Presentation Skills
Your ability to communicate is the single most important factor in your professional tool bag. People who make a difference, who inspire others, who get promoted are usually excellent communicators. They are able to present ideas clearly and convincingly, they are able to lead and excite, they motivate and persuade. Excellence in management is impossible without excellence in communication. The people who have shaped the course of history were all excellent communicators. They could move audiences, win minds and hearts and get people to take action.
Most Great Speakers Were Once Poor Speakers
John was a bright, warm, fun type of person. But this was not how he came across when he made a presentation. He was dry, serious, stiff and very nervous. What was going on? Where was his warmth? What happened to his likeable personality? It was as if when he stood up to speak his real personality could not show through. Instead, he became frightened, self-conscious and feared his mind would go blank. John is not unusual. In a recent survey of phobias, public speaking ranked second to rats but beat death into third place on the dread list. It appears that many people would prefer to die than make a presentation! Many of today's great speakers were once poor speakers and they too suffered from anxiety and lacked confidence. They became great speakers by finding opportunities to speak, uncomfortable as it was for them. That's how we become good at anything - by doing the uncomfortable with skilful guidance.
You are Remarkable
By the time you reached your first birthday you had learnt to walk. This is a complicated neurological process. Despite the countless falls and bumps, you probably never felt a failure. By the time you were two years old, you had begun to communicate with words - a skill you learned without grammar books or language classes. By your fifth birthday you learned about 90% of all the words you use regularly in your lifetime.
You are remarkable and you have a remarkable capacity to develop skills.
The Learning Curve
When we learn new skills (a language, tennis, golf or public speaking), we seldom progress at a steady rate. It is usually a jerky journey. One day you make great progress and then you slip back. There can be periods of stagnation, even hopelessness: 'I'll never manage this.'
Failure is Often the Road to Success
Successful people fail a lot. That's how they got to be successful, by learning from their mistakes. Each little failure on your road to presenting powerfully is just another piece of information leading you to success. Rather than thinking of a fumble as a sign that reads 'I'm no good' or 'I'll never succeed', see it as feedback on how to get the presentation right. Now you can learn from the experience, change your technique and, in this way, you will succeed.
Find opportunities to present even if you are moving out of your comfort zone. As Emerson said: 'Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.' Soon self-doubt and anxiety will be a distant memory:
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.
(Anon)
Of course you can. Good luck!
