Presentation Paranoia
"The human brain starts working the moment you are born and
never stops until you stand up to speak in public." (Sir George
Jessel)
Have you had this feeling before? Rest assured you are not
alone. You might be one of the many who would rate your fear of
public speaking alongside or ahead of death! Your fear may
translate itself to "FEAR" - Forget
Everything And Run!!
Having the ability to present yourself and your message to an
audience, whether internal or external, is a necessary skill for
a good manager and leader. By following some simple steps you
can improve your skills in this area, reduce your fear and build
your confidence. As you have more success in making
presentations you may well find yourself actually looking
forward to doing more of them. Clients, colleagues and other
staff will be more responsive and supportive. You will realise
the principles apply to groups of 2 - 200 and above, and whether
sitting across a desk or in a conference hall.
Why do you want to improve your skills in this area? It might be
to reduce the feelings of the nerves - or even panic. Maybe to
reduce the risk of making yourself look a fool in front of the
audience? Or you may want to be able to present yourself and
your message with more confidence and conviction to win people
over. Perhaps you want to be able to look forward to making
presentations? Whatever your reasons, the principles we will
cover here will help you.
The biggest challenge for most people when asked to make a
presentation is the way their imaginations start to operate. All
sorts of thoughts begin to swirl around - and how many are to do
with things going wrong, fluffing the words, audience reactions
etc. etc. and compared with it going successfully and being
enjoyable? One way to change this initial response is to follow
the basic ideas covered below. Also, accept that it is not a bad
thing to have some nerves. They trigger a chemical reaction
which, harnessed properly, will help to make your presentation a
success.
The secret is to remember that when you see good presenters, you
are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. A great deal has gone on
beneath the surface to enable them to be the person you see. For
those who have a real fear of presenting, they make the problem
worse. They go into denial of the presentation, use this to keep
putting off doing the things beneath the surface with all sorts
of excuses and reasons - so that when they come to the actual
presentation it does not go well. Then they can say, "Told you
so! See, I'm no good at presentations!" The art of
self-fulfilling prophecy continues. To prevent the paranoia -
make time to do the fundamentals! Plan and prepare. Also, have a
realistic level of expectation. Too many people, when having to
make a presentation, spend too much time focusing on themselves.
There is a balance to be met - and the secret for a good
presentation is to keep the focus on the audience, and your
subject and objective. Get the first two right and the third
will take care of itself!
To get your planning underway, ask yourself some simple
questions:
WHAT: Consider the purpose of the presentation, to
inform, influence, inspire, generate action? Be more specific,
what are my objectives from this? What are the key things you
want the audience to take away with them - or to do?
WHO: Put your focus on the people you will be presenting
to. How many will they be? What are their objectives? What is
their level of knowledge? Will they be a "willing" audience or
were they sent? When you have the answers to these points, you
have some idea of what level to pitch your presentation.
WHERE: Is the presentation going to be made in a meeting
room, someone's office, a large venue? What will be the layout?
How flexible is it? (You can always ask to have it set-up to
suit you, though a boardroom table is hard to adjust!) What
equipment is available? What do you need to take?
WHEN: What time of day are you presenting? Are there
other presenters before and after you? What impact will these
two answers have on your approach to the presentation?
HOW: How long have you got? Remember, longer is not
necessarily better! Also, although this may seem odd if you are
nervous about presentations, it is harder to plan and prepare a
brief, effective presentation than to organise a longer one.
(Churchill, amongst others, is quoted as saying something along
the lines of, "It takes me 10 minutes to prepare for a 2 hour
speech - and 2 hours to prepare for a 10 minute one.")
Put the answers to these together and you are in a position to
begin the preparation of the presentation itself. Some things to
consider are:
Pull together the broad content - what is it you want to
say? Think about the headlines for each part. (You can find your
own way to do this, though creativity helps with approaches such
as mindmapping or just Post-it notes! These are better than just
pages of notes.)
