THE CONFIDENCE GAME
Scene 1: I am walking through a corridor lit by rows of ceiling strip lights. The bare painted walls are almost gleaming with whiteness. The sight intrigues me although I can’t think about it in a meaningful way because I am on a mission. The fist sized tension knot in my stomach has swollen to the size of a balloon and judging from the strained creak of my zip, I know my trousers are struggling to hold in my expanding gut.
“Nearly there”, I whisper nervously “It’s going to be fine”.
The clack of my boot heels on the stone floor echoes down the corridor. I can almost feel the shudder from the reverberation. Isn’t it funny how anxiety can exaggerate a sensation?
Scene 2: I have arrived. One final deep breath before I turn the door handle and enter the room. A thirty million dollar contract is riding on my presentation. Get it right and the company’s growth will be unstoppable then who knows I might even get to make senior partner. All I have to do is convince the ten people sitting in front of me that my boss is worth the investment.
Scene 3: The presentation is going well. The audience is dazzled by my knowledge of company data and one or two people are laughing at my jokes. Everything is great – until a man with thick rimmed spectacles throws me a question about the drop in last quarter’s EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortisation). I’m trying to answer but even though my mouth is open it’s frozen and the sound coming out of it is a half choked gurgle. Hundreds of questions are now flying in my direction. I can’t move because my boot heels have stuck to the floor, my trousers have given up the pretence of holding in my stomach (which is now the size of a mini Zeppelin), and balls of paper are being lobbed into the dark pit of my open mouth.
Okay, it was a dream and nothing as drastic as that has ever happened to me (not yet), although I do know one or two people who haven’t been quite as lucky when they’ve had to speak in public. A friend of mine was so nervous during an executive presentation that she accidentally broke wind (rather loudly). She salvaged a bad situation by behaving as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Her boss was so impressed he gave her a pay rise!
Public speaking isn’t easy. Go to the self-help section of any bookstore and you’re bound to find several tomes devoted to the subject. Some will offer advice that’s genuinely helpful while others…well, perhaps the less said about them the better! So what category does How to Speak with Confidence in Public fall into? Definitely not the latter. Writers Edie Lush and Charlotte McDougall have produced a book with fascinating case studies, compelling science and good, clean humour (much of it self-effacing). It’s a combination that works because of the authors’ personalities and the obvious passion they have for their work.
Their approach can be best described as logical and friendly as they tackle issues familiar to those of us who’ve ever had to speak before a roomful of strangers: nervousness, running over time, introducing anecdotes into presentations, and knowing how to use a prop to explain complex ideas (baked bean tins are a favourite of writer and journalist Dominic Lawson to explain how capitalism works). Solutions to problems include breathing exercises, knuckle stroking (think of a favourite place, rub your knuckles and then stroke them again when you’re stressed. You’ll feel relaxed because the brain associates the action with a positive memory), and “owning” a space by sitting up tall in a chair while making sure “your knees aren’t tucked into the table.”
It’s too dismissive to say that Lush and McDougall’s book is built around stating the obvious. There may be an element of truth in that but it’s also worth remembering that people often let themselves down because they don’t always do the obvious! I once sat through a House of Commons speech that was supposed to last for ten minutes but which dragged on for an excruciating thirty!
Both authors enjoy the advantage of having skills that naturally lend themselves to public speaking (Lush is a journalist and leadership coach while McDougall is an actress, comedy writer, and communications expert), yet they’re the first to admit that even they’ve made mistakes. Check out Edie’s description of her disastrous Bloomberg TV debut in Chapter 12: her microphone went sailing off and the studio erupted in laughter. I had some bad on air moments at Bloomberg but nothing quite like that!
How to Speak with Confidence in Public is a readable book thanks to a humorous text, quirky illustrations, and practical suggestions such as using a mobile phone to film a rehearsal. It’s a great idea except that most people wouldn’t feel comfortable watching a play back of themselves and the book doesn’t explain how to overcome that. Maybe that could be the basis for a sequel.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
This article first appeared in Dante Magazine: http://www.dantemag.com/
