Meeting Management

Platform Conduct

When you first step before a group, you are an unknown quantity for 120 seconds. (Peoples, 1992.) The old saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is true. In two minutes, people make assessments about you that will determine whether they will listen and ultimately follow your lead. Surprising as it may seem, people pay more assessment attention to the visual and vocal cues they see and hear than your actual words. Dr. Albert Mehrabian studied face-to-face communication looking for the channels of communication delivery people heed in assessing speakers. His findings are shown in this chart.

Charismatic ...