I’m off to meet a new client. Her boss recommended she came to us because she gets so nervous when she has to make presentations she starts to feel sick. She’s in a high-power, high-pressure job so it’s a pretty serious problem for her.
Given that she’s seeing me to help with her nerves and she’s only met me once before, no doubt she’s nervous.
Great.
So am I.
After all, I’ve only been doing this for about seven years (plus learning my trade before that)…. so what have I got to be anxious about? Well I could give you the list but it might not be helpful – what’s more important is what to do about it.
Because the tools I use are the tools I teach, obviously.
First things first, remember it’s normal to get nervous. We have a mantra here, that the day you stand up to make a presentation and you’re not nervous is the day after you should have quit. :)
Secondly, don’t be paralised by your anxiety. One of the most common things I hear people say about their nerves is that they can’t do anything about them. Rubbish. What they mean is that they haven’t done anything about them and – in a nice irony – are too nervous about trying to do something (in case it doesn’t work) to try to do something! (Okay, follow that sentence if you can!).
Like most people in stressful situations, they’d rather have the hope that things could be better if they tried to do something about it than run the risk of finding out they can’t do anything and dashing that hope… so they do nothing…
It might be a common (even sensible) psychological response, but it’s not helpful here. This is an afternoon’s session and I started to get nervous about breakfast today. Would it have helped if I’d just sat in the office ‘being nervous’? Nope!
So what did I do? I prepared. I got my kit together and I checked it. And checked it again, just in case. I rehearsed things and I practised things. Now obviously just a quick rehearsal in the morning before an afternoon session isn’t going to turn the tide of anything, but making sure I’ve got the right equipment makes a bigger difference than you’d think.
Use checklists. (Our presentations checklists are called ‘ties and flies’ – don’t ask why… it’s the reason you think it might be!)
That way, you can be as sure as you possibly can be that every piece of kit will work as it should do.
Now, we’ve no way of objectively measuring this, but our impression is that about (say) a third of nerves is related to the logistics of making a presentation, not the actual content as such. And checklists are the most simple tool in the world to deal with this kind of thing.
Here’s our approach.
- Once upon a time, we created a list of all the things we could think of that needed checking and testing before a presentation starts
- We began using it before every presentation
- Each time we found something that wasn’t on the list we added it
Now we have what we think is pretty darn close to a comprehensive list.
What’s more, the simple ritual of ticking off the things on the list helps calm nerves too, as well as the knowledge that we’re as ready as we can be.
By the way, notice the third of those bullet points? It’s crucial. To help us, one of the things on our list, by the way, was an item at the bottom of the list which says “HAVE YOU ADDED ANYTHING TO THIS CHECKLIST?”
So tell me, what would be on your preparation checklist?
