I know audiences don’t exactly jump for joy when attending presentations, but speakers are often puking in the bathroom minutes before they go on.
I am interested in cures, or coping strategies, for intense speaker anxieties. We need to put our heads together to figure out a smorgasbord of techniques to calm us down.
I’ll go first. These are the ones that I use.
1. Work on the content until I’m convinced that it will do the job and hold the interest of the listeners.
2. Rehearse aloud so that I can deliver the talk in my sleep.
3. Practice making big, whole-body gestures during rehearsal and just before I go on. This helps me break through the physical tension and “holding” that may constrict my expressiveness.
4. Memorize the beginning and the ending.
5. Remind myself that I am a pretty good showman when I make up my mind to be one.
6. Remind myself that the audience wants to be entertained, even if they’re at a funeral.
That’s the first half dozen. I welcome your home remedies, and any research that you know of. Let’s build a stockpile of cures that lead to courage, presence, and expressiveness.
Karen,
You are so right. Many of our clients are asked to deliver content developed by others. It’s a hard thing to do because the internal logic of the sequencing is hidden, and without the author to unearth it, we struggle to make sense of it. And even if it did make sense to us, it might not be the way we would do it.
Some of the senior partners in consulting firms fly in the night before a major presentation to the client and quickly digest the “deck” prepared over months by others. This is a rare skill, and derives, I would guess, from long experience and understanding the basic issues that particular businesses encounter.
I’m struck by your remark that you never tell your audiences what to think. While I like your approach becuase it seems humble and non-directive, I also question it. I tend to think that ideas are more valuable to an audience than data or information, and that much of our value as speakers derives from taking a stand and advancing an interpretation of the information we provide.
In a court of law, and in the court of public opinion, we are entitled to our own opinions. We’re just not entitled to our own facts.
Sims Wyeth
Let me begin by saying, I am confortable speaking in front of large groups.
I rarely get nervous and attribute that lack of nervousness to the fact that I always prepare my own material. I always do lots of research.
The only time I run into problems is when somebody else pulls together my stuff and then wants me to deliver it.
I can do it, don’t get me wrong, but I think it comes across boring.
When I pull together a presentation I always approach it as a story that needs to be told because it will ultimately help my audience. It is important to them so I must present it in a way that they really get the point I am trying to make. And as a result, understand the positive impact it will have on them, or their business.
I never tell them what they need to think. I present the facts and the potential ramifications of these facts in a logical, non-confrontational way. I am always clear that the decision is theirs and theirs alone I am only there to present my findings.
When I present in this way the audience feels my passion/conviction and this provides the credibility I need to be truely convincing.
I sure don’t have all the answers on this but this is the approach I have used and it works for me.
Karen
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