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Reducing Presentation Fear

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

•  Identify four reasons for symptoms of anxiety and nervousness before and during a presentation.

•  Describe two key strategies for reducing presentation fear.

Do you ever feel anxious at the prospect of speaking in front of a group? Have you ever found your hands shaking or your mouth dry as you begin speaking? You aren’t alone. Studies and surveys show that the fear of public speaking ranks right up there with the fear of heights—even with the fear of death.

It’s not only beginners who experience presentation fear. Experienced presenters often find that they feel some tension in the days and weeks before an important presentation. Even people who feel confident when they walk into the presentation room sometimes discover themselves unexpectedly nervous when they stand up to speak.

In this chapter, you’ll learn some actions you can take to reduce and control the anxiety you might feel before making a presentation. You’ll also learn some strategies for controlling symptoms of nervousness that can get in the way during your delivery.

REASONS FOR PRESENTATION FEAR

Beginning presenters often assume that any fear they feel about making a presentation will disappear once they have more experience. While it is true that the confidence that comes with experience reduces such feelings, it seldom eliminates them. It’s not uncommon for people who have made dozens of presentations to find themselves unexpectedly beset by the symptoms of presentation fear. That’s what happened to Joelle.

Joelle makes at least one presentation a month to inform members of her team and people in other departments about the status of various projects. A few days after she learned she was being considered for promotion, her manager asked her to make the quarterly team presentation to upper management.

Joelle’s first reaction was, “What a great opportunity to show what I can do!” As the day went on, however, she kept thinking about the presentation. How could she be sure it would be good? How could she keep from making mistakes? That night, Joelle lay awake worrying. “The last thing I want,” she thought at 3 a.m., “is to stand there in front of the upper managers with my knees like jelly and my voice quivering.” When she dragged herself into work the next morning, Joelle was ready to suggest that her manager ask another team member to make the presentation instead.

Joelle is an experienced presenter. She feels comfortable and confident when she makes presentations to other team members and people in other departments. Why does she feel so fearful about making the quarterly presentation to upper management?

There could be several reasons for Joelle’s anxiety. The audience for most of her presentations is made up of people she knows, and who know her. She has every reason to believe they like her and consider her competent. She knows what they expect from her. If she makes a mistake, she can simply laugh and move on without worrying that they will think poorly of her.

But now Joelle is in a “high-stakes” situation. Of the upper management, her own manager is the only one she knows well. The fact that she is being considered for promotion raises the specter that the presentation will be used to evaluate her skills and competency. Thus, she desperately wants to avoid making mistakes, appearing foolish, or being judged unworthy by this important audience.

You might have listed some of these common reasons that people who experience presentation fear have:

•  Fear of being judged unworthy. Like Joelle, we all want people to consider us knowledgeable, confident, and competent. That’s particularly important when there are people in the audience whose approval and respect we want and need.

•  Fear of appearing foolish. Joelle worried she would make mistakes that would make her appear foolish to the upper managers. She wants them to think well of her. We all want that. We want people to think that we’re smart and interesting. We certainly don’t want people to laugh at us or feel sorry for us because we say or do something embarrassing. Even comedians and clowns want people to laugh with them, not at them.

•  Unfamiliarity with the subject. We can speak with confidence only about topics we know well. If we have only a superficial understanding of and little knowledge about the topic of a presentation, it’s impossible to bury the nagging fear that we will say the wrong thing, leave something important out, or provide dumb answers to smart questions.

•  Lack of sufficient planning and preparation. Giving a presentation without careful planning and preparation is like jumping into a pool without knowing the temperature of the water or what lies beneath the surface. That can be fun—but it can also be dangerous. Similarly, an unplanned presentation can be a recipe for disaster.

REDUCING FEAR

It’s natural to feel some presentation fear. A little anxiety or nervousness can even be helpful by signaling that the presentation is important to you and motivating you to do your best. But worrying won’t ensure a successful presentation. Too much presentation fear will make it difficult or impossible to focus on the business at hand. You will find that carefully planning, preparing, and practicing your presentation will make the delivery a lot less stressful. Exhibit 2–1 describes several techniques you can use in the days or weeks leading up to your presentation.

You can’t make feelings of presentation fear disappear. Even the act of trying to ignore them can make them worse. But there are some steps you can take to reduce the anxiety you feel before a presentation and to control the nervousness you feel during the presentation itself.

