Model Listener

Whenever my students present group speeches, I remind them to exhibit good listening behavior while they are at the front of the room but someone else in their group is talking.  Rarely do I see it.  I normally see the fellow panelists doing any of the following:  Going through their own note cards.    Whispering to a fellow panelist.  Rolling their eyes or smiling at a friend in the audience.  Staring off into space.  Slouching inattentively.

But when Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and ROC United’s Saru Jayarman took the stage at a recent event in Detroit on the Wayne State University campus, I was struck by Fonda’s excellent listening posture and demeanor.  She must have heard her fellow presenters give their spiels before, but you would never know it by looking at her.  Like the two-time Academy Award Winning Actress that she is, she never wavered in playing the role of giving her full attention to the speaker at the podium.

Take a lesson from Jane Fonda:  listen attentively to your fellow presenters, especially when you’re sharing the stage with them.  Today's distracted audiences need to see good listening behavior in action.  Let's hope they take a cue from Fonda.