The New Year’s fast-approaching, and that means one thing: end of year slide decks.
Pre-holiday recap meetings are a great opportunity to brag about you and your team’s accomplishments — but they’re also a source of dread for anyone who hates public (or semi-public) speaking.
If thinking about getting up in front of your boss has your palms sweaty, knees weak, and arms heavy, here are a few tricks from public speaking guru Anett Grant you can use to project confidence even if there’s vomit on your sweater already:
Be honest with yourself
If you know you get nervous with the higher-ups in the room, you can prepare for it. Convincing yourself that you don’t have speaking anxiety and then trying to “wing-it” is probably not the best game plan.
Just because you had a bad speech, doesn’t mean you’re a bad speaker
Ok, so you puked on a board member during last year’s elevator pitch. But as Edna Mode puts it, “never look back dahling, it distracts from the now.” Today’s a new day. Seize the slide deck.
Plan out concepts, not words
Even if you rehearse your entire presentation verbatim, you’re gonna slip up on a transition somewhere down the line. Focus on the big concepts you want to drive home, and don’t get rattled if you stumble on a word or two.
Alright, pep talk over. Now go get Tony Robbins on your next presentation.