Overcoming the fear of presenting

In this post, Abby Smith, BT Digital Design Operations Manager shares some valuable techniques she’s learnt to conquer a fear of presenting.

Here at BT everyone on our design team has to present at some point. We run ‘show and tells’ where teams share work in progress and ‘show the thing’ to a wide variety of stakeholders of all levels, we have design crits where people exchange detailed feedback and explain their design decisions, and we have a monthly design event, called the Big Design Gathering, where anyone can volunteer to give a talk to their peers.

However, for so many of us, the idea of standing up in front of a room of people (or sharing screens, as is now the new norm) gives us the heebie-jeebies. And for good reason. Presenting your work, facilitating a workshop, or even just speaking in a group, knowing that all eyes and ears are on you, is probably the most vulnerable you might feel in a working environment.

You’re not alone

Even if you’re surrounded by your peers, friends or just your line manager, having a fear of presenting is common. And it’s something I have struggled with personally for most of my working life too.

Although it’s been at the focus of my personal development plan for the last few years, I still have a long long way to go until I could honestly say ‘I feel confident presenting in front of others’. So whilst I am by no means any kind of presenting expert (yet), I’d like to share my journey and a few tips that have helped me get closer to the summit of this fear-mountain.

So, you know you’ve got the fear, but why?

For me, uncovering the root cause of why I had fear in the first place was the starting point to tackling it. After some soul searching, I remembered back to my secondary school history class, and a particularly difficult experience presenting where my teenage voice cracked and the class erupted with laughter (including the teacher). Enough to certainly rock an already shy person’s confidence, and even influence them over a decade later in their workplace.

Share your fear with someone you trust

At my last job, I was very lucky to have a mentor who I trusted, and who I shared my fear with. They empathised with me, and, using some cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, helped me process my fear, and give me tools to tackle it.

The ‘truth, fabrication, unknown’ game

One such activity, which might be something you could try if you feel like me about presenting, is to write down all the things going round your head when you think about presenting.

A few examples might be:

• ‘People are judging me for what I look and/or sound like’
• ‘I feel like everyone is thinking I don’t know what I’m talking about’
• ‘I’m worried I am going to embarrass myself’

Just the process of writing these down can help you begin to process what you are thinking and feeling, which directly fuels your fear.

Give it a go. Try writing a list yourself. Now, go through each point and write ‘truth’, ‘fabrication’ or ‘unknown’ next to it.

You might end up with something like this:

• ‘People are judging me for what I look and/or sound like’ — fabrication — it’s pretty unlikely people are doing this, especially peers or your line manager
• ‘I feel like everyone is thinking I don’t know what I’m talking about’ — fabrication — usually with presenting, people are just interested to see what you’re trying to say or show — as long as you give yourself time to prepare, or if you’re showing your work, you will know and be proud of what you’re talking about
• ‘I’m worried I am going to embarrass myself’ — unknown — although you never know exactly how it’s going to go, it’s unlikely that you’re going to do this if you feel prepared

As you can see, just with the three examples above, two I have concluded are unlikely to hold any truth. The third one is something I don’t know for certain but can do things to help mitigate.

Okay, so is it all in my head?

No, it’s not all in your head — a lot of it is in your body too. When you communicate, stats show it’s only 7% the words we speak, 38% how we say them, and 55% body language.

Imagine someone presenting to you, and they’re slumped on their chair, head down, eyes down, arms crossed and mumbling their words. This picture paints a pretty unconfident-looking and sounding presenter. Now imagine someone standing tall, moving to face their audience as they speak, articulating their words clearly, and with a smile — you’re naturally going to think ‘wow, this person knows what they’re talking about!’, even if they’re speaking the same words as the slumped-in-the-chair presenter.

If you work on your body language, which is over half of your presenting with confidence recipe, then you’ll be well on your way to convincing yourself, and your audience, that you don’t have ‘the fear’.

Try this at home

You’re going to test something out to see how it impacts your confidence when presenting. Try this on your own and reflect on how it makes you feel.

Stance 1:

• Try and make yourself as small as you can — curl up on the floor, bring your knees in, wrap your arms around yourself.
• Say the words ‘this is how I feel presenting to other people’.
• Think about how you feel at this point.

Stance 2:

• Try and make yourself as tall and big as you can — the best stance for this is what is referred to as the ‘power pose’, in other words, the ‘superhero’ pose. Stand with your hands on your hips, back straight and jawline tilted up.
• Say the words ‘this is how I feel presenting to other people’.
• Think about how you feel at this point.

Compare how you felt between the first and second stance. Chances are you felt stronger, more confident and more energised doing the second one than you did the first one.

You can use this exercise in real life, before doing any presenting. I have used it multiple times (more than once in an office toilet cubicle!) and once you get over feeling a bit silly standing there like Superman or Wonder Woman, it genuinely helps give a real boost of confidence.

Poor preparation = poor performance

You wouldn’t run a marathon without at least doing a few decent long-distance runs beforehand, or you wouldn’t enter the Bake Off tent without testing out your show-stopping recipe at home a good few times before doing it under pressure in front of Prue and Paul. Presenting is no different.

Remember to start small — like completing that first 3-miler preparing for a marathon or whipping up the perfect cupcake — it’s a small step towards your goal, but it’s a positive and confidence-building one.

The more you prepare, whether it’s your content, your story-telling or physically practising your presentation in front of someone you trust, the better you’ll feel. Think about what you’re presenting, why you’re presenting it, and what you or the audience want to get out of it. This will help shape your content for your audience, refine your story-telling, and trim back on what you plan to cover to keep things simple and digestible.

Presenting your design journey

As part of the BT Design Team, presenting is about taking everyone on the journey with you. It might be useful to think about these three tips on how to structure what you’re presenting, and why it’s important.

1. Open and introduce your presentation by stating the outcome you’re looking to achieve by sharing the work, and what kind of feedback you might be after
2. First, present the design problem you’re trying to solve, always relating it to your user needs or business goals
3. Present your designs, talking through how you got there and what informed you ( you could tie in your hypothesis here and any testing results)

Shaping your presentation like a story or a journey helps guide you through the content and bring clarity to your audience. Bringing data along to back up your reasons for which paths you took on your journey also help bolster your story, and will be helpful to refer back to for any relevant questions or feedback.

Believe in yourself, and give it a go

Remember — the good news is, it’s only a presentation — nobody’s lives are at stake here!

But seriously, when was the last time you watched someone present and you didn’t want them to do their absolute best? Probably never? Exactly.

The hardest part of overcoming your fear of presenting is putting yourself out there, but as in our design team, and many professional environments, there are always bitesize opportunities to start unlocking your inner superhero stance and confidence within you.

If it’s the confidence you lack, identify someone you know who seems confident presenting and seek their hints and tips, or find yourself a mentor who you know is a good presenter that you feel comfortable reaching out to for advice. Practice with someone you trust, or even in front of the mirror or with your dog, cat or pet rock. Remember that most people don’t relish presenting, even those who come across confidently — they’ve just probably done it more than you, which has helped them overcome their fear, just like you.

So, if this, like me, is something you’ve had on your personal development to-do list for what seems like forever, start your fear-busting journey today and sign yourself up for that presenting opportunity. With the right mindset and preparation, what’s the worst that could happen?

Some amazing resources that helped me gain confidence and tips and techniques:

https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are?language=en

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Presence-Bringing-Boldest-Biggest-Challenges/dp/0316256579

“Public Speaking” by JohnDiew0107 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0