Recently, a colleague was asked to be the keynote speaker at a local Jamaican civic organization’s dinner dance. He convinced himself that he was going to deliver the speech to top all speeches: He would use the podium to address political and economic disparities in Jamaica, and call the audience to join him in reinventing the Jamaican Social Compact.
Fifteen minutes into his speech however, the audience, who had just finished eating dinner, had grown bored. The
speech was just too heavy for the occasion. The ladies were dressed to the nines, hair and nails done. The men were ready to get down on the dance floor. The speaker kept droning on.
At one point, twenty-five minutes into the speech, a very well dressed audience member walked up to the podium and slipped the keynote speaker a cocktail napkin with a handwritten note. The note read, “Please finish now. We are bored. This is too much for us right now.”
The keynote speaker abruptly ended his speech, the audience hastily applauded, and the dancing and festivities commenced.
Oftentimes, when we have an opportunity to give an address or a toast, we are tempted to stretch our fifteen minutes of fame into an hour that will, we are convinced, propagate change. But what we tend to forget, are the desires and feelings of listeners.
At this fete, the celebrants wanted to experience joy: It was a celebration, not a schoolhouse. My colleague, with his heavy, fact-laden, complex speech, did not take the needs of his audience into consideration when writing his manuscript. His only concern was with impressing his audience with multi-syllabic laden speech with no structure or real substance.
The takeaway: Try not to be an inappropriate public speaker. Know your audience. Be mindful of the occasion at which you will speak.
A speech written to address the United Nations General Assembly will be out-of-place at a local awards dinner.
Tailor your message to your audience, and their needs, and it will always be a perfect fit.
Gail Lewis, M.A., is an Assistant Professor of Communications who never passes up an opportunity to watch Star Trek with her family. A syndicated columnist, award-winning Toastmaster, and blogger, she also hosts the talk show Communication Corner, www.YouTube.com/TheCommDepot, on Queens Public Television.
As originally published in WhereItzAtMagazine.
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