Episode #14: Goodbye Presentation Nerves

Unexpectedly, twelve time Grand Slam Tennis tournament winner Novak Djokovic has some good advice for public speakers. “I believe that half of any victory in a tennis match is in place before you step on the court. If you don’t have that self-belief, then fear takes over. And then it will get too much for you to handle. It’s a fine line. The energy of those moments is so high: how are you going to use it? Are you going to let it consume you, or are you going to accept it’s presence and say, ‘OK, let’s work together’. ”

What he is saying is we don’t worry about having fear or not having it, we look for how to control it. When we feel fear, our psychological fight or flight response provides energy to our major muscle groups in the chest, arms and legs. This is great energy to tap, in order to bring our belief and our passion to our messages. If the energy is a bit too high and you are feeling too hyperactive, then try and burn some energy off before you go on stage. Out the back, out of sight, pace up and down strenuously for about 5 minutes and take some of the edge off those nerves.

The opposite feeling of “butterflies in the stomach” is a result of the blood being directed away from our internal organs to our major muscle groups. The body is getting ready for survival mode. To overcome the butterflies feeling, just find a quiet place off stage, sit down and do some slow, deep breathing from the diaphragm to inject more oxygen into the brain. Take it slowly though, because if you do it too fast you may become dizzy. This oxygen hit will sharpen us up, get us concentrated and ready for the speech. The slower breathing will also help to slow down the pulse rate.

We should accept that fear is part of the process of public speaking. Let’s use the adrenalin coursing through our veins as a power source to hit key words, have more energy, use bigger gestures than normal and send our power vibe out to the audience.

Speakers who look tired, bored or uninterested, are never going to be persuading anyone of anything. I hate those presentations. I saw the head of a huge division of a major global resources company, give a totally lifeless presentation. This guy was rich, immaculately groomed, in charge of thousands of people and billions of dollars of revenue. Yes, he spoke in concert with the slide deck, was not nervous, spoke slowly and clearly but with absolutely no energy, passion or commitment to his message. It was seriously painful to watch and his audience was lost to his message about his company. Despite his big title and big bucks he was a dud. We judge the entire organization on who we see in action. Sadly that day, his organisation’s reputation was harmed as a result of his lifeless presentation.

I read that Frank Sinatra felt fear every time before he performed. He always worried that the first note would not be there. Once he got going however, he could relax and enjoy the process. That applies to us as well – we have to get that first couple of minutes settled down and then we can relax and enjoy the opportunity to help the audience through providing our message or our valuable information. Fine, but just how do we do that?

Here are some do’s and don’ts.

Don’t put unbelievable pressure on yourself by trying to memorise your talk. Do have some key points you can elaborate on though and have them in a logical sequence, that will be easy for an audience to follow.

Being able to speak to your points is a basic requirement. You have knowledge of your subject, you have experience in this field of expertise, you know stuff we don’t. You know what you want to say, so you can glance at notes briefly for data points as you need them.

Remember, in the room, only you know the order of the talk and the content, so if you get it mixed up, keep going, as no one else will know. Keep any disasters, errors and mistakes to yourself.

A recent speaker I saw got herself into serious trouble by trying to read the line by line from the screen on her laptop and also simultaneously make eye contact with the audience. Looking to and fro, she was losing her place, this triggered an attack of nerves, such that she had to stop speaking and try and regroup. The problem was obvious to all and she then compounded the error by telling us she was nervous.

She lost 100% of her credibility at that point. She should have paused briefly, taken a slow (silent) deep breath and carried on. We would have just imagined it was a pause. Nobody is going to dismiss a speaker who takes a pause or reflects before they speak. It is a very natural thing to do and we accept it.

Don’t spend all of your preparation time putting together the slide deck. The slides are not the main game – we speakers are the main attraction. Our face is one million times more convincing and more powerful than whatever is up on screen. Even when trying to use slides for impact, there are usually too many, too much text, too many different colours, poor sizing of graphs (too small and too many).

The tool itself is misused. If you can use photo images with no text and just speak to the point that is ideal. One or two words with the photo is also good. We don’t need a lot of text every time in order to be persuasive. Apart from our face, photos and images are the next most powerful mediums.

