Newsletter October 03

Building confidence, part 1: Knowledge

Do you feel nervous at the thought of giving a presentation?

One of the ways to build confidence and reduce anxiety is to build your knowledge.

Often nervousness arises from the fear of the unknown, so the more we can make it a ‘known’ situation the more this allows our confidence to increase.

3 ways to increase knowledge:

1. Your speaking topic

Standing in front of a group and not feeling secure in your knowledge of the topic is likely to make you nervous. The better you know your topic, the more your confidence will increase.

It’s preferable to know more than you will be speaking about, as you may be asked questions, or may be given extra time.

Please don’t learn your talk word for word, because if you lose your place it’s difficult to get back on track. Instead, aim to remember concepts rather that specific words.

 2. The speaking situation

Find out as much as you can, so you walk into a ‘known’ environment.

For example, find out:

Where is the venue?
When are you speaking?
How long for?
Who else is speaking?
What’s their topic?
What’s the layout of the room? Can you change it if necessary?
Is the equipment there? Do you know how to work it?
Who is the audience?
What do they already know about your topic?
What are they expecting from you?

3. Presentation skills

If you know how to structure a presentation for maximum impact, how to choose the best content to fulfil the purpose of your talk and your allotted time, and the techniques for effective delivery, you will feel more confident about giving your talk.

Consider investing in presentation skills training.

A participant from one of my recent presentation courses told me:

“I spent two weeks building my knowledge for a talk I had to give to a large group of people. That in itself helped build my confidence. The nerves go when you are prepared.

Then I moved onto the ‘Action’ stage to make sure I gave a good quality presentation.”

In the next newsletter we look at Building confidence, part 2: Action