The comedian/musician Victor Borge said “Humour is the shortest distance between two people”.  However, he gave us only half the story, because humour can create the longest distance between people if you get it wrong.

Humour can benefit business communication:

• People are more creative when they are having fun and are more likely to listen and remember what they hear.
• Using humour successfully can help show you are in command of a situation.
• Humour can reduce tension eg. When there is conflict in a business meeting.
• It can help build relationships.

Humour can be a good way for presenters to bring a potentially dull topic to life.  It can also help build rapport with the audience.  However, presenters need to be careful when using humour.  They need to take particular care with jokes, because jokes can easily distract the audience.

Jokes can offend if they are in poor taste or inappropriate to the occasion.  Jokes can fail simply because they are not funny, or if they are poorly told.  They can also distract if they are so funny the audience is making a note of the joke to tell their friends.

In our presentation skills training we advise our clients to weave a light touch through their presentation if they feel comfortable doing so.  But they need to be careful with jokes, as jokes can distract, and therefore disengage an audience.

When we ask our clients this question during presentation skills training, the majority answer “No”.  Most people admit that listening is something they have to work hard at.

This is not surprising, given that 80% of what we take in is through our eyes and only the remaining 20% through our ears.  So hearing is a relatively weak sense to begin with.

Add to this the number of distractions in our lives (issues at home and at work, deadlines, a multitude of visual stimuli etc etc) it is little wonder most of us have difficulty listening well.

 A speaker can tell when an audience is listening because they:

• adopt appropriate body language
• ask relevant questions
• do not interrupt
• only listen (they commit 100% to listening:  no multi-tasking).

Given most of us have difficulty listening well, speakers need to put in a special effort to gain and hold audience attention.  They need to use all the presentation skills they can muster, including using lots of “colour” to convey their message; delivering from detailed notes to stay on track and maintain a conversational style; delivering with energy to keep the audience engaged; and using visual aids only when the audience needs them.

Despite the difficulty of listening well, and the challenge in engaging an audience, listening skills are an often underrated aspect of business communication and presentation skills training.