Some presenters are too confident - yes you can be overconfident as a presenter. You often hear these people say things like, "I'm much better when I'm spontaneous, so I don't need to practise", or "I love it when I can just make it up as I go along, I'm so much more natural". Well, they are wrong.

Being too confident means you do not put in any effort. And people who work at being good presenters are always the best ones at it. Presentations require hard work. They need careful planning and writing. Plus they need rehearsing, adapting to the specific environment and structuring for each particular audience.

Successful presenters are those who spend time and effort on their presentations. This then gives them the confidence that what they are doing is right. Those people who are over confident do not put in the effort required. They then think that what they have done is brilliant, but are never aware that they didn't succeed.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters sometimes practice in their bedroom or in their hotel room the night before an important presentation. Some even practice in front of the mirror. However, even though the practice can be helpful, it is not always going to boost your confidence.

One way to do this is practice in front of someone - a friend or a colleague. Get them to be your "audience". Then ask them for constructive, specific feedback, rather than a "that was great" kind of statement. Get them to say what was good about the presentation, in detail. But also ask them areas for improvement.

By practising in this way you will gain valuable feedback to help improve your presentation. Plus you will have confirmation that much of what you are doing is good. And that will boost your confidence much more than prancing around in front of the mirror!

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

People who are worried about speaking in public or making a presentation often are unaware of what led to their feelings. Even though there are biological and psychological factors that lead to a lack of confidence in public speaking, often these arise because of a set of circumstances.

Keeping a daily journal can help identify things that cause the fear of public speaking and make your presentations more difficult. You don't need anything fancy or any technology to do this. All you need is a notebook.

Each day, write down the date and list down all the things you have done during that day and your thoughts as you did them. Keep a note too of your emotions and feelings. Whenever you give a presentation, make a note of how it went and what you felt about it.

Every now and then, look through your journal and find any common factors. For instance, it may well be that in the day or two before each presentation you have noted a particular emotion or done a specific activity. These may be influencing your confidence when you come to make your presentation and hence for future public speaking engagements you can prevent any lack of confidence by dealing with such issues in advance.

A daily journal will help you focus on what to do to pre-empt any lack of confidence and deal with it before it can have any kind of impact on your presentation.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

I was working with a client today who said she was really nervous and that she "knew" when she had to make a presentation she would be nervous. She repeated several time the "fact" that she would be nervous when she made a presentation.

Later on in the day she had to make a presentation and guess what...! She was nervous. Just as she predicted she was nervous. Admittedly I haven't done a scientific study, but there are too many coincidences for this to be anything other than true. But, whenever someone says they are going to be nervous, they always are nervous, often big time.

When you say out loud you are going to be nervous, you are not just preparing your listeners for something less than good. But your body also "hears" what you say. You are effectively telling it to get ready to deal with the nervousness. So, it does. It changes your hormone patterns and within seconds you can feel sick, shake, sweat and generally feel dreadful. And all those signs of nervousness and lack of confidence as a speaker have come about because you have told your body to be nervous.

Tell your body that you will be confident and feel good - and guess what it does? It prepares your hormones so you do feel good. If you want to be confident on stage as a presenter or public speaker, you need to keep telling yourself you will be confident and it will believe yo.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters rarely know how well they have done. If you knew how much your audience appreciated what you had presented you would feel more confident next time. You can boost your confidence by collecting feedback from your audience each time you present.

To do this produce a one-sheet feedback form which asks your audience to rate your presentation on a scale of 1 to 10 for the benefits it has brought them. You can also ask how interesting it was and how much value it provided to them. Also ask open questions such as "what will you change now as a result of listening to this presentation?" or "what was the one thing you learned that you can apply to your work straight away?". Give people a chance also to freely comment on your presentation.

When you go through the forms you will be able to see what you did well - and this will give you a confidence boost for future presentations. Also, you'll find out what you did not do so well, meaning you can change this for future presentations ensuring you are more confident you are doing the right things.

Trainers often ask for feedback at the end of training sessions, but speakers and presenters rarely do so. However, feedback sheets can be an effective way of demonstrating you are doing well - and that will boost your confidence as a presenter.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Being familiar with your surroundings helps your confidence considerably. You are almost certainly more confident in your own home than anywhere else. When you move to somewhere new, you take a while to "find your feet" and get used to your new surroundings. Yet once established you can't really remember having those little doubts.

It's the same when making presentations. If you are asked to give a presentation or a speech and you have never been to that venue before, you will inevitably have less confidence than if you had spoken at that particular place several times. Familiar surroundings make you more confident.

