“As unaccustomed as I am to public speaking...”

Professionals who research the human condition tell us that the prospect of having to speak in public generates more fear and anxiety in the average person than almost any other activity in their business or personal lives. There’s just something, well, risky about standing up in front of a group and putting your presentation skills on display.

We all know people who are particularly adroit behind a podium. They seem to effortlessly blend stories, quips, facts and opinions into presentations that keep audiences riveted. These are the speakers who can take even the most seemingly mundane subject matter and breathe life into it.

Most people, however, approach a speech assignment with the kind of excitement usually reserved for impending root canal work. The object, for them, is just to get through it...and it shows in their presentations. Unfortunately, such speakers tend to generate the same feelings of “will I survive this?” among their audience members, too.

If the prospect of making a presentation – whether it’s a speech to hundreds or a quick status report to just a handful of co-workers in a staff meeting – leaves you wishing you could be somewhere else, here are a few tried-and-true tips to help you be more confident:

• Take your audience on a journey. The best presentations guide audiences through a thought process and lead to a conclusion. Many speakers, however, forget that the audience hasn’t been living the subject matter the way the speaker has. As your old math teacher used to say on test day, “Show your work” by letting your audience see how you arrived at the conclusion (or series of conclusions) you are presenting.
• Be yourself. Great speakers tend to give the rest of us a skewed view of how a presentation is supposed to be made. The only successful presentation formula is the one that fits each particular speaker’s style. So, if you are funny, let yourself be “appropriately” funny. Like to wander? Go ahead and pace. Talk with your hands? Feel free to wave them when you make a point. The message is this: You will give a better presentation if you are comfortable...so be yourself.
• Use audiovisuals to help tell the story. PowerPoint is either the greatest presentation aid or a terrible crutch – it all depends on the presenter. It works when it serves as an outline that helps tell the story while also adds prompting the presenter to amplify key points. It fails when it’s nothing more than a glorified set of speaker’s notes, presented using all the animation tricks the program offers.
• Set the ground rules. If a question coming in the middle of your presentation is likely to throw you off kilter, let your audience know at the beginning that you’d prefer to hold questions and discussion until the end.
• Practice. This one is obvious, right? Then why do so many speakers feel they can almost “wing it” because they have such a strong grasp of the subject matter? You should practice to the point where you can almost toss your notes aside. Pay particular attention to perfecting a strong beginning, because a successful start will give your confidence a significant boost.

Above all, speak with a measured pace and don’t forget to breathe. It’s amazing how calming a deep breath can be when the old trick of “picturing the audience members in their underwear” isn’t enough.