Many people get nervous and anxious before giving a presentation or taking part in public speaking engagements.

The best way to prepare to deliver a presentation or communication at work is by developing your best skills and abilities through increased self awareness.

Feeling nervous before a performance is natural — and part of your body's way of helping you do your best. When you feel intense fear, your 'thinking brain' goes temporarily offline, which can sometimes make it hard to read, write, talk or solve problems.

But often our nerves are rooted in unhelpful self-limiting beliefs, such as ‘I’ll be criticised or ridiculed by the audience’.

So, our first tip would be to accept that you can’t control the nerves you feel but you can learn how to manage them.

Start by bringing to mind your past experiences of presenting. Without dwelling on negative details, bring it to mind gently as if you are watching yourself from above.

Quietly note one or two observations about your performance that you would like to improve upon. But take notice if you are thinking about these goals in a positive or self-critical way.

If your self-critic is saying ‘you’ll be rubbish’ replace it with a more positive mantra and remind yourself, your presentation is not actually about you, it’s about your audience.

Give it a try

Planning and practicing for your presentation will make a positive difference.  If it is participatory, think of the questions you may be asked and prepare thoughtful informed answers that will assist the direction of the presentation. 

Before the event, practice by saying out loud the important messages you want the audience to hear – hearing yourself speaking the words in advance, will help you say them with confidence when under pressure and feeling nervous. 

Your audience will benefit most from quickly understanding that the information you are sharing meets their needs.  However, their quick understanding doesn’t mean you need to speak quickly. 

Techniques you can use to slow down include: 

• Using short, silent pauses to punctuate your narration
• Using those pauses to consciously breath and slow your heart rate
• Introducing new narration with bridging words like ‘So’ ‘However’ ‘Therefore’ etc
• Using variance of volume and emphasis in your voice to enhance the audience’s understanding
• Adopting the body posture of a confident speaker. Sitting or standing upright and opening the diaphragm will help regulate your breathing.

Consider listening to one of our Calm the Mind Audios immediately before you start your presentation to maximise your focus.