Overcoming Anxiety Before a Business Presentation

Our clients at Davinci are thriving business people. They often give presentations and conduct meetings in our conference rooms. We're proud to assist in our clients' professional image and progress due to our services. We hope that our services induce confidence in them during their Big Presentation or their Big Meeting.

The following excerpts from an Oxford Brookes University article provides a few internal ways for the presenter him- or herself to boost his/her confidence for the Next Big Presentation:

Overcoming Presentation Anxiety

Taking control:

The key to success is to think positively; take control of your stress and anxiety by learning effective techniques to combat it.

Relaxing bodily tension in order to reduce the physical sensations of stress is a good place to start. If your body is free of tension your mind tends to be relaxed. This helps you concentrate and perform better, take decisions and solve problems. When you are relaxed, you can view each task as a positive challenge, and use stress as a stimulus to help you to carry it out .

Breathing exercise:

Place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach. As you breathe in through your nose allow your stomach to swell. This means that you are using the diaphragm to breathe in and allowing air right down into your lungs. Try to keep the movement in your upper chest to a minimum and keep the movement gentle. Slowly and evenly breathe out through your nose. Repeat and get a rhythm going . You are aiming to take 8-12 breaths a minute: breathing in and breathing out again counts as one breath. Practise until it becomes a habit and switch to regular breathing when you next become anxious.

Practice

The more you do the more you'll feel like doing and the better you are likely to be.

Pretend! Act as if you are not feeling self conscious.

If you make a mistake, use it to help in the future. Don't let it drag you down.

On the day

• Refer back to your breathing exercises and concentrate on using them to defuse your anxieties and reduce the chances of shaking or sweating.
• Think positively, challenging those negative thoughts like "I'm stupid", "I can't do this". Replace them consciously with "I can do this". Remind yourself that what feels like an enormous problem to you probably isn't to those watching.
• A useful technique that can help stop worrying thoughts crowding in is to visualise a "stop sign" or draw a red dot on your work. As soon as you become conscious of your worrying thoughts, concentrate on your "stop" message. This helps keep you focused.
• Focus on the content of your talk. As your turn approaches take some deep breaths letting go of as much tension as is possible. When it's your turn to take centre stage use the adrenaline rush to feel alert and focused.
• If you feel yourself blushing, ignore it and reassure yourself that it will die down once you've got going ! Say to yourself that you are not likely to be marked down for turning pink.
• Slow your speech down, it helps you feel in control.
• Using drugs of any sort (alcohol, stimulants, even too much caffeine) to "get through" can adversely affect performance leaving you even less able to perform well. Facing your fear now will provide you with a skill for life.