Reducing Anxiety Before a Presentation

We examined some reasons that Joelle felt unusually anxious about the presentation to upper management. What are some steps Joelle might have taken to reduce that anxiety?

Once Joelle understood that she felt anxious because this presentation might affect her career, she could have decided to put more time and energy into planning. The confidence that comes from careful planning might have been just what she needed to reduce her anxiety.

Here’s a summary of steps that can reduce anxiety about making a presentation:

Identify the Reasons for Your Anxiety

Is it a high-stakes situation? Are you new to making presentations? Is it normal for you to feel some anxiety about speaking in front of a group? Is the subject not as familiar to you as it might be? Are you unsure about what the audience expects?

Ask Yourself What You Can Do to Improve the Situation

Can you learn more about the subject so you’ll feel on more solid ground? Even if you’re not an expert, you’ll feel more confident if you know the subject well enough to meet the needs of the audience and the situation. Can you find out more about the audience? You’ll feel less anxious if you are sure you will be giving them what they need and expect. Can you ask a more experienced presenter for advice? Asking for help is a sign of intelligence—and people usually enjoy sharing what they know.

Direct Your Energy

Worrying takes a lot of energy—unfocused, scattered energy. Focus your energy on the process of planning, preparing, and practicing your presentation. Just knowing that you have the information, organization, and delivery down cold gives you a tremendous amount of confidence, and confidence is the best cure for anxiety. In this course, you’ll learn a step-by-step process for planning, preparing, and practicing any presentation.

Make Backup Plans

When people worry, they usually worry about what might go wrong. So instead of lying awake at night going over disaster scenarios in your head, decide what you will do if any of those scenarios come true. What if the slide projector doesn’t work? If the room is too crowded? If people come late? If someone asks a question you can’t answer? In this course, you’ll learn how to anticipate and address these “what-ifs.” Then you’ll benefit from the confidence that comes from knowing what to do if something goes wrong.

Take Care of Yourself

Making a presentation can be very stressful. When you’re under stress, it’s even more important than usual to get enough rest, eat properly, get sufficient exercise, and find ways to relax. Do the things that make you feel happy, confident, and in control: take a long walk, go to a movie, read a good novel, visit a good friend, go fishing. The time you spend taking care of yourself will pay off in a more relaxed, confident, and successful presentation.

Controlling Symptoms of Nervousness

The human animal has survived partly by evolving certain natural responses to stress. Those physical responses include dry mouth, increased heart rate, rapid, shallow breathing, tight stomach or shoulder muscles, profuse sweating, shaking hands, and silly putty legs—all symptoms that make it very difficult to deliver a relaxed, confident presentation. Exhibit 2–2 describes several strategies you might use to reduce nervousness just prior to making your presentation.

You can’t keep those symptoms from happening or make them disappear simply by wanting it so. They are natural physical responses, like those you might experience if you were confronted by a mountain lion in your back yard. No matter how confident you feel about making your presentation, the physical symptoms of nervousness can appear without warning. That’s what happened to Kim.

Speaking in front of a group is not Kim’s favorite activity. But presentations are an important part of her job, and over the past year she’s gained the confidence that comes with experience.

Kim is about to deliver a presentation on computer upgrades at her company’s annual meeting. She worked hard to learn the information, and she prepared an impressive set of slides. Reviewing her notes on the plane the day before the meeting, Kim felt confident that she would deliver the dynamic, informative presentation her audience expected.

Although Kim had hoped to put in an hour’s worth of practice and get to bed early the night before the presentation, airport delays meant that it was 11:30 p.m. by the time she checked in at the hotel. Only then did she discover that the schedule had been changed—her 2 p.m. presentation had been rescheduled for 10 a.m. Kim groaned; she had committed to an 8 a.m. breakfast meeting.

Kim cut the breakfast meeting short, but she still had barely enough time to dash to her room for her notes and presentation aids. She arrived in the meeting room at 9:50, just as the earlier presenter was finishing up. Luckily, the moderator called a 10-minute break, during which Kim set up her notes and slides. Looking around the room, she realized with dismay that both the room and the audience were far larger than she had expected. She would be delivering her presentation from behind a podium and on a stage; previously, she had made her presentations to small groups in a conference room.

The audience returned, and Kim stepped up to the podium. Suddenly, her hands began shaking so hard she could hardly hold her notes. Her knees felt like jelly and her mouth was so dry she could hardly form words. She was sure the audience could hear the thump-thump of her heart. It was the first time she had ever felt so nervous.