So what do you do to boost your confidence when asked to make a presentation at a new venue? If possible, go to the venue in advance. Have a look around, familiarise yourself with the layout, the acoustics and so on. If you can't go in advance, get there early on the day. Take a chance at a break time to familiarise yourself with the room so that you can at least feel reasonably comfortable with the environment.

It's amazing how few presenters take the trouble to get familiar with their surroundings. But it's no surprise that it is these presenters who often say they lack confidence. If only they had taken the time to get used to the room, the would feel better.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Audiences are very good at spotting presenters who are anxious, nervous or in some kind of negative mood. You give it away with facial expressions and other aspects of body language, plus in the words you use. For instance, anxious people will use negative words - such as hope, perhaps, maybe - in their presentation. These less than definite positions tell the audience immediately that the presenter is not happy.

However, audiences prefer positive and happy presenters. They want you to be sure of yourself and therefore sure of your subject. Audiences need presenters who are not anxious or in a bad mood.

But what if you have had bad news? Should you admit it to the audience? If you don't they will know you are upset anyway, as they will "read" your non verbal communication well. So what's the best strategy?

If something has happened and it is obvious you are "not quite right" then it is best to admit what has been going on. Tell your audience your predicament and let them know why you are down. The audience will sympathise, you won't have to try and hide your negative feelings and you will find you are more relaxed and confident having "got it out of the way".

Otherwise you need to get rid of any negative feelings and thoughts. Focus on the positive outcome of your presentation, so that the audience does not become aware of your negative position.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters often realise they lack confidence when they hear themselves speaking in front of an audience. The voice that comes out of their mouth is often not the voice they are used to. They can detect the shakiness or the wobbling and squeaking - even if the audience hasn't been aware of such vocal variation.

We are all well aware of our own voices - after all we hear them often enough. So when we speak in public and it's not our usual voice, we notice the difference. And the difference worries us, making us more nervous.

The way out of this situation is to have a strong voice from the outset of your presentation. A great way of achieving this is singing. You don't have to be a brilliant vocalist, but you do need to sing out loud.

Prior to your presentation have a sing song - it doesn't matter what you sing, just exercise those vocal chords. You could do this as you drive to the presentation, or you could take a walk around the block first, singing away. Whatever way you do this, the singing will loosen your vocal chords, muscles of your mouth and tongue and will get you breathing properly. The combined result will be a strong voice at the start of your presentation and a more confident performance as a result.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters need to be confident - not for themselves, but for their audience. Research amongst audiences shows us that people listening to presenters really want them to be confident. A relaxed presenter means a relaxed audiences.

Audience members want anyone presenting to be confident. People in the audience find it uncomfortable to listen to nervous presenters. They feel for the presenter, get embarrassed and cannot concentrate on what is being said. If you are confident as a presenter you make it easier for the audience to listen to you.

Also, remember that audience members are often nervous themselves. They may have been sent by their bosses who expect a report back. They may have to make a decision based on what you say. They may have to write a summary of your presentation for their colleagues. As a result, audience members can often be nervous themselves. If they don't have a confident presenter in front of them, they feel more nervous. However, if they are faced with a confident presenter, their own confidence grows.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

You will often hear people say that you need to be nervous when you are presenting as it shows you are really thinking about it. Some people say that nervousness is normal when public speaking. Others tell us that you need butterflies in your tummy to perform well.

However, all these theories are completely and totally wrong. People who tell you that you should be nervous are merely saying that their own nervousness is acceptable. But it is not - for two clear reasons. Firstly, audiences do not like nervous presenters. Anyone who shows any kind of nervousness or lack of confidence loses the attention of their audience. To stay fully connected with the audience you must be free of any nerves.

Secondly, nervousness reduces performance. There is plenty of psychological research in a whole host of different situations that shows your ability to perform any kind of task is reduced if you are nervous about that task or lack any confidence in your ability to perform it. Nervousness makes you a worse speaker - not a better one.

So, ignore all those people who tell you that you should be nervous. It is not true. You need to be fully confident. One way you can do that is to turn any negative thoughts you have about your presentation into positive ones. For instance, if you think "I'm always nervous when presenting" turn that into "Lots of people are nervous when presenting and they get through it, therefore so can I". There is always a positive for every negative you come up with. Just convert your negative thoughts into positive ones and your confidence will grow, resulting in an excellent presentation.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters often go to pieces when their technology fails. Either their laptop will not connect to the projector. Or the projector won't display the screen at the right resolution. Sometimes the slides contain video clips that will not play. Or the remote control for advancing the slides gives up working. In any meeting you will be very lucky indeed if none of the presenters have technical problems.

