When You Should Avoid Being Declarative
Here’s a frequent mistake I hear speakers make:
Declarative statements that make assumptions about their audience.
The most common phrase I hear is…
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Why is this a mistake?
First, you may annoy some of the people in front of you. You don’t know with certainty what every person in front of you is thinking.
Second, you can seem arrogant making these types of statements.
Worse, you could trigger reactions in the listener like, “Who do you think you are telling me what I’m thinking?” Or, “You don’t know what I’m thinking!”
A Better Way
For years, we’ve suggested one minor change that gives more impact to these type of statements.
Add the words, “may be.”
This alters the sentence to:
“I know what you may be thinking.”
Structure it this way and you don’t come across as presumptuous, or a know-it-all.
The reaction more likely will be less intense, something like, “No, not really. I’m thinking…”
This will help you avoid creating a mental confrontation with your audience.
An Even Better Way
World champion speaker, Mark Brown, CSP, recently shared a more impactful way to do this:
Turn your statement into a question.
Imagine you’re listening to a speaker. She’s talking about using speeches to increase your number of new clients.
We know how the audience may react if she says, “I know what you’re thinking. “I’d love to double my number of clients.” Or, “I know you may be thinking you’d love to double your number of clients.”
What if she instead asked a question:
“How much impact would it have on your life if you doubled your number of clients?”
The question invites the audience to think about the implication of her idea to their lives. It engages their emotions.
It also increases the odds they’ll buy into her idea.
Want to have more impact on your audience?
Don’t declare it. Ask it.
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Michael’s mission is to help leaders, managers and sales professionals communicate with more confidence, impact, and influence. This passion is born from his own communication difficulties early in his career.
Fortunately, he discovered that public speaking is like riding a bike, swimming or driving a car - it’s a learnable skill. Once he discovered this ‘secret’ he became a voracious student of the craft. He took courses, studied some of the world’s best speakers and storytellers and continues to study presentation and business storytelling skills.
He is hired by companies and organizations, leaders, managers and sales professionals, and TEDx speakers to help them become more confident, impactful and influential communicators.
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