Reading Your Audience – The Mind-Reading Communicator

Before you get all excited about the prospect of mind-reading, this article is not about telepathy or magic (sorry!). That said, the ability to read and understand an audience remains an important skill for a communicator to impress. The vocal tone, body language, or even content structure adopted by a speaker can be modified based on the input from the audience and context. The ability to discern the relevant information from the audience is thus key.

Reading the audience goes beyond knowing their profile before the presentation. It is part of the communication journey to encounter unpredictable or unforeseen elements. These may be aspects that we have not prepared for before the presentation or may challenge us to improvise on the spot. Both can be a challenging ask for communicators who are just starting out. Worse still, the feedback from the audience may cripple our confidence and prevent us from moving forward.

To help that new communicator in you, it is important to build awareness of the audience’s reaction and ‘read’ them while presenting. Here are 3 levels of information you can extract from an audience!

Level 1: Passive Information

The first level consists of passive informational cues from the audience while you are presenting. These cues may be subtle and difficult to detect (hence the emphasis on awareness). That said, such passive cues are easier to manage as they do not represent a direct critique or feedback of the presentation. For example, an audience yawning may not mean that the presentation is failing (your audience member may be feeling extra tired from the day’s event!).

The key step to observe for and extract passive cues is by building audience awareness. This involves dedicating a part of our communicator mind to observe how the audience is responding. One such cue would be distraction cues. This is where an audience member is visibly distracted by something else (e.g., a side conversation, checking phone). Such a cue may be a sign for the communicator to adopt a more energetic delivery style or transit to a more interactive presentation flow (e.g., asking questions, checking in).

Level 2: The Underlying Message

Often, your audience members may not be willing to share direct feedback or critique during the presentation. One such example is asking questions or seeking clarifications. If something is unclear, your audience member may choose to wait till the end of your presentation before providing feedback. By then, it may be too late for you to rectify your presentation or confirm if the rest of the audience had faced the same issue.

When an audience member raises feedback or query, remember to unpack the underlying message or key point. For example, a question about applying a specific technique (in your sharing) may benefit from a general summary of what you have just shared. You can start by acknowledging the significance of the question – “That is a good question – I understand that this process may be tedious. Let me summarise once more”. Another method, aside from summarising, is to help your audience prioritise the information. They may be suffering from an information overload, and any guidance by the communicator to point them to the most important information would be beneficial.

Level 3: The Direct Critique

All that aside, the most direct (and often painful) level is the direct critique. At its extreme, you may have a disgruntled audience member who reacts abrasively. This can be a challenging communication scenario, especially since you want to still provide value to the audience while remaining calm. At the same time, the audience member may have a legitimate concern that you want to address to ensure that your presentation remains effective.

Remember that the best starting point is to maintain a neutral stance – help angle your mind to the question of what is the audience member’s main concern? The goal is to deliver your message effectively; if the audience is not onboard, you want to find out how you can still achieve your objective. Start with open-ended, interest-driven questions – questions that try to understand the issue being raised. If the discussion takes too much of your presentation time, try parking it aside to carry on the discussion during a break. These direct critique scenarios may be challenging, but they provide a treasure trove of improvement tips for our communication.

Manage Your Audience & Inspire Them!

It may be challenging to manage your body language, remember your speech content, and build your audience awareness at the same time. However, the effort you exert in ‘reading’ your audience can be fruitful in ensuring that they receive the intended value from your presentation. Try looking out for the three levels of information from the audience for your next presentation!

If you want to take your speaking skills to the next level…

If you are keen to take your public speaking skills & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation / kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may communicate and deliver speeches with greater flair and charisma, feel free to check out our public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults and public speaking course for children below!

For more about our (weekly group classes) Public Speaking/ Presentation Skills Course for Adults :

https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/

If you are looking for a 2-day intensive public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults instead (for our adult learners who can’t do weekends), learn more about our presentation skills training course here: https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/presentation-skills-training-course-by-world-champion/

If you are looking for Public Speaking/ Presentation Courses for Kids / Children:

https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/

If you are a human resources manager/ business owner in your company…

We want to help you bring out the best in your team, organization, and company. Public speaking and communication skills for the workplace, such as persuasion, remain a priority for most corporate training out there. We believe in staying ahead of the curve in sharing the contemporary communication skills to help you and your team remain relevant, competitive and nimble. Through our customized corporate training programmes, your team will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on, and potential-maximising public speaking & presentation skills training programme!

Feel free to reach out to us to curate your own public speaking corporate training programme for your team, company, or organization! Let us help you develop them into highly effective public speakers at work, empowered with effective presentation skills & storytelling skills – them giving speeches with charisma, influence and impact is something you can look forward to!

For effective presentation skills training Singapore & public speaking training for corporates/ employees: https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/corporate-public-speaking-training-workshop/