10 Tips to Overcome Nerves Before Public Speaking

Public Speaking.

Did you just feel a little queasy even reading those two words above? If so, you are not alone. According to this online study, 75% of people feel some level of fear about public speaking.  Let’s say you are asked to give a toast, tell a part of your story, lead a meeting, give a presentation, or do some other form of public speaking: here are ten tips that can help you overcome your nerves.

1. Decide ahead of time you are going to be you. 

   There is nothing that works up the nerves more than believing you have to be amazing in whatever public speaking event you are participating in. Instead, focus on accomplishing the end goal behind why you are engaging in your public speaking event. What is the goal of the toast you are giving? The story you are telling? The PowerPoint deck you are presenting? Just focus on that.

2. Relive a time when you were confident, really enjoying yourself and/or cracking up, especially if it was while you were speaking in public.  

   Let’s take the cracking up one. Stop right now and describe a time when you were really cracking up. I mean laughing hysterically. Really get into the details. Look what just happened.  You started cracking up. Emotional recall is a tool you can use to bring emotions from the past into the present.  You can do the same with confidence, relaxation, or enjoyment. Just give enough details for your body to start producing the emotion in the present. 

3. Using confident body language helps bring up confidence.

   Assuming a confident posture (like the Superwoman pose) leverages your physical body to trick your mind into feeling more confident. This resource explains this point well particularly well.

4. If you have the option to arrange the chairs in a circle, try to do that!

   Sometimes someone feels a lack of confidence just because they are standing in front of everyone. If you have to be standing in front of everyone, then try to get to the room early and practice standing in front of where everyone will be. If you have the option to rearrange chairs, arrange them so that everyone is in a circle and you are sitting in the circle with them. Use the real estate of your environment to your advantage.

5. Remember to breathe.

   Sometimes when we are feeling anxious we don’t breathe well. So if there is a lull or if you’ve just asked the audience a question, take that time to breathe in a little more deeply. It makes a difference.

6. Hold eye contact with the safest people in the room. 

   Usually there are people in an audience who seem more engaged than others and are giving you more positive body language. Focus more on them. They will help you get through the talk.

7. Worry less if people are yawning or seem distracted.

   By contrast, don’t focus on people who are yawning or seem distracted. You may not be failing at all. Sometimes by the end of a four-hour training it is just natural for people to be yawning, especially if they’ve been getting a lot of information to digest. Yawning is natural. The same applies with those looking on their phones or who seem distracted in some other way. It may not have as much to do with you as with the fact that they need a mental break, or that something urgent is going on that requires their response. We do anonymous feedback surveys after each training. When I see people yawning or showing distraction in some other way, I expect to receive lower scores on the feedback survey, but that has yet to be the case.

8. Follow your method of rehearsing.

   Some people need to go through what they are going to say over and over again until it is natural. Some people just need to do it a couple of times, knowing they will improvise some. Still others barely create an outline (usually in their heads) and when called on, they still do a great job!

   There is not one right way to rehearse. If you are in the first two examples, rehearse until you are comfortable by yourself (with a mirror or film yourself) and with others. For those in the third category, man I envy you!

9. Watch clips of tips for public speaking and apply the ones that fit you and your personality type.

   This resource is full of great tips and tricks to improve your public speaking. Use the ones that best fit you for the present occasion.

10. Increase the energy level of the room by telling a story.

    Sometimes if I sense that I am wearing people down with heavy content, I share a quick 30-second story to amplify one of the points. It can bring a breath of fresh air to the room.  

11. Controversial bonus tip: announce to the group that you fear speaking in public.

    Sometimes just being real about what you feel helps you to get through your nerves. If you decide to share that one, pay attention to who in the audience connects with you and subtly encourages you. After all, 75% of the room probably has some form of fear about public speaking as well!

While I’ve included 10 tips to help you succeed in your next public speaking engagement, there are many more you can utilize! Click here for a more extensive list of tips.

Chew On This:

• Which of the tips above would be the most helpful to you?

• Which of these tips will you try next time you are called to present publicly?

8 Ways to Own Your Senior Leadership Presentation

If you are going to present to senior leaders, you need to understand that it is different from doing a presentation to your team or to peers. Senior leaders are focused on high-level decision making.  Consequently, your presentation needs to support them as they make these decisions.

