Page 196 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

TAKING A CUE FROM STAGE MONITORS 187

The only way you can pull this off and come across as an out-
standing speaker is to master the up-down-up technique for pre-
pared text we discussed in Chapter 25 and in the previous chapter
on teleprompters. Your objective is to have 100 percent eye contact
with your audience, while roaming the stage at will. To do that, you
must not speak while checking your cue on the stage monitor. Speak
only when you are back in eye contact with your audience.
Those pauses may feel awkward to a beginner or anyone new to
the game, but experienced speakers appreciate them—and so do
audiences.
-

You may look like you are glancing down for a moment
to think about what you want to say next—this is exactly the
impression you want to create.
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You may elect to have several monitors tucked away along the
stage perimeter—one on the left, one in the middle front, and one
on the right. Or you may just want to have two in the front, one on
the left and one on the right. As you move around the stage (careful
not to move too quickly or to turn your back on the audience), you
now have wide access to your monitors and absolute freedom not
available to any speakers, save those remarkable few who need no
cues, props, or visual aids of any kind.
Before you actually use stage monitors, you should hone your
prepared text up-down-up skills and get comfortable with the new-
ness of working with cues below eye level.