Kim stumbled through her 30-minute presentation. She heard herself speaking too rapidly, but she couldn’t seem to slow down. She kept losing her place in her notes, making it difficult to coordinate her words with the slides. Although she made no serious mistakes, she felt exhausted when she was done. She was disappointed that she had not delivered the presentation with the ease and confidence she had intended.

The symptoms of nervousness Kim experienced are commonly called stage fright. But Kim is an experienced presenter. She was well-prepared. She had never had stage fright before. Why did those symptoms strike in this situation?

Although Kim is an experienced presenter, she was used to making presentations in a casual, familiar setting to small groups of people she knew well. She hadn’t realized how different it would feel to speak to a large, unfamiliar audience in a large, strange room, up on a stage, and from behind a podium. Those elements alone could easily have triggered symptoms of stage fright.

In addition to not thinking about or becoming familiar with the room, Kim didn’t bother to practice her presentation. Reading through her notes was no substitute for practicing on her feet.

Finally, Kim rushed from her previous activity—the breakfast meeting—to the presentation. She left herself no time to relax and focus on the presentation she was about to make.

Given this situation, what might Kim have done to reduce the chance of such extreme stage fright or mitigate its symptoms? There are a number of actions Kim might have taken. They include the following:

Arrive Early

Kim rushed into an unfamiliar room at the last minute. She had never seen the room and knew nothing about it. That made it even more important for her to arrive well before the presentation. The surprises in the environment were likely causes of her sudden stage fright.

Kim should have bowed out of the breakfast meeting so she could spend time in the room before her presentation. By arriving early, she could have observed the audience’s responses to the previous presenter and imagined herself up there on the stage delivering her own presentation.

Better yet, Kim could have visited the room early in the morning, walked around it to gauge its size, stood on the stage and practiced delivering her introduction and other key segments.

In Chapter 4, you’ll learn why it’s so important to arrive at least an hour before your scheduled presentation time so you can be feel ready and relaxed when the audience arrives.

HINT: Whenever possible, see the presentation room ahead of time. When that’s not possible, ask for a detailed description: How big is the room? What shape is it? What will the seating arrangement be like? Is there a stage? What’s the lighting like? Are there windows? The fewer surprises, the more relaxed you’ll be.

Make Eye Contact with Members of the Audience

Presenters who begin speaking as soon as they stand up often experience a rush of nervous symptoms. Before starting to speak, use eye contact to establish rapport with individuals in the audience. That makes it easier to see the group, which can be intimidating, as a collection of people like yourself. Keep making eye contact throughout your presentation.

HINT: Find a friendly face or two, people you already know or strangers with whom you feel you are connecting. When you feel nervous, return to those faces for a moment. (Be careful not to make eye contact only with those people, however.)

Use Silence

Both you and the audience need time to settle down. Allow five to ten seconds of silence before you start. Use that time to connect nonverbally with the audience. During the presentation, pause when making transitions to a new topic or activity or when you feel nervous and need a moment to collect yourself.

Move

When they feel nervous, some people anchor themselves to the floor and hold their bodies rigid. Moving a little can help you relax. Take a step or two to one side, a step or two to the other. Let your arms hang freely from your shoulders and use natural gestures. Of course, if you must speak from a podium into a microphone, moving may not be possible.

HINT: Be careful not to wander aimlessly, dance back and forth, bounce up and down, or pace.

Acknowledge Your Stage Fright

The attempt to deny nervousness can engender more nervousness. Recognize that you’re feeling nervous, then take a deep breath and move ahead.

Relax

That’s easier to say than to do, of course. But most experienced presenters have found various ways of relaxing and releasing tension that work for them. Exhibit 2–1 describes some of those strategies. Try them out to see which ones work well for you.

Even experienced presenters are not immune to the anxiety and nervousness that can accompany a presentation. Those feelings are especially likely to occur in unusual or high-stakes situations, when the subject is unfamiliar, or the presenter has not prepared sufficiently. Fortunately, you can reduce anxiety by taking such actions as finding out as much as possible about the audience and the situation, and planning and preparing carefully. Although you can’t always avoid the symptoms of stage fright, such as dry mouth and shaking hands, you can control them by remembering to breathe and move, making eye contact with your audience, exercising or meditating, and learning how to relax tense muscles.