Below are some tips that can be useful when presenting to senior leadership:

1. Over-Prepare.

When presenting to senior leaders, it is really important that you over-prepare.  Make sure you know not only the materials pertaining to the stated topic, but be prepared with any insights you have gained from looking at all the materials.

Make sure you anticipate their questions.  Think in terms of how the material they are presenting will help them make good high-level decisions.

Develop some thought leadership on the topic.  This can come in the form of insights that may not show up in the data you are presenting (personal insights you have gained from being closer to the front lines).   These are insights that they would not otherwise be exposed to.  A key insight would be what you foresee may be coming, based on the data and your connection to those closest to the front line.

2. Have one key message that you want to make sure they walk away with, and start with that message.

This can be the thought leadership point that we discussed above, especially if it answers the central question that senior leaders are asking.

If your presentation is based more on something you want from them, then the key message could be your request, tailored to what they value, so they can see the benefit of saying yes to your request.

Be sure to repeat this key message directly, or in a paraphrased version, during the presentation, and end with it.

3. Assume you have only half the time you were allotted. Oftentimes, presentations run long.  If you can do your presentation in half the time and still leave a lot of room for engagement, you will be seen as a winner.  You will notice senior leaders breathe a sigh of relief as you helped them get back on track.

Higher ups will look forward to your future presentations because they know you will be efficient with your words, and be able to convey a message in a fraction of the time.  This is a skill to be practiced and developed.

Be sure to have supplemental slides that you can access quickly in case they want more details from your shortened presentation.

4. Own the process.

How do the content, engagement format, and your co-presenters help move the discussion to simple, practical actions that won’t add to senior leaders’ workload?

You are responsible for all parts of your presentation.  You are responsible to move engagement towards action.  Just be certain the actions you want are simple and practical.  Senior leaders are highly busy.

You will need to be prepared for senior leaders to interrupt you and ask questions.  At other times, they will patiently hear all the details, and even ask for more.  You may not know ahead of time which way they will lean, so be prepared for either.

5. Start with a summary of the key points you have developed to meet their particular request for help.

This first slide could contain the key message you want them to walk away with, then short phrases to capture the bullet points.

Since I cannot share data about a specific company, I will give you the summary slide that I use when I do a workshop on Greg McKeown’s Essentialism.  You can adjust it for your presentations.

Some senior leaders like pithy or catchy quotes like the above; others will not.  It is really important that you tailor your deck to your audience.

Let the rest of the PowerPoint slides support this first key slide.  If your first slide is good, you may find that most of the time will be spent discussing the key points of this slide.  Take that as a positive sign.

Make sure that you lead with what is most important to senior leaders.  Since many of them will be Sensors on the MBTI, they typically will get heavily into the details of the first item and thus spend a considerably less time with the rest.  (So in the example slide above, senior leaders typically spend 40% of the time on the first quote.)

6. Focus on simple practical actions that don’t add to their already-heavy workload.

If the primary purpose of your presentation is to encourage senior leaders to take the specific actions you want them to take, then please lead with those simple action items. You can then build the rest of the presentation around those actions.

If your presentation is about relaying data and providing thought leadership from your perspective, then facilitate discussion around the simple action items they need to take to achieve the best results.  If you think about how much money is spent in everyone’s compensation package per presentation, the amount is staggering.  Senior leaders are often very busy, so it is hard to have them all in the room at one time. Your presentation time will be their time to brainstorm and make decisions.

7. Include a buffer of time for the unexpected 10%-25%, depending on your history for going over with that audience.  If it is a new audience, then focus on the overall time.

8. Once you complete the PowerPoint deck, prepare for the presentation by going through the slides with objective outsiders, not just with your co-presenters.

Have them not only give you feedback, but also ask you the toughest questions they can think of to help you prepare.

Presenting to senior leaders is different from presenting to peers and your team.  The focus for senior leaders is on high-level decision making.  The key is to orient the presentation so that it is efficient and facilitates brainstorming which will lead to simple action items.

Chew On This:

• What is the main message you want senior leaders to walk away with from your next presentation to them?

Ryan C. Bailey is an Executive Coach who helps business leaders develop in-demand high performing teams.

*This blog is an amalgamation of a few different clients.  No one single client is being singled out.