Do you have a presentation on the horizon? Do you feel prepared? Are you anxious?
It’s normal to be slightly anxious and nervous prior to a presentation. It happens to everyone although it comes out in different ways. Some boast of how terrific they are, others ask other presenters if they are nervous, some go buzzing about, others sit quietly, and everyone has their heart racing and rate of breathing increase. Anxiety around speaking is a normal human reaction and everyone – I mean everyone – experiences it, some have just mastered how not to show it.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was by a play director when I was performing on stage in my university days. He said to me “everyone gets nervous and anxious before a public performance; your job is to accept that as a normal human reaction and use that nervous energy to improve your performance.”
Here are some tips on preparing for presentations and dealing with the anxiety that comes along with it:
- Watch the pros. Before a presentation, I often go straight to YouTube and watch several public personalities deliver presentations over the lifecycle of their days in the public spotlight. You can learn a lot from their evolution – from speed, intonation patterns, emphasis points to speaking aids.
- Practice to build your confidence. But not so much that you are emotionally divorced from your words while actually delivering the presentation to your audience. We’ve all seen that happen. The person is there in body, but their personality has left the room. Breathe, take a pause, and remember that your goal is to inspire, educate and motivate. Smile, make eye contact, release your hold on the presentation and remember why you are there.
- Connect with your audience. Interact with them by involving them in your presentation. Constantly take the pulse of the room so you can react to the audience by adjusting your presentation and your approach.
- Know when to stop talking. Have you ever been in the audience when a presenter fell in love with the beauty of their own words right before your eyes and forgot you where there? Or perhaps it was a meeting. Painful, wasn’t it? Don’t be that person. Watch body language clues for audience reaction and respond appropriately.
Seek feedback either through videotaping your speeches or by surveying your audience afterwards. Incorporate what you learn into your next presentation and remember that the more presentations you give, the better you will be.
