Basic Public Speaking, 2nd Edition-   The Roadmap to Confident Communications 

Douglas Parker, M.Ed.

The Listeners’ Role

So, is Public Speaking just about talking?  Not really.  People also need to hear the speech. You as an individual can do a great deal to make sure that your group "hears," because a group is really only a collection of individuals.  Each member in the group will grow through the group's help, and as such, the group itself will mature.  The formal task of the group is to offer appropriate feedback to each speaker through formal and informal critiques.  You need to know really only three formal rules for offering feedback to a speaker:

-Describe the speaker's mistakes – do not get personal.

-Offer specific comments.

-Only comment on things that the speaker has control over, such as tone, content or speed.

The group has two basic roles while a member is speaking, one as a listener and one as an evaluator.  Their responsibilities are outlined below:

  As a Listener...

-Do not judge the person by his or her speech.  Be genuine and sincere.

-Do not practice or think about your comments while the person is speaking.

-While the person is speaking, have a positive regard for the speaker.

-Try to understand the speaker from his or her point of view.

  As an Evaluator…

-Share feelings and thoughts with the speaker.

-Make "I" statements (e.g., "I think your speech was…" or  "I feel you need to…")

-Be specific.

-Be constructive, not destructive.

-Remember that each speaker is unique.

-Comment only on the speech - not on the speaker.

-Do not project your own biases onto the speech.

The group is a collection of individuals, each with his own or her own thoughts, likes, dislikes, prejudices and preconceptions.  Sometimes communication becomes difficult in such a group, so it is important to realize from the start that it is okay to disagree with someone in the group.  To disagree does not mean to become disagreeable.  Rather, the even flow and exchange of ideas are most beneficial and can only be hampered by a disagreeable person.

Experiential Learning and Processing

Recent brain-based research has indicated that learning by experience alone is only a small part of the total learning process.  While the experience is valuable, you need to take the time to review and process what just happened with your group.  Coaches have always known to break down each game for the players on videotape or the chalkboard to evaluate what happened and how to improve for the next time out.  For you to develop as a speaker, you too will need to do some work after each speaking event with your group.  After each speech your group should assess your efforts so that you can take an honest look at your presentation, help you decide what you did well and what you need to improve, and guide your plans for your next trip to the back of the podium.  While speaking experiences will help you to become accustomed to public speaking, processing your efforts with your peers will help you to develop the confidence to communicate!

A good deal more goes into human communications beyond the words themselves.  There are issues that affect the sender and the receivers: is someone tired today, did someone have a fight with somebody else the night before, or did someone discover the wrong side of the bed while waking up today?  What is even more troubling is that in general people do not always listen closely enough to the words of a speech so that only approximately 10% - 15% of what you know and you learn comes from what you hear.

The Group's Goals

The group has three basic goals to attempt to achieve while a speaker is speaking.  All three are important elements of the speaker's development:

-To assess the speech and the speaker by first creating standards for evaluation.

-To lower the speaker's anxiety by focusing and not providing distractions.

-To prescribe the steps to take for the speaker to improve confidence.

Hidden Agendas

The group must be careful to avoid hidden agendas in its critiques.  A hidden agenda is a message or a purpose beneath the message being communicated to the speaker.  An obtuse example of this might be if someone in the group is madly in love with the speaker, his or her critique might be overly kind, even if a more terse critique was due.

Five Absolute, Guaranteed Ways to Discourage a Speaker during a Critique

To help you get a better feel for some of the behaviors that really damage a speaker's pride and eventual development, these five simple actions can delay a person's growth.  When you are speaking you tend to be very aware of how people are sitting and what kinds of facial expressions they are wearing.  It is important to realize that even when a group seems to be paying attention, if their reflective comments are not honest it is potentially damaging.  To avoid these problems, whatever you do as a member of a group when offering a critique do not:

-Offer clichés as real advice.

-Drift off during the speech and then pretend to have all of the right comments.

-Try to show-off by listing trivial concerns or to nit-pick.

-Make comments directed at speaker's personality.

-Moreover, maybe the worst of all - let someone "get away" with a flawed speech.  This proves that you do not care about the speaker's growth enough to take the personal risk of being honest.  It is very difficult to develop trust within a group if everyone sweet-talks to one another instead of employing genuine communications.