When Audience Members Distract the Speaker

Recently I presented to 130 people at an event at the beautiful Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. I followed my usual preparation routine of arriving at the venue very early, checking out the sound system and talking with the sound guys, walking the room and walking the stage, in this case during their coffee break, and chatting with some of the attendees. I was prepared, comfortable, acclimatized and ready.

I started my presentation by acknowledging those in the audience with French as their first language using my limited French language skills, and then proceeded with my 45-minute presentation. 

The room was arranged in a series of round tables, and I was presenting from a raised stage. I wore a clip-on lavaliere microphone.  The presentation was rolling along well, however, after about 15-minutes I noticed a gentleman at the table directly in front of me chatting with a table mate and making a blah-blah gesture with his right hand. 

I was slightly taken aback. This was new ground for me.  Was the gesture about me? I couldn’t be sure, but in order to finish my work for the day, I quickly decided the gesture had nothing to do with me. He was likely involved in a side conversation about something else. I controlled my reaction, and the remainder of the presentation went very well. 

Managing Your Reactions

In this situation, I was presenting to a room of 130 people. One of the attendees, only one, made a gesture that may have been a negative reaction to how I was presenting. I needed to control my reaction. Speakers need to control their reactions and deliver for the larger audience. 

Tips Regarding Distracting Audience Members

1. Audience Member Distracting the Speaker

A speaker’s obligation is to the larger group.  If an audience member is distracting the speaker *only*, the speaker needs to work to manage his or her reaction. In my recent example, the audience member may have been physically making a derogatory comment about me to his seat mate. I will never know, and it doesn’t matter now. 

What is important in such a situation is to control your reaction as a speaker. In a similar situation in the future, I will again choose to quickly decide that such a gesture is absolutely not about me, and to continue on unfazed. That might be a trick I play on my emotions, but it worked once, and should work again.

2. Audience Member Distracting Other Audience Members

I’ve encountered this a few times. Usually, it’s because a couple of audience members are having a side conversation, and the volume or the activity is distracting to others.  Sometimes it’s distracting because of the cross talk, sometimes others are simply annoyed by the rude behavior. 

I have a couple of approaches for this;

a) Prolonged Silence and Eye Contact 

To use this approach simply stop talking, look in a friendly manner to the parties engaged in the side conversation, and enjoy the uncomfortable silence.  I’ll usually let the silence linger for what feels like too long, then act like I need to check some notes before I proceed. This is a little aggressive, but it works.

If the distracting behavior continues, you may have to use this approach again, and then acknowledge their conversation indicating that it is distracting for those around them.  Invite them to complete their conversation outside the room and once they’re complete to please return to the room. 

b) Physical Presence  

This approach is still aggressive, but less so and only works is a smallish room.  This would have worked in my room of 130 people. 

In this approach, I would continue speaking but walk to the table or area where the side conversation was taking place, and simply assert a physical presence. In the past, I have gently touched the table, made eye contact, and continued speaking my material.  This is a little uncomfortable, but has helped me manage side conversations, for the benefit of the larger audience. 

Conclusion 

If you’re presenting, your obligation is to your entire audience. In such a leadership position, you need to manage the room professionally so the audience can enjoy and absorb your material. 

In other situations, you may need to take a brief pause to allow wait staff to clear the room, as this can be noisy and distracting. You may have to take a moment with those managing a sound system to ensure that they’re making available an acceptable audio environment.  You may need to professionally manage some audience members that are distracting other audience members. 

Finally, you always need to manage your reactions. In the example I provided, I remain curious why my one audience member was making a blah-blah gesture with his hand. Ultimately, it didn’t and doesn’t matter. I had to deliver my presentation for the entire audience and manage my reaction, and curiosity, so that I could deliver on my commitment to the larger group. 

How To Get Your Distracted Team Focused

Some of your team members are unaware of your team's goals. You likely told them. You likely told them more than once. But people are busy, and often distracted.  Regardless, your team members need to understand team goals and how each of them can influence results. 

Some years ago, I discovered, or devised, a simple, repeatable structure that enables leaders to deliver concise, powerful speeches that remind teammates of team goals, and inspire teammates to direct their energy towards these goals.

I like structure and models that I can use for speech development, decision making, and more. I suppose most of us like structure and helpful models. Here is my model for an instinctive speech that most leaders can deliver spontaneously.

 

An Instinctive Leadership Speech Model

1. These are our goals and why

2.  This is our progress

3. These are behaviors I’ve observed that will lead to team achievement

4. Next steps

Explained - These Are Our Goals and Why

Some teams have their goals assigned by higher levels of management. Some teams have some discretion setting team goals. Either way, it is important for team members to understand team goals and why they were assigned or selected.

Sometimes team members might want to debate why one goal is included, and other ambitions excluded. For example, perhaps a company might plan to soon open a branch office in another city, and some employees look forward to possibly staffing the office. If that ambition is delayed, team members deserve to understand the rationale, and perhaps voice their disappointment.

A leader should usually let disappointed team members voice any concerns during a team meeting, because if that doesn’t happen publicly, it will certainly happen privately thereby distracting the team from healthy behavior and progress.

For my friends in Toastmasters, every club leadership team is assigned the same ten goals, and asked to achieve five or more. As an organization, operated by volunteer leaders, that has prospered for 100 years, these ten goals are understood to direct the team behavior that enables long term success.

Early in the year with your team, you need to spend quite a lot of time on this section of explaining goals and why. As the year progresses, you don’t need to spend as much time on this section, but it is important to always remind the team of these targets.

 

Explained – This Is Our Progress

Most leaders are intensely focused on accomplishing team goals, and are very attuned to progress. Your organization likely has a dashboard available for each team, which any team member can access at his or her leisure.

It’s very easy, and very valuable, for a leader to display a dashboard, reiterate the series of goals, and acknowledge where progress has been achieved, and which team members contributed.

 

Explained – These Are Behaviors I’ve Observed

This section is by far the most valuable section in this speech structure. Before delivering, or as delivering, the leader should assess which team members are behaving in a manner that will lead to goal achievement, and recognize that member and the behavior.

For example, early in the year, the team may have achieved zero goals on their dashboard. It’s fine to acknowledge that but also identify helpful behaviors that will lead to achievement. Perhaps a team member completed a series of cold calls that added some prospects to the organization’s sales funnel.  Or an employee identified an inefficiency that has been corrected and will help the team meet an expense goal.

For my friends in Toastmaster clubs, perhaps a member invited a guest, who might join and become a member, or at least will speak positively of her experience with her friends. Or perhaps a member completed a speech that will soon result in an educational achievement.

This section is most important because, as a leader, you will call attention to helpful behaviors you wish to see other team members emulate.  Most team members desire recognition in some manner, and want to understand, at some level, how to be recognized.

Explained – Next Steps

This section is for you to briefly summarize and inspire.

 

How Teams Fail To Achieve

In his book The Winner Within, basketball coach and executive Pat Riley quotes his friend, Dr. Lew Richardson, a psychologist.  I love the quote and wish Dr. Lew had written further on this topic. Unfortunately, this is the only reference I have seen for the gentleman.

 

“Teams break when they don’t have a goal or the goals aren’t clearly defined by the leaders. Goals have to be firmly entrenched, otherwise people begin to operate as independent entrepreneurs in a system that really needs cooperative work.”

 

Conclusion

Goals need to be well defined, and well understood. As leaders, we need to do all we can to remind team members of what the team is expected to achieve. As a society, we’re more distracted than ever.  Your team members are distracted.

I hope you find this simple model for a repeatable leadership speech helpful.