Mentoring Me Series

Banishing Bears and Lions: Take charge of presentation anxiety today! (12 Min Read)

If the thought of delivering a presentation starts your heart racing – take 'heart', pun intended, you are completely normal. The ability to give a solid presentation in your work environment can have high stakes. Future career growth and opportunities often require strong presentation and communication skills. Communicating well and with confidence will also establish you as a thought leader among your peers. It is perfectly understandable that you would feel a little, or maybe a lot of, anxiety.

Experts estimate that over 75% of all people claim a fear of public speaking, glossophobia, surpassing the fear of death – meaning someone would rather die than be required to give a speech or presentation. While I’ve heard the words, “I want to die,” or, "I could just die," from coworkers and people I’ve mentored, I have yet to refer a single person to a suicide hotline. In fact, experts now claim that this fear has been overstated and glossophobia occurs in about 25% of the population. Regardless of the actual incidence, public speaking causes most of us to experience some level of anxiety so you are in good company.

Why is it so hard?

All you want to do is share some information with some people. If you were talking to your co-worker at lunch, no problem. But try to present the same information with a PowerPoint slide deck standing in front of a room full of people – your body betrays you and you feel like you can’t put two sentences together, much less speak for 15 minutes.

Here’s the thing. Your mind-body connection is perfectly designed – sometimes too perfectly. Your mind is influenced by your 

body works to oxygenate every cell needed for your race to survive, doesn’t make it easier for you to deliver your presentation. Knowing that your body will shift fluid from your mouth to your sweat glands because it decided that if you will be running, you don’t need to talk and swallow – also not helpful. Bottom-line, your mind has linked this moment to a thing you must fight or run from.

You could be grateful for your body’s ability to quickly mount such an efficient response to threats. Without this flight or fight response, bears and lions would have made a nice meal of your ancestors – and you wouldn’t be here today. Before you tell me that sounds great, because then you wouldn’t have to give a presentation, don’t lose heart. You don’t have to be bear food either. There are specific steps you can take to change your thought patterns, which reduces your fear or anxiety and increases your opportunity to communicate with clarity at your next presentation.

What should you do?

Do you want to know the honest truth? The anxiety never totally goes away. Professional speakers readily admit to having anxiety or ‘butterflies’ right before they take the stage. This means trying to achieve zero anxiety before a presentation is unrealistic. The difference between professionals and the new presenter is that professionals have learned to channel their anxiety into their own unique, animated, and passionate presentation styles.

We will tap into the mindset of the professional presenter and teach our bodies to make that adrenaline work for us. When you are focused on sharing your enthusiasm about your message and engaging your audience, you are putting your brilliantly connected brain to the right tasks. Consider the following steps and “quick hit” tips that you can implement today to improve your communication savvy. Redirect your presentation anxiety into planning, practicing, and preparing to deliver a better presentation than you ever thought possible. This is your opportunity to shine. It’s time to banish the bears and lions!

First, PLAN!

Plan your presentation materials. A well-crafted presentation that is on point for your message will go a long way to boost your confidence. When you know your materials look great and professional, your confidence receives a huge boost. The confidence in the quality of your presentation materials will translate to confidence in your message to your audience.

You should plan to create both a slide deck AND a handout that is not a regurgitated print out of your deck. You know the one I’m talking about, the four slides per page version? Don’t do it. You want your listeners to be connecting with you. You do not want them reading along, or worse, reading ahead, on a paper copy of your deck. Most of the time those print outs of your presentation go directly into the trash or the shredder. It’s too much for a person to be expected to hunt through it in the days to come to find a piece of pertinent information. Trust me, even if that is what everyone else in your company is doing, you will really “wow” your audience when you provide them with a finely tuned handout. Your handout should concisely state your main take-away points.

Plan for your audience. Who will you be speaking to and what do they need to know? Write this down at the top of your planning document. Everything you create should anticipate and cover the topic of your speech from your audience’s point of view, not yours. Pro-tip: Making the needs of your audience your primary focus is tasking your brain with a new and better job. By reducing the amount of “you” in the presentation, you reduce your anxiety. Your mind is engaged in the purpose of your message and why your audience should care. When you make your message and your communication goal all about your audience, they are transformed. No longer a group of people to be feared, they are a group of people to be fed – by you!

Plan for your desired outcome. This is not just part of a well-crafted presentation, it's the best part. What is the primary goal or action your presentation must accomplish? This is the thing you want to nail above everything else. Your audience will forgive and overlook many minor delivery issues when your message is clearly stated, your presentation is focused, and your audience knows what you have asked them to do or support.

Plan the flow of your presentation. Considering your audience’s point of view and what is important to them, how will you introduce your topic? How will you transition from your introduction to the next section, the issue at hand? What key details do you need to provide your audience to lead them to your main objective? How will you transition from those supporting details to your conclusions, and ultimately nail that main thing in the presentation, the ask? Don’t just slap slides together. Pay attention to how the talk will flow. Will it lead your audience appropriately through the topic and issue at hand? If not, what is missing? What should be taken out because it doesn’t support the main issue or objective? Mercilessly cut the rabbit trails, no matter how interesting they might be.

