Image Credit: MIKI Yoshihito
You’ve been asked to give a speech on your idea which you just happen to know is the best idea in the whole wide world. The problem that you are facing is that your audience doesn’t know this. When you find yourself in this situation, you are going to have to use your speaking skills to convince a skeptical audience that your idea is the right idea.
3 Things To Realize When Convincing Others
Any time that we have a new idea that we want to share with others, we’re going to have to understand that the people that we’ll be presenting it to will naturally be resistant to it despite understanding the importance of public speaking. This means that we’re going to have to take the time to make sure that we’re aware of three very important things: the idea that we’ll be presenting, how our audience will be reacting to it, and just exactly how confident our audience is going to be in us.
The idea is where everything starts. Every idea that we’d like to present to an audience is different. There are big idea, little ideas, scary ideas, etc. We need to take a very close look at our idea and make sure that we understand how it is going to appear to our audience. Are we going to be asking them to either make a big change or accept a radical new view of their world? Or are we going to be making a minor improvement in their lives or explaining something that is already a part of their lives?
After we get our hands around our idea, we next need to understand how we expect our audience to react to our idea. Is this going to be an easy idea for them to accept or is it going to turn their world upside down? Knowing this will go a long way in making it easier for us to convince them that our new idea is a good idea. Finally, we need to have an understanding of how our audience views us. Do they think that we have good ideas? Are they going to be willing follow our lead when it comes to implementing the idea that we’re going to be sharing with them?
Dealing With Difficult People
The challenge that comes along with attempting to convince people that you have a good idea is not all about trying to get people who are easy to convince to go along with you. Rather, it’s all about trying to win over the so called “difficult people”. Those people who for whatever reason really just don’t want to buy into what you are selling.
In order to successfully win the hearts and minds of everyone who is going to be in your audience you are going to have to make sure that you are proactive. You don’t want to sit back and be reactive. This means that before you give your speech, take the time to understand who will be in your audience and shape your speech to meet their needs.
The difficult people in your audience are looking for a target to shoot at. What you are going to want to do is to make sure that you represent as little of a target for them as possible. This means that you are going to want to find out who these people actually get along with before you give your speech. Once you know this, discover what characteristics of these people allow them to appeal to the difficult people. Once you know this, work it into your speech so that you can avoid getting shot at!
What All Of This Means For You
One of the most powerful skills that a public speaker can have is the ability to convince others that an idea that you have is right. As powerful as this skill is, it’s also very, very difficult to do correctly. If you can figure out how to do it correctly, then you will have tapped into the benefits of public speaking.
When we want to change the way that an audience thinks, we need to pay attention to three very important things: the idea that we are trying to get them to accept, the emotional reaction that our audience is having to us, and finally what the other person’s level of confident in us is. In order to get your idea accepted you are going to have to create strategies to deal with the people that you’ll be encountering in your audience.
If you can convince people that your idea is the right idea, then you’ll be viewed as a very powerful speaker. You’ll be sought out by many different people who have ideas that they need to get accepted. Once you’ve developed this power, make sure that you only use it for good!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: How will you be able to tell when an audience has accepted your idea?
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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
Every time that we give a speech, we want our audience to enter the speech and to share it with us. We’ll try a lot of different techniques to show the importance of public speaking and to make this happen such as using humor, powerful quotes, and trying very hard to make our speech relevant. However, we don’t always succeed. What are we missing here? It turns out that one of the most powerful ways to connect with your next audience is to include cultural references in your speech.