How to Deal with Hostility as a Speaker

Image by Giacomo Zanni from Pixabay

One of the interesting by-products of our world becoming more virtual over the past decade is that behavior which would never have been appropriate face-to-face is now leaking back into that world from the virtual one. For speakers this development has a particularly interesting aspect: audiences now feel more entitled to turn negative and to articulate their anger.

In the past, norms of polite behavior prevented all but the most uncultured from speaking bluntly from the audience to the stage. But if you begin with authenticity and add in the fury of the virtual world, you get some surprisingly outspoken audience members. Speakers need to be prepared to handle these trollers.

So, what do you do if your audience is hostile?

How do you handle the emotions, the disagreements, the fear involved in standing before a sea of upturned, angry faces — or at least a handful of cranks?

The good news is that you’ve got a real, if perilous, opportunity. As I always say, the only reason to give a speech is to change the world. Well, you’ve got the chance to change that audience from furious to happy, and only you can do it.

The bad news is that you have to deal with the obvious.