Consider the standard, garden-variety, dull-as-ditchwater business presentation. A business person shambles to the front of the room. People look up briefly from their Blackberries, and seeing nothing of extraordinary interest, return to their email and to-do lists. After fumbling apologetically for a while with the technology, head down, fingers flying, the presenter finally achieves Power Point, and starts by saying, “What I’m going to talk to you today about is…..”

The speaker still hasn’t gotten the attention of the audience. Why should they pay attention? Five minutes has gone by and all that’s happened is prologue, all of which the audience could derive from the first slide or even the circulated agenda.

The speaker has calamitously wasted a lot of energy and audience goodwill on technology, and the audience has divided its attention between the first Power Point slide (briefly) and their own affairs.

This is not effective communication. Everyone’s time is being wasted. Why do it?

Instead, imagine the speaker striding briskly to the front of the room, launching into a story about the perils facing the industry, a story which has the audience nodding in agreement and eager to hear more. The speaker asks a couple of key questions of the audience to involve them and ensure that the presentation remains relevant and focused on the audience’s needs.

The difference between these two scenarios is focus. The speaker should always be focused on the audience, while creating the speech, rehearsing it, and delivering it. If the speaker has done her job well, the audience will focus where it should: on the content.

Rehearsal is key in this regard, because no speaker can focus effectively on the audience if she is still learning the content.

To be sure, every speech has an element of entertainment, as well as usefulness. The speaker does need to focus on her needs during rehearsal so that delivery issues will not get in the way of a successful performance. But when it comes time to speak, the focus of the speaker should be squarely on the audience, and the audience on the content.

That’s effective communication.