There are great reasons any speaker might have notes, slides, or a podium to speak from. But in each case, these should be tools to help the speaker deliver their message, not a way to hide from the audience.
Do you rely on your slides to carry the bulk of your talk? Are they loaded with text “so you can remember what comes next”? Do you prefer to carry notes, even when you have thoroughly prepared?
It’s natural to want to avoid the vulnerability that comes from speaking in front of a group. But paradoxically, the slide deck, the podium, and the note cards signal to the audience that we’re not fully available to them, we haven’t really committed. When we do that, the audience gives us a bit less grace. After all, they’re here to connect with us, not our notes.
In addition, these security blankets keep us from really testing ourselves. How can we know what we’re capable of when we limit our capacity to achieve?
Come on out from behind the podium, the slides, the notes. See what kind of connection you can create with your audience when you don’t have the distraction of technology.
