You can feel the dryness creeping up your throat. Your thoughts begin to jumble and you can’t remember what you are going to say. The room narrows a bit, you are unable to focus on a single face.
Nerves
Before we go any further, grab something to write with. Quickly, without over thinking, write down all of the things that might go wrong with your next training or presentation.
Keep that somewhere safe for a moment while we continue on.
We’ve all felt that surge of nervousness before we train. Maybe we feel it in the days leading up to training. Maybe yours arrives the morning you wake up. Or perhaps your nervousness shows up as soon as you open your mouth to speak.
Nerves are real. And, they are to be expected.
If you care about what you do, you are going to feel nervousness. It is a product of wanting to get things right. It’s a product of our own need for acceptance, security, and accuracy. It’s completely natural and to be expected.
While we can’t eliminate our nervousness, we can work on managing it.
I’ve identified six steps to manage our nervousness. Let’s dive into each!
Prepare
Create A Routine
Talk To Yourself
Wear Reliable Clothing
Connect With Your Audience
Know Your First Sentence
Prepare
The more prepared you are, the more confident you will be in front of the room. Spend time practicing your presentation. If your presentation is short, practice the entire presentation with a few trusted friends. If it’s longer, select the opening and a few critical elements to practice.
If you are short on preparation time, visualize your presentation.
We are all short on preparation times, so we need to get resourceful. Visualize your presentation when you are driving to work, in the shower, or going for a walk. Research supports visualizing yourself a success can be as effective as practicing it out loud!
Create A Routine
Once you’ve done some preparation, it’s time to think about your training routine. When will you arrive? What will you eat? How will you set up your visuals? Think all of this through and begin to create a routine you follow for each class or presentation.
Here’s my typical routine as an example for an 8:30 AM class:
5:30AM Get out of bed, shower, and get dressed
6:00AM Breakfast of a steamed soy milk and quiet time with my husband
6:30AM Double check my materials and computer are packed
7:00AM Wake my son up for breakfast and to start his morning routine
7:15AM Pack car and leave for presentation site
7:30AM Arrive at training site
7:35AM Plug computer in and start Glen Miller Play list (I know sound and projector are working and I have music for everyone to arrive to)
7:40AM Continue setting up room with wall posters, training buckets, and any other necessary items
7:55AM Begin to greet early arrivals
8:30AM Start class
I try to follow this every time I train. It helps me avoid forgetting important items and I feel very grounded before I begin.
You may want to consider adding a PowerPose to your routine too!
Talk To Yourself
What we say to ourselves before and during training matters. What are you saying to yourself? Take a look at the list you created when we got started. If you are letting that list echo in your head you are setting yourself up for failure at worst and at best A LOT of anxiety. You don’t need that!
Once you’ve written the list, set it aside. You’re done with those things. You’ve thought about them, given them some time. NOW YOU ARE READY.
Once you’ve got all the bad things out of the way by physically writing them down, you can begin some self talk for success.
Alison Wood Burk at Harvard Business School found that reframing our pre-presentation anxiety as excitement can help our performance. Yes, excitement. You are excited because you care about doing a great job.
Reappraising anxiety as excitement is more effective than trying to calm down.
Alison Wood Burk, Harvard Business School
My son, a musical theatre kid, used the term “nercited” to gather this nerves. It’s a beautiful combination of nervous and excited.
Say “I’m excited” before your next presentation or training.
Wear Reliable Clothing
You know it. The shirt that gapes, the pants that tug, the zipper that, umm, doesn’t zip. Standing in front of the room with all eyes on you is not the day you want to discover which clothes need to be purged from your closet.
Wear what works. Wear what you’ve worn before. Wear what makes you feel professional and confident.
Dress just a little bit better than you expect your learners to be dressed. It’s not the moment to outdo them, but to comfortably match with a little more flair.
Connect With Your Audience
Leave time to greet people before you begin your training. Really greet them if possible. Don’t just shake hands and say hello. Ask them a question that gets them talking to you.
- “How was your drive in this morning?”
- “How has your week been?”
- “How do you hope class will help you?”
Try to move beyond idle chatter. You may not be able to talk to everyone, but try to find several people you can chat with. Try to listen more than talk. This will give you a few friendly faces you can connect with when you get started. Think about finding a few people scattered throughout the room so you can easily vary the spot you look at during your training.
Know Your First Sentence
Your nerves are at their peak at the beginning of your presentation. All eyes are on you. The expectation for the entire presentation is about to be set. This is the moment when you need to know the exact first sentence you want to say. Don’t rely on improv or what “feels right” at this critical moment. Know your words. Practice these words until you know them. Make them strong and not anything administrative or boring, you’ll have time to get to those.
Here are a few ideas that work almost any training. Put your personal touch to them.
- “How many of you have ever…” (raise your hand as you say this, it will help relieve your nerves and get the room involved)
- “Imagine you are just about to …”
- “How many of you think it’s your manager who should be in the room?”
Training and presenting is never wracking. It’s easy to focus so m much on your content that you forget about taking care of yourself and preparing mentally. Taking a few extra minutes to know your first sentence, talk positively to yourself, and connect with your audience will set you up for success.
Believe you’ve got it and you are well on your way.
Have any other techniques you use to help calm your nerves before you step in front of the room or in front of the webcam? Share in the comments below! I’d love to know what works for you!
