You have just been told that you are going to get a promotion.
The joy you believe is quickly dampened by the realization that your new role includes presenting on a frequent origin to senior management of your company and you are scared stiff!
What do you do?
Perhaps you enroll on a speech skills course and whilst on that course you sense your nerves ebb away with each presentation that you give and each piece of feedback that you receive. One month later you are to give your first presentation at work and the nerves just flood back as though the training course meant nothing.
There are many simple ways to avoid this dreaded possibility and most of them are very straightforward.
Firstly be ready, that means fully researching your subject and, as far as possible, your audience. Self-belief increases considerably when you know your subject and know that no question from the audience can throw you.
TIP 1: All presenters naturally feel more at ease answering a question (assuming they know the answer) than they do presenting, so, if possible, get a plant in the audience to ask you an agreed question early on in the speech; any nerves will simply vanish!
Knowing your audience will allow you to structure your speech in a way which will hold their interest; Watching the audience engrossed in your delivery will provide a great boost to your confidence.
Secondly, try your presentation on supportive colleagues first and get them to tell you what works and what doesn't. Having already done the presentation is a guaranteed way to feel more at ease on the day.
Thirdly, do not worry about making a mistake Laughing about your mistake will make you look human, while endearing you to your audience.
TIP 2: Prepare to make a silly mistake in the first few moments and have a geared up humorous follow-up. The tension between you and the audience melts away as rapidly as ice in the desert. You could say perhaps "I fully expect sales to exceed £300 this month" (when you and the audience are expecting a figure of around £300,000), hesitate briefly, say, "oh well I'd better cancel the family holiday to Peru that I'd planned with my bonus this year!" Then follow up with "of course I meant £300,000".
Fourthly, break the ice by meeting a few people from your audience before you speak; you will find that making eye contact with those people will be a great encouragement to making you feel at ease while you're speaking.
Finally, deep breathing does actually help to relieve tense muscles, a shaking voice and a queasy stomach. It also helps to sit in a chair, contract and relax your arm muscles. You can suspect a big difference after you have done this, but if you find yourself becoming tense again, basically repeat or try it with other muscles especially neck muscles. An sporadic sip of water will help too.
Try these tips and you will soon see that your belief will rapidly increase. Also make sure that you do as many presentations as you can; the more you do the easier it gets. Stay with it and you'll get great results!And I wish you every success!
Author Resource:-
Mehrebian, we use cutting edge business scenarios to develop speakers capable of performing on the international stage. Call us re Train the Trainer, Public Speaking Training or visit us at => fear of public speaking london and voice coaching london
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