Gather information - get facts, opinions, research and anything
else which might help.
Check back with your objectives - and the audience's. Make sure
there is a match.
Organise all of this into a sensible sequence. Have a
beginning, middle and end, preferably building up the emphasis
of your message.
Develop a story - make sure that there is a flow to the overall
presentation. Look to build in hooks for key points or messages.
People often recall stories and anecdotes more than dry facts.
Check the plan against the time you will have. (You will speak
at around 100-120 words a minute when your nerves are under
control. A 15 minute presentation is around 1,700 words or so,
which is only 4-5 pages of A4.) Also remember, you are speaking
so choose your language with this in mind, especially when
making notes.
What do you need to support your story or message? Visual aids,
props, notes, other material which might be suitable. Remember,
these things are there to support you not to take over. If using
Powerpoint, avoid "death by..." and use slides sparingly - and
keep them clear and easy to read!
When you are comfortable that you have the overall
structure, content and support material organised you will feel
more comfortable. Check it flows sensibly, covers the main
points, meets the objectives and you may even start to look
forward to the presentation. PLEASE now work at one vital part -
your opening!
The old saying, "You never get a second chance to make a good
first impression" is so true. The audience are judging you on
many levels as you start and this will influence how they will
respond. Add to the fact that you are fighting your own nerves
and probably think you have enough to worry about!! By
concentrating on getting the opening right, you can achieve
several aims in one.
It is important to create your own opening, it can become your
"anchor" to help you manage yourself. Practice introducing
yourself, stating your reason for being there, what you want to
achieve and how you want the audience to be. (eg, when can they
ask questions.) If you can deliver this part almost without
thinking, you can keep your attention on the audience and their
responses. If you are worried about what to say, you will be so
internally focused you will not be able to pay attention to
them. Whether you use humour, stories or challenging facts to
start - or anything else - is a matter of choice. However, be
careful with humour. You never know who may be offended - or how
you and others will react if the joke or story falls flat.
Another important thing is to handle your nerves. First of all,
realise that it is OK to have them! The trick is to learn to use
them to your advantage and to not let them take you over. There
are some simple things you can do and by practising them you
will find that they have applications in all sorts of areas of
life.
Visualisation (or "imaginisation") - put yourself in the
presentation and see it going well, you in control of the room
and the audience. Experience yourself handling questions, making
your points, generally enjoying it. Feel how good it will be at
the end of the presentation when you realise that you have
achieved your objectives. See the positive.
Breathing - this is one of the most effective ways of handling
the adrenaline buzz that comes with heightened nervousness. Take
a deep, slow breath - feel your diaphragm moving out as you do
this. Hold the breath for several seconds - then let it go,
slowly. (Press your hand just under your ribs and feel the lower
lungs empty and help them on the way.) Hold the breath again
before repeating the in-breath. (Some use a count of 7-4-7-4 for
this.) Do this for 3 full cycles and you will notice your heart
rate slowing and begin to feel the oxygen levels rise in your
blood. Careful of more than this, you may start to
hyperventilate!
When you move to start your presentation, take a deep breath as
above, step to where you will deliver from, look around the
audience as you breathe out and establish eye contact. Now you
are ready to begin.
The other element to prepare is your ending. Many nervous
presenters are fine with the middle, content part of their
sessions. They let themselves down with the front and back - and
often lose the potential impact because of this. Work out how
you want to summarise and then close things off. If all else
fails, use the basic rule, tell 'em what you're going to tell
'em, tell 'em and tell 'em what you told 'em.
"Begin at the beginning and go on until you come to the end,
then stop." Lewis Carroll
This is just a start to cover some of the basics. When you are
comfortable with these, there are many more areas you can work
on. There are ways you can help yourself if you need to develop
your presentation and speaking skills apart from training
organisations such as ours. The Professional Speakers'
Association, www.professionalspeakers.org has local "chapters
around the UK. You can also find a local branch of Toastmasters
International, who will offer encouragement and training -
although in a different style.