Also, don’t rely too much on video. There is always that break in the flow while the video is retrieved, the sound adjusted etc. I often see visiting big shot CEOs get up to talk, then abrogate responsibility for their presentation by going straight into the corporate video. What a wasted chance. They do this because they are scared, shy, lazy or out of their comfort zone. Unless the video is demonstrating something that can’t be shown at the venue, like a new technology etc., then don’t use it at all or make it very short.

We want the audience to connect with us, to become our fans, our supporters. We have limited time in which to do that, so don’t squander opportunities to connect with people.

Do allocate time for rehearsal. The amount of time spent before our speech is the key to success. Incredibly, most people spend zero time rehearsing and wonder why presenting is so stressful. Ideally, during rehearsal, have supporters provide feedback. Don’t just let them do this without any direction or they will start critiquing your performance and undermine your confidence. Rather, ask them for two pieces of feedback only – what was good and how to make it better.

If you can’t have a live audience during rehearsal, then watch yourself on video if possible. Most of us have video on our phones or iPads, so the technological barrier today is pretty low. If that isn’t available, then use a mirror and record the audio on your device, so you can review how you sound.

I have found that when travelling to give a presentation, the windows of the hotel room become mirrors at night when the room lights are off and this provides the visual feedback I need. Rehearse as you will give it, looking around at all sectors of the audience, gesturing, using voice modulation, inserting pauses etc., while talking to your imaginary listeners.

When live, don’t look down at your notes or laptop screen for too long. Do look at the people in your audience and make eye contact with individuals, one by one, so you can speak directly to as many people as possible. Around six seconds each works well – not too short and not too long. Look around the room but not in an easily predictable way. Don’t always going from left to right. Instead break it up, so you are looking at the back, then the front, the right, then the left. If you use predictable eye contact, people know what is coming and they mentally switch off. Keep them guessing.

Don’t make eye contact however, with audience members who are scowling, doubtful, unhappy, angry, negative, laughing at you, cynical or sneering. Do ignore them completely and look for the audience members who are nodding, smiling, agreeing and look either supportive or at least neutral. This will help to maintain your confidence and equilibrium.

I was giving a speech in Kobe in Japanese to a room full of 100 salesmen and one guy about half way down on the left, sat through my one hour talk and had the angriest expression on his face you can imagine. He did not seem to be buying one word I was saying. At the end of my talk, he jumped out of his seat and bolted up to the front. I thought he was going to punch me. Instead, he shook my hand and told me how great the presentation was and how much he appreciated it. I was almost speechless, given how hostile his face appeared during the presentation. So we never know how to interpret what appears to be negativity, but let’s be on the safe side and only look at our supporters.

Don’t be thrown by anything unexpected - the show must go on. So unless it is an emergency and we have to leave the building, keep going no matter what. This is not always easy. I was giving a speech to 300 people in Nagoya arranged by the local Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Again, I was speaking in Japanese, had barely gotten into my first sentence, when a senior official of one of the Japanese Government Ministries, sitting in the front row to my left, suddenly erupted into raucous laughter upon hearing my first burst of Japanese.

Being a non-native speaker of Japanese and always a bit shy about my dubious command of the subtleties of Japanese grammar, you can imagine how debilitating that very public outburst was for me. I looked at the guy incredulously, but kept going for the next 40 minutes.

In that instant, I had to put all of my linguistic self-doubts and paranoia aside. I purposely only made eye contact with audience members who looked like they were supportive. There were others in the audience who seemed to be impressed that I was trying to speak their language and that really helped me to keep going. I will never forget that rude outburst and when I think back to that incident, I am reminded that there is never a dull moment in Japan!

Like Novak Djokovic let’s tap into our nervous energy and work with it, rather than try and fight it. We need energy to be a successful presenter, so let’s try and surf the wave of our nervousness, rather than have it wipe us out.

Action Steps:

1. If feeling too tense, go out back and stride around
2. Do deep breathing to get enough oxygen and reduce the pulse rate
3. Don’t look lifeless, bored and uninspired
4. Don’t try to memorise it, use notes and speak to them
5. Don’t make the slide deck or video the star of the show - make you the focus
6. Only make eye contact with your fans and supporters
7. Don’t let anything faze you – the show must go on
8. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcast “THE Leadership Japan Series”, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.