What does empathy have to do with giving a presentation? More than you might think. Empathy is a crucial component of human connection. And when it comes to communication, it can remind us that presentations work best when they are developed with the audience in mind. In the field of public speaking, we often call this audience analysis. But the word empathy works just as well.
Below I’ll define empathy and then we’ll cover 2 phrases you can use in your presentation to show the audience that they matter to you.
What is Empathy?
Empathy isn’t feeling sorry for someone else or identifying with them. That’s sympathy. Empathy is getting outside of your own perspective and into someone else’s. I like the way Dr. Loren Soerio puts it. He says empathy “means imagining that you are those people, living through the circumstances of their lives. It means asking yourself how you would feel if you were them, not simply how you would feel if you, yourself, were in their situation.”
For a speaker, it means stepping outside of all of your expertise and passion about your presentation, and viewing it through the mindset and life experiences of your audience members. That means answering the questions they need answered. Developing the content that matters to them. And relating it to their everyday lives. Practice empathy from the very beginning stages of preparing your presentation. If you don’t, you could be setting yourself up to deliver a presentation that lacks connection with and relevance for the very people it’s intended to reach.
2 Phrases You’ll Want To Use
Empathy in presentations really works in two stages. The first is what we’ve already talked about: preparing the presentation with the audience in mind. But once it’s time to deliver that message to your audience, you need to make sure they know that you’ve done this. So here are 2 phrases that show the audience how much they matter.
“You Might Be Thinking . . . “
As a self-professed devil’s advocate, I often listen to a presentation with counter points rolling through my head. So, for people like me, one of the most respectable things a speaker can say during a presentation is “you might be thinking . . .” This introductory phrase is then followed by the speaker demonstrating his ability to climb inside my head as he acknowledges the counter points.
When you use this phrase and attend to other perspectives, it shows your audience members that you’ve thought fully about the topic. You aren’t some nut job living in a echo chamber. You have fully examined your topic from all angles and you can rationally discuss multiple perspectives, even those which you don’t share.
“Why Does This Matter?”
When you pose this question, it’s another form of “you might be thinking.” All too often, speakers fail to communicate the way in which their presentation relates to their listeners’ lives. When you ask this question in your presentation, and then answer it, you show that you have thought about your audiences’ lives and about what matters to them. And this forms a basis of connection between you and the audience. It establishes rapport, which researchers have proven to be a powerful influencer. When you demonstrate empathy, you develop rapport, and rapport opens the doors for your audience to be more accepting of your ideas and information in the rest of your presentation.
Before you ever write a single sentence, before you create your first slide, determine to make empathy a foundation of your presentation. Then build it into both your preparation and delivery so that you are better able to understand and reach your audience.
At Ethos3, we believe that empathy matters. Connect with us now so that you can better connect with your audience during your next big presentation.
