How to Use Silence to Grab and Hold Audience Attention

Let's face it. Listening to the speakers provide clear information pull. More than ever, the audience wants to see and hear someone who has substance and meaning that can take away and share with others, someone who connects with and reaching out to them on an experiential level.

your audience can get much information they need through search engines. They do not necessarily have to talk to them about it. All of which makes the presentation of clear information to an audience the old-fashioned.

Moreover, the modern technology we were communicating in a short piece of the e-mail and in places like Twitter and Facebook. Our attention spans getting shorter as we speak and write in shorter chunks more often. This means that it now requires more and more to keep people interested and paying attention.

In my more than 25 years of coaching mid-level and senior-level executives to refine their presentations, I found that those who best not to build drama and memorability of your presentation with occasional silence.

sound counter intuitive? Yes, it does not, until you consider that temporary interruptions of work because they break the pattern, the pattern breaks up the neurons in our brain that prompt us to seek and be sensitive to news. Periodic silence is because the audience members do not expect and do not know when it will happen.

people generally, and especially the public as news. That's why it pays to do the occasional silence is an integral part of the presentation. In making the presentation, most exhibitors tend to focus exclusively on how to fill air time with words and content. Rare are those who intend to use a temporary silence.

Periodic Table of Silence is important because it gives your audience time to catch up with you. As the pattern breaks the silence occasionally introduces a new element of your audience does not expect, and helps to re-ignite the audience's attention.

Silence is a form of verbal punctuation. You would not think to write without the use of periods and commas, are not you? Why, then, to speak without using verbal punctuation? Use silence as commas and periods.

Here are three ways I and my clients have found that the effective use of silence:

to move with silence. Once you have introduced, walking to your starting position and just stand there for about 5 or 6 seconds, instead of telling right now. While maintaining silence, the audience research and establish good eye contact with them. Several things rivet audience attention on you and what you have to say better than silence of this introduction. Maintaining the silence like this in the beginning is something we do not expect. This is something new for them.

is like this at the beginning of a beautiful pattern break. This hinders the audience's attention, because it is different from what the audience expects you to do. Audience members are expected to start talking immediately, and not to stand silently in front of them.

Use the silence before and after key points. When you present the main point, pause for a second or two before you make a point and pause for a second or two after they do. Then slowly repeat the point again, and pause a second or two.

For example, if you were to say something important, such as: "This year, we sold our 20 percent might wear it this way:. We need to get back into the game Tijekom.recesije, sales fell 10 percent across the board. [pause] This year, [slight pause] we have our sales by 20 percent. [pause] That's right. This year, [slight pause], we have our sales by 20 percent.

Use silence every time you use the words Who, What, Why, When, or how. Pause for 1-2 seconds after you mention them to separate them and emphasize them. It helps to focus the audience's attention to what immediately follows.

For example, consider the sentence: "What should we do to improve our business?" Try it this way: The [short pause] we should [short pause] to improve our business

Once you develop a comfort level with using the occasional silence in your presentations, you will see that it is nice to balance the air time they give content and adds punctuated the drama to your presentation.

the silence of your takeaway is simple, and it is this: The silence is just golden. This is a great way to keep your audience involved.

© 2010 Hank Walshak
By Hank Walshak