How can you use emotional intelligence to create a more welcoming presentation environment?

Before every speech or presentation I not only research the audience, but I visualize them. Once I know who they are, what they care about, why they are there. I close my eyes and I put myself in their shoes and think about what is going through their mind and what would serve them the best. What would make them interested in listening. This helps me focus my content. Then I visualize myself speaking to the audience. This helps more with prep before I go on stage, but can help me get focused and feel the energy I want to convey as I'm putting together the presentation.

Emotional Intelligence is an important part of our lives. It is used in every faucet of our lives both professionally and personally. Emotional Intelligence is the ability of an individual to be self aware of their emotions and the emotions of those around us. When designing a presentation first step before doing so is to understand our audience and build a strong rapport with them. When Designing the presentation we need to have appropriate activities to help us deliver our message and very empathetic with our audience.

Using empathic story telling is important. I remember one time I was talking about the psychology of being a volunteer in a seminar, I had actually told individuals there my first positive experience as a volunteer and the audience just loved it. Speak to people's feelings/their hearts, not just their thoughts/cognitions.

I like to think about presenting as more like jazz than rock and roll. You need to have created space within the structure and the flow to adjust and react to the mood and interest of each particular audience. Without time and space built in, you can't react and and interact.

I was a high school teacher for 10 years and also played in a band most of my life. I always connected with 2 people in the room... one that was highly engaged and another that didn't appear to be interested at all. I constantly try to use this dichotomy of interest and attention to see what lit them up or what had them reaching for their phones. As the drummer in the band, I was able to keep my eyes on the crowd but also felt removed a bit being the back, so no one realized I was watching (plus everyone watches the singer anyways??) which allowed me to take note of which songs people went to the bathroom - lol. With teaching, high school kids would yawn when they were bored, so that was a bit easier to spot!

By nature, I am introverted, however I am deeply attuned to my audience and their needs. It is easy for me to shift the focus off me (as the presenter) and zone in on my audience, listening to their needs, asking thoughtful and strategic questions to uncover their needs, and then leveraging the experience in the room and by background to ensure the audience leaves with something of value to them. If that is not an easy shift for you, during your planning and preparation, build in targeted opportunities to engage your audience, observe their response (body language, word choice in responses), and remain in a curious state to dig deeper to create the emotion or experience you want them to have.

Self-regulation is key to making your presentations more engaging and creating a welcoming environment. Your audience wants you to be successful because they want to have a good experience. If you are visibly nervous, frustrated, or angry; it is likely that they will exhibit the same emotions because that is the environment the presenter is fostering. A welcoming environment reflects and fosters the emotional response you want for your audience. If you want calm, high energy, collaboration, or humor; it is essential to showcase those emotions effectively and draw them out of your audience. This is accomplished through verbal and non-verbal delivery as well as your images, videos, stories, and how you interact with the audience.