Your Guide To Staying Cool As A Presenter.
Tips to manage unexpected moments.
If you worry about being flustered while presenting, you’re not alone.
In our presentation training, most people tell us their biggest fears when presenting are:
Fear of being judged e.g. being laughed at or being criticised.
Fear of being seen as incompetent e.g. what if I don’t know the answer to an unexpected question?
Fear of uncertainty e.g. what if I’ve prepared too much/little content?
Let’s look at a few tools for countering each.
Being confident is about feeling prepared when presenting.
If you worry about something you don’t create a plan for, you’ll always feel worried. To feel more confident, instead, make a plan for what you’ll do if something unexpected happens.
First, write down every scenario that makes you feel nervous about presenting.
For example:
If someone disagrees with you … how would you like to respond?
If you have a brain fart and forget what you’re saying … what could you do?
If your slides don’t work … what could your back up plan be?
It’s true plenty of unexpected things happen while presenting.
If you write them down, you can then start thinking about what your approach could be, if it happens.
Examples:
When I have a brain fart, I’ll ask the audience a question. This buys me time to remember what I was saying.
When a CEO talks for longer than expected, I’ll decide what slides to skip. The audience doesn’t know.
What might your version of this look like?
It’s natural to worry about what your audience thinks of you.
And people are judging you. But not for the reasons you expect. Research has discovered they judge to assess whether they understand two things:
Intent: Does this person want to help me? Does their agenda benefit me?
Competency: Does this content help me? Is this person knowledgeable?
Let’s look at ways you can answer these questions in your presentation.
Outline who your presentation benefits first.
Share your intent upfront. By doing so you’re taking the ‘do they like me’ out of your brain and replacing it with ‘this is what’s in it for this audience’.
Examples:
“Today’s meeting is to share an overview of the project. This is useful for managers, as you can educate your teams and client-facing teams, who can share an update.”
“This won’t be for everyone's teams, but having an overview will give you context if your team asks for more information.”
Focus on what’s in it for them, and your self-consciousness will start to reduce.
Reassure your audience with your expertise.
Your audience takes in more when they know they’re in safe hands. Why? They stop scanning for clues that you’re knowledgeable. Instead they relax and listen.
Sharing your background and/or lived experience is one way you can remind them of your expertise.
Examples:
“As a founder, I’ve discovered the hard way how to delegate.”
“As the project lead, I have an overview of the bigger picture and can answer any questions you might have.”
It’s not about ‘proving’ yourself. It’s about reassuring them you’re competent in what you’re sharing.
Tiny action: If you had to draft a 1-2 sentence statement outlining your lived experience and how it relates to a topic you can present on, what might that be?
The pressure to know every answer to every question you’re asked is real when presenting.
The truth is, you don’t need to know the answers. You just need to give their question a home.
Audiences just want their question answered. Who it comes from … could be anyone, as long as their question is taken seriously.
Instead of the perfect answer, focus on validating the question.
That could look like:
Crowdsourcing: e.g. “That’s a good question. Does anyone here in the audience have an experience that could shed light on that?”
Parking lot: e.g. “That is important. As we’re talking about this tool, I’ll document it to look at afterwards.”
Validating, if you disagree: e.g. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Thanks for sharing.”
Owning what you know is just as important as what you don’t.
When adrenaline takes over, it’s easy to find yourself talking about something and wondering how you got there …
Remind yourself what you are deeply knowledgeable about before a big presentation. It will help you clarify your expertise, if only to yourself.
Examples:
“I’m no scientist but I know how to make science interesting to others.”
“Finance isn’t my expertise, but I can help finance experts present with confidence.”
Feeling nervous about content you’re less familiar with.
It's horrible feeling like you’ll flub your presentation because you don't know your content.
Ideas on how to do that when time is not on your side:
Rehearse parts you know least the most, instead of going over what you know well.
Practice with friends and family. Rehearsing privately helps you figure out how to present well on the day.
If you skipped content you’re less confident with … would it make a difference?
Could colleagues speak to specific slides? Most people are happy to speak to 1-2 slides if someone else does the main bit.
Recap: staying cool as a presenter.
Manage natural presentation fears by:
Making a plan for unexpected variables.
Sharing why you know about your topic.
Reminding yourself what you’re knowledgeable about.
Sharing your intent and how the content benefits the audience.
Help your people put their best foot forward.
Presenting with confidence gives access to endless opportunities and greater influence.
In our presentation training, leaders and individual contributors alike learn to engage audiences, manage nerves, and present with confidence.
Presenting with Confidence Programme.
Any time you’re communicating, you’re presenting.