STAGE FRIGHT
OR EXCITEMENT?

What is felt as stage fright is often just a rush of excitement. What pumps you up before a race can do the same before a speech. Like running a race, however, you must prepare for the event.

• Plan a strong introduction that gets your audience's attention and shows your credibility.
• Make only three or four major points.
• Prepare some vivid examples.
• Write a strong conclusion and practice it out loud.
  
  

Don't focus on what your audience thinks about you or whether you are a good speaker. Forget your "performance." Think of a talk as a conversation. You are there to chat with a group of people. They want to hear you. After it is over, what they care about is whether they understood you.

Step up to speak, and enjoy yourself.

The Hostile Audience

The negative should never be a complete surprise in policing. This includes public meetings. Prepare carefully for meetings where community hostility may erupt.

Gordon Shea points out in Managing a Difficult or Hostile Audience, "A hostile audience is an interested audience. When people are upset with you or with your position on an issue, you may not like what you are hearing, but at least those people are involved. Signs of resentment or anger show that there is energy, and if you help redirect that energy to positive ends, a net gain may result from your meeting" (Prentice-Hall, 1984, p. 92).

Several responses can help you as you face hostile audiences:

• Build bridges at the start of the meeting.
• Come armed with the right information.
• Remain calm and treat audience members with respect.
• Allow people to vent; acknowledge their feelings.
• Demonstrate empathy and understanding.
• Don't over control the meeting.
• Respond to the whole audience, not just the hostile questioner.
• Rephrase a hostile question in neutral terms to focus audience attention on issues, not argumentative phrases.
  
• Admit when you are wrong.
• If necessary, invite a neutral party to host the meeting.
• Above all, when you face hostile comments, remember that the hostility is about a situation, directed at the meeting's host or at someone in a uniform. Don't take it personally.
  
  

  A Quick Technique for an Antagonistic Questioner Rephrase the hostile person's question, walking casually toward another section of the room as you answer, making eye contact with various people. At the end of your answer, make eye contact with someone else and call on that person.

Communication Tips: #2 - #3 - #4 - #5