Whenever you use technology you significantly increase the chances of something going wrong with your presentation. When this happens you feel stupid and this dents your confidence. The way to say confident when presenting is to rely on as little technology as possible. If you can get away with no technology, so much the better. Indeed, you will actually feel more confident.

However, technology is sometimes essential so how can you remain confident knowing in the back of your mind that it might go wrong at any moment? The answer is to think like a police driver. They have practised for when things go wrong. For instance, if they hit a huge puddle at fast speeds they know what to do to get out of the resulting skid because they have practised this dozens of times.

Presenters need to do the same. In your practice session make things go wrong - or get an assistant to do this. Then practice your escape solutions several times. If something goes wrong in your live presentation, your pre-practised solutions will come into play and you will not feel stupid, so your confidence will remain high.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Confident presenters exude confidence. Most presenters, however, stand in front of their audience and are somewhat nervous. Some even shake and are visibly lacking in any confidence when public speaking or making presentations.

Confident people share one common factor - they "feel" confident. They actually have a feeling of positivity and success. It is not just a psychological thing, confident people actually say they "feel" their confidence. In other words, they don't just "think" confidence; instead it has a physical manifestation.

You too can share that physical feeling of confidence and therefore remove all your nervousness when you make your presentation or speech. It starts with attitude; visualise, think about and concentrate hard on how successful your presentation is going to be. See the audience smiling at you in your mind's eye; hear them applauding. Imagining success and being positive about your presentation is essential in starting off the hormonal changes in your body that will help you feel confident.

In the days prior to the presentation also make sure you get plenty of physical exercise. Active people tend to me more confident than those who are inactive, due to changes in cortisol levels in the body. Equally, avoid caffeine-containing drinks. They can alter your body chemistry and affect your confidence as well. Finally, in the two or three days before your presentation, cut out alcohol completely. You may think it is making you more confident, but actually it is making you less confidence. You will only truly feel confident without alcohol in your system.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Presenters who exhibit any form of nervousness are less likely to get their message across. It's not because they are less effective as presenters - which is true - but due to the fact that the audience becomes nervous as well. They feel for the presenter and start worrying. The result is the audience doesn't listen to what the presenter is saying, instead focuses on their nervousness.

Confidence is therefore an essential component of giving a good presentation. If your are confident and show the audience you don't have any nerves they will start listening to what you are saying and so you will be able to get your message across more easily.

Presenters must therefore take steps to remove their fear of public speaking and show they are confident. Otherwise all the audience will remember is how nervous the presenter was.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Many people are scared of making presentations. Indeed, speaking in public ranks as more frightening than dying...! There are several books and courses in dealing with confidence for public speaking; indeed, The Presentation Business works in this area.

However, for many people reading a book is not enough. And they don't want to go on a training course because they know they will have to speak in front of a group of people.

For these individuals and for many others self hypnosis is a viable alternative. You don't have to be an expert in self hypnosis to do this, either. That's because hypnotherapists have produced audio products which people can use to direct them through from fear to public speaking confidence.

One of these products is available for the next month at just $8.95. After that, the price goes up. So you need to act now to get this excellent downloadable audio on boosting public speaking and presenting confidence. Many customers of The Presentation Business have already used this downloadable audio to great effect.

It comes with a 90 day money back guarantee so you cannot really lose.

For more information visit Hypnosis Downloads.

Labels: books, confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends:  

Confidence is a key issue for presenters. Without it, audiences do not engage fully with what you are saying. Indeed, audiences feel nervous if the presenter is not confident. So, you must be confident if you are to get your point across.

Some people are not phased by giving a presentation and they are fully confident. Others (the majority) find it rather daunting to stand up in front of an audience and start talking. One of the factors that differentiates a confident presenter from a nervous one is the amount of practice they have done.

In training sessions at the Presentation Business delegates often say they have little or no practice. The most common belief appears to be that you can "over practice". But that is not the case.

Most people do not practice enough. That dents their confidence considerably. You should practice your presentation so that it feels natural to you and that you do not have to think about what to say. Firstly, practice with your notes several times. Then put the notes to one side and practice without them - though for thr first few times you may need your notes to prompt you. Then go for a full "dress rehearsal" using any slides or other visual aids you have produced. Finally, you need a full rehearsal in the venue in which you will be presenting. This will help you get a feel for the room, the acoustics and so on, boosting your confidence even more.

Practice is essential in removing your nerves and confidence is essential if the audience is to get your message. Otherwise they concentrate on your nervousness and lose what you are saying. The way out of that is plenty of practice.

Labels: confidence

DIGG THIS STORY

Email this story to your friends: