Overcoming the Public Speaking scaries
By Lauren
Over the course of your life, the amount of times when you’ll have to present in front of people is probably smaller than would think. When these situations come up, do yourself a favor and dig into it. The opportunity to present will give you the chance to boost your confidence and establish yourself as a leader. Take advantage of it!
I’ve very fortunately been given the opportunity to have my voice heard, present my ideas, and be visible in the different organizations I’ve worked at throughout my career. Along the way, I’ve received guidance about how to present myself and my ideas to establish credibility and communicate effectively. In retrospect, a lot of these opportunities catapulted me into my next set of responsibilities, my next role and my next career move.
Examples that come to mind for me are things like introducing my project to the newly appointed Senior Vice President of my department, preparing an overview of progress with my manager during a one-on-one review and proposing the launch of a women’s group for my office. Outside of a corporate setting, examples of this for you could be presenting a report, discussing research findings, or engaging in public speaking.
While these are all relatively different situations, they can be prepared for by focusing on just a few key topics. Know your audience, know your stuff and know your experts.
1. Know your audience.
If there’s a room full of people, it’s important to know their overall expectations on what message you are expected to convey. What’s more important is to know who in the audience will actually do something with your message. If it’s your teacher, they could give you a good grade or keep you in mind for an upcoming opportunity. If it’s your manager, maybe they will advocate on your behalf next time your name comes up.
It’s important to know who that person is so you can then build the strategy around your presentation. Do they like thorough documentation? Do they like structure and process? Do they really only care about pretty diagrams in a power point? Regardless of your content, the way it’s presented can always be delivered in a way that will be most pleasing for the receiver. Always aim for that. Stay true to your message, but don’t forget why you’re up there and who it’s for.
2. Know your stuff.
If you’re asked to speak about a certain topic, people are willing to set aside their time to listen to what you have to say. This also probably means you are more knowledgeable than you give yourself credit for. A long time ago, when I was nervous about presenting, my mom told me: “If you’re up there, you know more about the topic than anyone else in the room. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Keep that in mind!
By now, you know who you’re presenting for, what the like to hear and how they like to hear it. Now you can apply that to your knowledge base. How would your audience poke holes into it? What are topics you know you’ll shy away from? Is it because it’s a challenging topic to explain or because you don’t feel comfortable speaking about it? If it’s a challenging topic, try and start with the simplest explanation and go from there. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking on the topic, learn what you can in words you feel comfortable using (it will be a lot easier to remember what you’re saying if it’s in words you normally would use).
Now it’s time to put it all together. Outline your presentation and figure out what the flow will be. Start from the beginning and set the context instead of jumping straight into the details. Compare your content to how much time you have to present. Identify what can be cut and what will need extra time to explain. Read through your content, and ask yourself: Is it reaching my goal? If it’s not, you have something concrete to tweak.
3. Know your experts.
In other words, who can help you improve your message? You could definitely speak to the person who asked you to present and reference the internet for examples on templates or ways to present ideas. If you don’t know the person the presentation is for, ask your peers for advice. Now that you have the content that matches your strategy and you’ve vetted your approach, it’s time to test your presentation against your own network of experts. Use your friends, parents or classmates to practice against and provide feedback. If they get it without the context of your actual audience will have, then whoever you’re presenting to will get it, too. No sweat!
Once you have all of the pieces in place, you’re ready to go. You did your homework, have the message ready that your audience expects, you know your content and have vetted it with your network. Not every presentation you create will require this level of effort and the more you do it the easier it will become. The true benefit is you’re going to walk in there knowing that you are prepared and that is going to exude confidence. Confidence is a powerful currency that people will notice, and the opportunities that come with it are endless.
Good luck!
