How you show up when you step to the front of the room or the head of the boardroom table has a huge impact on how your audience responds to, and values, what you are saying.
An audience filters what they hear through their perception of how it's being offered. Ever wonder why your audience sometimes reacts differently than you expected? Take a look in the mirror and see how you are offering your message. Do you come across as bored? arrogant? defensive? Or do you exude enthusiasm, sincerity and passion?
SHOWING UP NEGATIVELY
I was at a presentation a couple months ago where the speaker, who was highly educated, experienced and credible, threw sarcastic barb after barb at her co-presenter, belittling him for a variety of supposed inadequacies. Although I think this demeanor was born out of nervousness, the result on the audience was palpable. People were clearly uncomfortable. The woman not only lost the credibility she started with, but her interesting message was compromised as the audience stopped listening and started focusing on how she was showing up.
IT'S JUST AS EASY TO SHOW UP POSITIVELY
It's just as easy to influence an audience to respond positively. Winston Churchill said, "Before the orator can inspire audiences with any emotion, he must be swayed by it himself." Here's a wonderful example of Davis Guggenheim, accepting the Academy Award for An Inconvenient Truth, bubbling over with so much enthusiasm and passion, he can't help but infect the audience.
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