General format of slide creation rules:

• Use a large enough font that it can be read comfortably from the back of the presentation room.

• Select images that reinforce your point and make your talk more memorable.

• Use as few words as possible on your slides; you want the audience to listen to your talk, not read.

• Keep your slides visually uncluttered.

Don’t let your nerves convince you to put the written text of your dialog into a bullet point format. You may have heard a "three bullets per slide" rule. I’ve seen presentations with multiple sentences of text in each of those three bullets. If you do this, you will just be tempted to read these off the screen in your presentation. You’ve probably seen it before. You might have even done this yourself. What does your audience want? Do they want a “read-along?” Would you? No. You want to experience the story and why it matters. You want the presenter to show you why you should invest time, energy, or resources into the next step.

Plan for things that may go wrong. Half the battle when you encounter trouble is knowing that you have a plan when things do not go perfectly well. Take time to list things that could fail and come up with a plan for each thing. If any of these mishaps actually happen, look at them as opportunities to show off your preparation and your skills to adapt and work under pressure. You will come to realize that planning for things that might go wrong, even if those things never happen, actually helps your brain improvise should something truly unexpected happen. Bonus!

Then, practice!

Practice a LOT! You may have heard the old adage, practice makes perfect. My piano teacher used to say, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” But perfect practice is also not realistic. Try this version: Practice makes familiar, and familiar makes confident! Also, it should go without saying that you won’t improve your presentation skills unless you actually practice your presentation. Well, you can, but improvement would be marginal – imagine a musician practicing their piece AT their next performance. It might take a long time (and many subpar performances) before they play the piece flawlessly. Pro tip: Yes, the professionals practice their presentations too!

A large part of your presentation performance and the quality of your voice will be fed by the muscle memory of your practice. That means the more times you’ve delivered your message, the more natural and less nervous you will sound. You may feel you need to write out what you are going to say word for word. That’s okay – if you have time, do it! You won’t read it aloud for your presentation. However, the fact that you read it aloud fifty times in practice will help your brain recall the tone and the particular phrases and emphasis you want to share with your audience.

For the actual presentation, you want to be able to use an outline of your presentation or note cards written in a large font. Treat the “notes” section in your slide deck as your note cards if you will be able to use your device during your presentation. Tim Pollard, the author of The Compelling Communicator, recommends only memorizing your transitions so that your flow and planned emphasis will be strong! If you must have word for word notes, have those transitions written to smoothly flow from slide to slide. This ensures you don’t leave out a connecting thought for your audience.

Practice with the exact same outline or note cards you will use on the day of the presentation so that when you glance at the notes/outline they are familiar and not disorienting. Again, I do not recommend memorizing a presentation word for word. First, because it is a lot of work that frankly doesn't add much strength to your presentation. Usually the audience can tell a presentation is memorized, especially if you get stuck or lose your place. I’ve seen a presenter backup a few paragraphs and repeat word for word what he’d already delivered. If you have a word for word script, you won’t have time to read it and find your place. It will add even more stress to the moment. There is one exception. If you are giving a tribute, something you wrote in honor of, or sharing a piece written for someone, it is perfectly acceptable to read it aloud. This is a type of public speaking, not a presentation.

Practice out loud! It's okay if you feel strange, but you need to do it out loud. In case you missed that, you MUST practice out loud. Find a place where you can be alone and you don’t have to worry about someone overhearing you. In addition to helping your voice feel normal in presentation ‘mode’ to your ears, the out loud practice will help your body support your speaking voice. If you only practice in your mind, you do not have to work on breath support and control, which is so important to make your voice sound normal and right. Vary your inflection so you aren’t speaking in monotone. Practice increasing your volume without increasing your intensity. Then practice decreasing your volume while increasing your intensity. Try different things. Punctuate. every. word. Speak very, very slowly. Notice what your ‘natural’ voice sounds like to your ears and how much you can change it while still sounding like you.

Practice in front of a mirror, or camera. Imagine you are recording a podcast or a video for your friends. Don’t watch or listen to the play back right away. Take a break so you have more perspective and feel ready to tackle what you want to improve. How was the cadence of your speech? How about the rate? Did you use gestures? Did you keep your head down on your notes or did you look at the camera/audience? What could you improve?

Practice – in front of your victims (aka friends/family) with your presentation materials. Practice in front of anybody you can get. If you don’t have friends and family nearby – set up a practice session over a conference call. Let your ‘attendees’ know that you need to practice sharing your presentation and they don’t necessarily need to understand the topic. Welcome their feedback if you receive it, but this is about being able to rehearse in front of people. By just listening to your presentation, they have helped you immensely.

Finally, prepare.

Prepare to be rested. Get a sufficient amount of sleep the night before – Actually, you should get a good night’s sleep EVERY night. This is especially important the several nights before your presentation delivery day. If nerves are preventing you from sleeping, review your plan (the one for things you worried might go wrong) and ask yourself if there is anything you need to add. This is unlikely. The point is to reassure yourself that you thought of everything you could and to let go so you can get some sleep. If you can’t sleep, relax and practice visualization exercises described below until you can fall asleep.

