Presenting 101: Setting the Stage for Success

Ever get nervous prior to getting up in front of an audience to deliver a presentation?  I’m imagining that if you’re like most people, say 99%, the answer is “yes”.  The fact is, most of us are fearful of standing in front of an audience and delivering a presentation. I’ve worked with a number of engineers over the years who have gone out of their way to avoid presenting on their programs or areas of work.  Some went as far as calling in sick just to avoid standing in front of people and talking about what they do for a living.

The fear of presenting is really a fear of embarrassing yourself in front of others.  However, if you have any aspirations of building and sustaining a successful career, you will need to develop a set of skills to mitigate this fear.  And mitigating is all you need to do, not eliminate it.  A good measure of nerves serves as a reminder that you need to invest the time in preparing the presentation and helps you stay focused and on target when presenting.

Prepping Yourself for Presenting

Mitigating the fear of presenting is as simple as preparing yourself for the event.  Procrastinating (check out my previous posting) until the last minute only adds unnecessary pressure.  You can prepare yourself with a few simple rules of engagement and increase your confidence in presenting.  These include:

Start small and grow.  Fear often comes from standing in front of a large audience of strangers.  So don’t make the first presentation you give one delivered to a room of a 1,000 people.  Start out with smaller groups and build your confidence level.  If your fear comes from presenting to small groups, practice presenting to 2 or 3 colleagues as a means to build your confidence level.

Keep it simple.  Keep the presentation simple with an introduction, three main points, and a closure.  The simpler it is, the easier it is for you to get really smart on the material and focus your research. This also increases your confidence level, since your grasp of the material will be stronger.

Research, then practice, practice, practice.   Fear may come from your belief that you’re not knowledgeable enough to present on a topic.  For instance, delivering a technical paper on a topic you’re working to an audience of industry colleagues.  OK, valid fear.  You can mitigate this fear, however, by making yourself the expert on the material you’re going to cover through quality research.  Then practice relentlessly until you know the material cold.  If you’re presenting on a topic, you don’t need to be the worlds expert.  However, you do need to be more than simply conversant in the material.

Think through potential questions and generate the answers.  Fear might come from embarrassment of being stumped by a hard question from the audience.  You mitigate this by brainstorming on the possible questions that might be asked.  You can also tap into your colleagues and have them think of potential questions.  Doing this allows you to tailor answers in advance.  You may not guess every potential question, but you walk into the presentation with confidence that you have some of the answers.

Why Getting This Right is Important

Developing your presentation skills are vital to your success as a leader and vital to you reaching your highest potential in your career.  Why?  Because both rely on influence and compelling communications to further and advance your cause.  Regardless of whether you are leading only yourself or a 500 person organization; whether you’re presenting to your sons Boy Scout Troop or a room of Fortune 500 business leaders; you need to embrace the nerves and carry on.

If fear of speaking is your foe, then find the opportunities to present and face the fear head-on.  You’ll build your experience, self-confidence, and career success one presentation at a time.

“I always feel pressure. If you don’t feel nervous, that means you don’t care about how you play. I care about how I perform. I’ve always said the day I’m not nervous playing is the day I quit.”  Tiger Woods

Onward,

Christian J. Knutson, P.E., PMP
The Engineering Career Coach

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