Listening is an essential key to communication. Without effective listening, one will not be able to understand another’s point of view, or fully understand a conversation. Throughout the course of a speech, not only does the speaker have their own set of responsibilities, but the listener does as well. With the cooperation of both parties, successful communication should take place.
A message is tailored to the audience. When the audience sits and listens to the speaker, they will think, and want to know, “What’s in it for me?” (WIFFM?) And, “how does this speech benefit me?” Finding a topic relatable and enjoyable for the audience should be a speaker’s responsibility. To be a responsible and respectful speaker in the eyes of the audience and in the eyes of others, you should never distort information. You should respect your audience, reject stereotyping and scapegoating, enrich listeners’ lives, and take every speech seriously.
Distorting information can make you less credible to others. “…your colleagues will distrust everything you propose – even if you have sound logic and impeccable evidence on your side” (Gregory, 2013, p. 11). If you lie once, there’s a slim chance of anyone ever believing you again, even if you may be telling the truth. Distorting information is foolish; you should make sure all of your information is 100% accurate before sharing it with others. A speaker should never talk down to or disrespect their audience. Talking to them in a “scolding, condescending tone” will frustrate them, and make them lose respect for you.
Stereotyping is rude, and most of the times, is inaccurate. “You should reject stereotypes because they force all people into the same simple pattern” (Gregory, 2013, p. 11). Along with stereotyping comes scapegoating. Scapegoating blames an individual, or a whole group of people for something that goes wrong. For example, a group of teenage boys all beat up one kid, but only blame one person in the group, and gets him in trouble; this is an example of scapegoating. The teenage boys are putting the blame on one person, meanwhile they all participated in the beat down.
No matter the size of the audience, every speech should be taken seriously. “You should try as hard to communicate with an audience of five as you would with an audience of 500” (Gregory, 2013, p. 12). Just because your audience is small, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to put your best foot forward to give them a great speech. A textbook that I purchased for a class called, Public Speaking for College & Career, says that, contrary to what some students may think, classroom speeches are as important as any speeches we may give in our career or communities. We should always want to please our audience, no matter how big or small because at the end of the day, they are still a group of people who want to learn from what you have to say.
Along with the speaker’s responsibilities are the listener’s responsibilities. A listener should show courtesy and respect, reject electronic intrusion, know that multitasking mars performance, and should try to provide encouragement. Showing a speaker courtesy and respect means giving them your full attention, and not doing anything that you wouldn’t like others to do to you if you were the one delivering a speech. Engaging yourself on your electronic device or anything that distracts you in general, sends a clear message of, “You are not important to me, and your comments don’t merit my attention” (Gregory, 2013, p. 45) to the speaker.
Multitasking is something that we’re used to doing every day but it may send a bad message to some people in certain situations. “…multitasking is a bad strategy...you may insult or alienate other people” (Gregory, 2013, p. 45-56). If you’re in a meeting or in class and the leader sees you using a phone or talking to someone as they’re speaking, they will feel disrespected because you’re acting as if what they have to say is unimportant and unbeneficial to you. Encouragement, I would say, is one of the most important responsibilities of the listener. It’s hard to go up in front of a crowd of people and give a speech especially if you’re uncomfortable doing so. Providing encouragement will not only ease the speaker’s nervousness, but may even give them the confidence they didn’t have.
These "rules and regulations" also apply to everyday life. It's rude to not pay attention or do something else as someone is or trying to talk to you. Let's all be respectful and give others our full attention when they want to communicate. Have a great week everyone! XO
Sources
Gregory, H. (2013). Introduction to Public Speaking. In Public Speaking for College & Career (10th ed., p. 11-12). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Gregory, H. (2013). Listening. In Public Speaking for College & Career (10th ed., p. 45-46). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