Prepare to be nourished and energized. Keep meals light and safe on the day of your presentation. This is not a good day to try that new all-you-can-eat place around the corner, or the hot and spicy ghost pepper thing. You also need to stay hydrated. Did you know that slight dehydration affects your mental acuity? A study by Georgia Institute of Technology found that cognitive ability to focus and give attention decreases significantly when dehydration is down by only 2%. If you are dehydrated, it can take up to 36 hours of oral hydration to rehydrate your brain. So stay hydrated at least 3 days before you present! Not just for your physical health, but for your mental and cognitive function as well.

A word about caffeine; if you are speaking in the morning and coffee makes you jittery, consider a swap for decaf or half decaf that day.

Prepare space in your calendar before the presentation. Block off some time before your presentation. You will use it to center yourself and calm your mind. Guard this time. Your pre-presentation space is not available to take another conference call, or try to solve one more issue. While you might think keeping busy would be a welcome distraction to keep your mind off of your nerves, in reality, you’ll experience anxiety that skyrockets as you run out of time to collect yourself before your presentation.

Prepare your mind. You’ve taken care of your body’s needs. It has been fed, watered, and rested as best as you could. Now you want to give your mind your full attention. Remember earlier we talked about the physiology of what happens when your mind doses you with adrenaline? One very effective way to channel your energy and coach your mind toward non-threatening thoughts is through the use of visualization. You will want to try this in the days or weeks before your presentation – and do it until you don’t need to anymore.

Close your eyes – imagine it is ‘Presentation Day.’ Visualize every step of your presentation and walk yourself through the experience. In your mind, visualize entering the room. Feel yourself prepared, confident, and excited to share your message. Pay attention to the cues your mind is sending to your body. Pause to calm yourself whenever you need to and redirect your thoughts. Now imagine you take your seat. You feel confident and energetic. You are waiting to be called up front. Practice taking slow even breaths and controlling your heart rate. Now visualize yourself walking up to the front of the room. Take a deep and calming breath. Imagine looking at your audience and noting their attention on you and what you are about to say. Visualize as many details as you can. Your mind will react to your imaginary sequence as if it were real. Use the visualization to coach yourself and calm your nervous energy. Now imagine you are opening your mouth to deliver your well-planned and rehearsed presentation. Your throat is relaxed, your voice is smooth and calm, and you are projecting to the back of the room. Every eye is on you and you know that your message is important to them. You have crafted every part of it for the people in this room. The moment now is not about you – it’s about sharing the message to the people in this room and helping them hear what they need to know.

At each step of your visualization exercise, pay attention to the signals your body is giving you. Engage your mind to focus on sending specific non-threatening messages to those parts of your body to calm and relax it. You may want to practice deep breathing. Note any muscle tightening or tenseness and focus on relaxing those muscles, slowing your heart-rate. Thank your brain for its help to get you ready and energized. Remind yourself that your focus is on sharing your knowledge or message with this particular group of people.

Prepare your zone and get in it! Arrive early, with your drink/water to sip if needed, and copies of your handouts (this can also be a lifesaver if there is a technical issue). Give yourself plenty of time to manage the technical piece – if you will be using your computer for the presentation or if you’ve provided your slide deck to the person running the meeting. Make sure everything is working ok.

Zone IN before you’re ON. You need to do whatever puts you in your zone so you can stay ready. Put on your headset and listen to your music. You’ll see athletes and artists do this before a big game or performance. They put on their headsets and keep themselves mentally in their ‘space’. You can step outside to do a few vocal warm-ups or stretches specific for reducing tension in the throat. Most importantly, remember to take deep calming breaths to calm your mind.

It’s time to PRESENT!

I would say ‘good luck’ to you at this point, but you don’t need much ‘luck’ because you planned your talk and materials well. You practiced so much that your dog could give your presentation for you. You prepared your mind and body to deliver the best performance you have in you! We’ll leave a little bit of luck to all the little things that you can’t always control.

Don’t forget what is truly at stake. It is easy to exaggerate the risks of performing poorly in our minds to unrealistic ends. We fear irrecoverable damage to our reputation, loss of future opportunities, or risk of losing our management support. In reality none of those things will happen. In fact, knowing how common the fear of speaking is, you will likely have many allies in the room who will have more respect for you even if you don’t deliver a flawless presentation just because you stood up and did it!

You’ve already addressed your real stakes. You focused on your main objective, to put an important message in front of your audience. It’s not your “job” or your “reputation” at stake, it’s communicating the important message your audience needs to hear. Knowing the real stakes of your presentation, and keeping them front and center in your mind, helps put performance anxiety in the back seat. Let confidence in the goal of sharing your message take the driver’s seat.

You have practiced out loud so the words coming out of your mouth feel right. You can confidently look around the room and gauge how the message is being received. You have your note cards in hand just in case, but you’ve practiced so much you don’t need them. My hope for you is that you will realize you are comfortable just setting them down and sharing your well-planned thoughts from the heart!