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Let Them Laugh
June 12, 2018
Bring Your Speaking “B Game”
August 30, 20183 Types of Speaking Feedback
Feedback is an interesting word and for a speaker, it can be good or bad. If we’re using a sound system, feedback is bad. Audience feedback however can be good, but it depends on what we do with it. Let’s talk about 3 different kinds that affect us as speakers. 2 of the types we know but the third is maybe the most important.
Positive Feedback
When we finish a speech, many times we meet with members of the audience and hear what a great job we did. We love to hear that we were awesome in the room. Let’s face it, for many of us we really enjoy being in front of a group of people and talking about what we know. While this makes us feel good, perhaps it doesn’t make us much better. It’s good to know that our message is received positively, but it may not improve our speaking overall.
Constructive Feedback
Again, when we finish a speech, sometimes we will have audience members come up to us and want to give us “constructive feedback”. I’ve been in that situation many times. I will tell you that occasionally it’s tough to hear. While I love to hear the positive feedback, the constructive feedback can be deflating. The other side of the coin, however, is that it can really help us improve. This is how we grow. By receiving this, we can change something that we didn’t realize we are doing.
For example, I spoke one time in Korea as a keynoter for a major technical conference. Before the presentation, I met with my translator who would be doing a simultaneous translation for the audience. They would all be wearing headsets to hear the translation. My translator asked me to deliver a few lines of my presentation. I did so and immediately she gave me feedback that I spoke too fast. In order for her to make the translation the best for the audience, she asked me to slow down the delivery a bit. This piece of advice has helped me tremendously whenever I have spoken to a group that had a translator from that day on.
On-Stage Feedback
This is the feedback we miss many times. What I’m talking about here is watching our audience and getting their reactions to what we are doing or saying. This is the hardest type to accept and react to. When we are speaking, we need to gauge the audience’s reaction and then adjust to what we see or hear. Flexibility is key.
I remember speaking to a group of around 30 technical salespeople about some concepts regarding computer storage. I jumped into my presentation and started talking very quickly about things that this group probably already knew. Using used common terms like LUNs, HDDs and SSDs, I assumed that everyone understood these common acronyms. After about 10 minutes I noticed that many people in the room were looking very puzzled and their eyes had glazed over. I stopped and asked how everyone was doing. I did a quick survey and found out that many in the room were completely lost because they did not understand the terms I used. Given this feedback, I reset my thinking and completely changed what I talked about on the spot.
As speakers we crave the positive feedback, cringe sometimes at the constructive feedback, and many times forget the on-stage feedback. Let’s make sure that we always keep the audience first in our minds when we speak and be aware of what they are feeding back to us.
2 Comments
Hi Bob! I loved your article as a whole, but here is what has latched on to my mind.
I am a Technical Communicator by profession, mostly in print than verbal. I have always wanted to write about my life experiences, however, owing to the profession that I am in, I tend to achieve perfection in all I draft, and eventually end up drafting nothing at all. I tend to shy away from sharing my articles.
A short line you mentioned up above has given me a reason to think otherwise – “This is how we grow”.
Feedback is more of a personal reaction to the action we perform. It is about the giver’s perception and the giver’s ability to share his or her perspective. The key is to scan for the “constructive feedback” that you have mentioned, and then use it to understand the audience better.
I figure, I’ll never grow and learn unless I take the dive. Thank you for the push!
Roshan, I understand exactly what you are saying about wanting to be perfect. I come from a technical background as well and perfect has always been my standard and I almost always never come close to it. How we react to the feedback we receive is key. While we may never reach perfection in our work, I think it’s important for us to share our work and invite the feedback. It is indeed how we grow! I’m reminded of the phrase “Done is better than perfect”. Until we have something done, we can’t receive the feedback to make it perfect. Thanks for sharing!