a practical conversation about framing their ideas or their energy differently.
Transcript is below the video if you prefer to read.
Video Transcript
I ran a session for the Law Institute of Victoria last week, and one of the topics we touched on was highly confident speakers.
For context: when I meet people and they ask me what I do, sometimes they’ll go “Oh I love speaking! I could speak all day. Very confident. Love it!”
And I will sometimes think: that’s brilliant. It’s great that they’re confident…and it’s a lot better to have that, than be struggling, which a lot of my clients are.
However, there are two things I know when I’ve worked with highly confident clients:
1. Beforehand, there’s lack of preparation time – as in “prep, what prep?!”
I had a client recently, a high level person who said to me, “I’m an optimist, Sarah, I wing it!”
And I go “well, that’s working for you. Is it working for your audience though? Perhaps something to think about.”
2. During. People who are highly confident can come across as very certain and very definite in their opinions.
And of course, often that’s vital.
However… there can be moments where that can cause a loss of connection to the audience.
Which if we’re looking for results, matters . Connection matters more than almost anything else we do when communicating.
Best wishes with your speaking and influencing!
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