276 13.4 Delivering Your Speech
Your appearance sets the tone for your talk. For example, most CEOs who
speak to their stockholders at the annual stockholders meeting typically wear
a suit and tie—but not the late Steve Jobs, head of Apple. To communicate his
casual and contemporary approach to business, he often wore jeans and sweater.
The current CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, also adopts a casual look to communicate
a comfortable leadership style as does Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.
There is considerable evidence that your personal appearance affects how
your audience will respond to you and your message, particularly during the
opening moments of your presentation. If you violate their expectations about ap-
pearance, you will be less successful in achieving your purpose. One study found,
for example, that men who have a nose ring are less likely to be hired during a job
interview.^35 Yet even this research conclusion is based on a specific situation and
time; years from now, a nose ring may have no impact, either positive or negative,
on a person’s credibility. Our point: It’s the audience and the cultural expectations
of audience members that determine whether a speaker’s personal appearance is
appropriate or not, not some fashion guru or magazine editor.Audience Diversity and Delivery
13.4 use strategies for adapting your delivery when speaking to diverse
audiences.
Most of the suggestions that we have offered in this chapter assume that your lis-
teners will be expecting a typical North American approach to delivery. However,
many of these assumptions are based on research responses from U.S. college stu-
dents, who are predominantly white and in their late teens or early twenties, so our
suggestions are not applicable to every audience. As we have stressed throughout
the book, you need to adapt your presentation to the expectations of your listen-
ers, especially those with different cultural backgrounds from your own. Consider
the following suggestions to help you develop strategies for adapting both your
verbal and your nonverbal messages for a culturally diverse audience.
• Avoid an ethnocentric mind-set. As you learned in Chapter 6, ethnocentrism
is the assumption that your own cultural approaches are superior to those
of other cultures. When considering how to adapt your delivery style to
your audience, try to view other approaches and preferences not as right or
wrong but merely as different from your own.
• Consider using a less dramatic style for predominantly high-context listeners. A
high-context culture places considerable emphasis on unspoken messages.
Therefore, for a high-context audience, you need not be overly expressive.
For example, for many people from Asian countries, a delivery style that
included passionate gestures, overly dramatic facial expressions, and fre-
quent movements might seem overdone. A more subtle, less demonstrative
approach would create less “noise” and be more effective.13.4