If you think you can, you can.

If you think can’t, you’re right.

Mary Kay

What makes you nervous?

What could stop you giving the best presentation you can? Most people would answer by saying that their nerves would get the better of them. Nerves come from fear:

• Fear of being judged – “The audience will think I’m awful, that I can’t do my job, can’t deliver a simple presentation, that I’m arrogant, that I’m feeble.”

• Fear of rejection – “The audience won’t like me.”

• Fear of failure – “I will fail to get my message across, the audience might not understand me or resist my plans, dislike my ideas.”

• Forgetting – “I will forget what I want to say, lose my place, make mistakes, go blank.”

• Fidgeting – “I might use inappropriate body language and gestures, which will make me look nervous, insecure or overconfident.”

• Fluffing and flannelling – “Instead of being clear and direct, I will either be tongue-tied or over-loquacious.”

• Feeling a fool – “I suspect the audience won’t like me, they will think I don’t know what I’m talking about, they’re bound to know more than me.”

• Feeling frightened of the audience – “They might interrupt me, confuse me, be hostile to me, ask awkward questions.”

Controlling your attitude

1. Lay your worst horror on the line. What is the worst thing that can happen to you during the presentation?

2. Is it a realistic fear? Why?

3. Is it an unrealistic fear? Why?

4. Work it through step by step:

• What will the consequences be?

• What will the audience think?

• How will you cope?

• What will you do to remove the cause of the fear?

• What will you do to remove the fear?

5/ Imagine your kind of success for yourself.

Make the kind of preparations that give you the most confidence.

Take control, don’t be a “victim in waiting”.

Prevention mechanisms

· Deal with a mistake with the minimum of fuss. The chances are, no one has noticed. Fix it and move on. This is the way to show confidence and professionalism.

· Don’t try to learn a script by heart. If you miss a line or a phrase, there’s a danger that you will forget altogether where you are.

· Practise aloud any unfamiliar or unusual words or phrases. The presentation itself shouldn’t be the first occasion you hear them.

· Use your notes when you practice so that you are familiar with them even if you don’t use them on the day.

· If you have made notes, have them conveniently by you. They will keep you on track if you lose your place, so that you can follow them even if you aren’t actively using them.

· Include details, quotations and data in their full form in your notes so that you can refer to them quickly and easily if your memory fails you.

· Most people in the audience won’t notice a small or even a big mistake is you handle it smoothly.

· Visualise yourself as calm and in control, exuding energy and enthusiasm.

· Picture yourself as knowledgeable, witty and confident.

· “Own” the stage. Mentally use up all the space around you and fill it.

· Use a mental mantra: tell yourself you are well prepared, you know what you’re talking about and that you are going to enjoy yourself.

Rescue mechanisms

Forgetting what you intended to say

Buy time, make a thoughtful pause, locate your notes, take a breath in and gently release it, find your place and continue. No one will notice unless you draw it to their attention.

Forgetting a word

We all do it; even the simplest, most commonly used word escapes us from time to time. Sometimes it happens when you ad lib; you don’t intend to include that particular story or that reference in the presentation so you haven’t rehearsed it. Sometimes your mind is racing ahead of your mouth and you fall over, mentally. If you have an informal style, the easiest thing to do is just to ask the audience – the advantage is an unexpected bit of audience participation as well as the word you were searching for.

Factual mistake, slip of the tongue

The audience often realise that what you said was a mistake and won’t make an issue of it, knowing that you had not meant to deceive or hurt people’s feelings. Use humour, smile, put your mistake right, just a knowing look can often enable you and the group to laugh it off and move on quickly.

Useful phrases:

1. Losing your place in your notes

OK. Where was I? Let me summarize the points again before I continue. So, there have been three main changes. First, there has been an increase in customers to our expensive stores. Second, a leveling out of visitors to our children’s stores. And third a significant increase in customers to our low-price stores.

Another way of saying this is:

Umm …sorry. I just lost track. I’ll recap the points so far.

2. You don’t know the English word

There are several problems with the new model. One problem is that it stops working if it gets … um … what’s the word I’m looking for? Let me try again. One problem is that it stops working if it gets a little wet.

Another way of saying this is:

How do you say this in English?

Let me rephrase that.