It is hard enough to make a presentation when all your clients (internal or external) are engaged, but what do you do when one of them starts being distracted by their phone? It might be a text message, an email or just the habit of needing to check it every few minutes. Here are a few tips on what to do…
An effective way of getting them to refocus on you is to move around the table and stand behind them whilst continuing to deliver your presentation. Watch how they will see that you have stopped behind them and look a little anxious. Everyone else in the room will be looking at you, but they will also be looking at him by default as he is in their line of sight. Now we don’t want to make him too anxious so this will probably be enough.
Another way of getting them to focus is to stop talking. They usually stop fiddling, look up and quickly put their phone down.
It may be that he was not engaged by your presentation so you may need to change direction. Try engaging the audience with a question which is open enough for them to be able to answer.
You can also ask a group question, something like, now a question for those of you sat on this side of the table, or for those in a field operational role, or whatever group applies to him. In this way he will be re-engaged without being picked on.