My favourite is the last one!

Have you avoided presenting at work before?  What excuse did you use?  And have you ever regretted avoiding not giving presentations at work?

Here’s their list of excuses:-

1. A straight “dont want to, thank you”. Give it to someone who enjoys doing them!
2. Agenda too full. Will table for next meeting.
3. Always find a way around it. I always claim to be very busy with other things.
4. Always sit back in the group and wait for someone else to present
5. Asked someone else to stand in for me, or write down what I am going to talk about and then just read it to the audience.
6. Bad throat, give others the opportunity, tell the other person that he’s the best at this.
7. By being busy.
8. Don’t have time or expertise.
9. Excusing myself out of the venue.
10. Feeling ill, got to leave to attend an emergency, lost my voice
11. Feeling unwell or have been unable to prepare
12. Generally provide opportunities to other colleagues.
13. Hay fever/sore throat.
14. I am not a good presenter.
15. I am not competent for the subject
16. I am not qualified enough.
17. I am quite busy
18. I can say that I have an appointment.
19. I can’t make it today, not prepared.
20. I can’t do it
21. I can’t remember what i’m going to say. which is fact, not an excuse.
22. I do not know enough about it. You would be better to deliver this.
23. I don’t apply for jobs that might require it. Only once have I actually refused – I said it was not in my job description.
24. I don’t feel confident enough to do this presentation there are other people in the team that are better at delivering the presentation.
25. I have another appointment
26. I have other commitments for the same time of presentation have no time to prepare.
27. I have some important official work and could not attend the presentations.
28. I have to say that I will be going some where else.
29. I pretend to be busy with my job
30. I take a holiday
31. I will do it next time and I am not the right person give it to somebody who has a lot of experience
32. I’m no good
33. I’m too busy
34. I’ve got other work on
35. If presentations to customers: not knowledgeable enough, not prepared, not available
36. I’m ill
37. I’m not ready or I haven’t got enough material to present
38. It would be better given by someone else.
39. Lack of time to prepare, lack of knowledge on subject
40. Leaving the chance to others
41. Maybe someone else can do it better…
42. Take annual leave or have other priorities at work.
43. The cat scratched my face and cut corner of my mouth and it hurts when I speak!

If you’ve got a better reason for avoiding presenting leave a message below.

Alternatively, have a look at some the the articles on this site – they might just give you the inspiration you need to take the plunge and present, next time you are asked.

Many however try and put things off as long as possible or end up experiencing one or more of the very common symptoms of presentation nerves –  which they might well describe as:-

1. “I am petrified about it”
2. “I’m very nervous”
3. “I’m very anxious about everything to do with presenting”
4. “My throat is so dry I can’t speak”
5. “I’ll avoid it at all costs”
6. “I’m afraid I’ll fail in front of my peers”
7. “I get panic attacks”
8. “I shake like a leaf”
9. “My mind just goes blank”
10. “I feel physically sick”

Have you ever felt that way yourself?

Am I unique feeling the way I do?

Most people dont realise that it’s very common to absolutely hate having to present.

It’s very common to be afraid at the prospect of having to stand up in front of an audience and speaking for 5 or 10 minutes.

And most people feel that way because of nerves and the potential for failure in front of colleagues or because of bad past experiences.

However, feeling nervous is natural in a situation like that.

And the good news is … that there are some simple strategies you can apply before you start to speak to help control the nerves and make you feel more relaxed.

Using breathing techniques to reduce nerves

Relaxation breathing techniques date back thousands of years.

You’ve probably already heard of the term “meditation”.  But did you also know that breathing is central to meditation?

Did you know that controlled breathing can reduce your blood pressure as well?  There is more than one device on the market that helps you reduce your blood pressure by helping you to breathe deeply in a controlled way.

Some simple research on the net about breathing exercies will demonstrate that it is actually a very powerful and yet very simple tool that you can apply to reduce stress and become more in control.

(Just try doing a google search for “breathing and blood pressure” and you’ll see over 4 million results!!)

Practise the techniques and feel the difference

So, practise taking in a few slow, deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

When you breathe out, try counting up to 20 out alound.  1 .. 2..3 ..4.. 5.. 6.. 7.. 8.. 9.. 10 .. 11.. 12.. etc

Make that outbreath as long as you can but dont force it. Then just let your in-breath happen naturally.

Try that a few times … increasing things as you go on … but dont do it too often initially or you might start to feel light headed!

Have you started to notice any difference in how you feel?

Just a couple of deep breaths can make a difference … so now you can use this before you start your presentation to help control your nervous energy and to calm you down before you start speaking.

Its important to think about why people get nervous and the effects nerves can have on you when you present. There are all sorts of symptoms that can be created through nerves.  And sometimes they can manifest themselves quite a lot when people present.

So the more you are aware of them and aware of the fact that its quite normal to feel nervous then the more that you can actually start to overcome them.

Preparing yourself to present

The first thing is to think about is preparing yourself for your presentation.

We’ve already covered preparing your presentation – ie the planning, structuring, the visual aids etc but there’s also you – the presenter and how best to prepare yourself.

Obviously the benefits of proper planning are very important – and will certainly help to reduce nerves.  However there are other things that you can do to fully take control of the nerves before you present.

Physical techniques

The benefits of breathing are often overlooked but this one simple technique can reall help to calm you and slow you down. Have a look at our article on breathing techniques to overcome presentation nerves for some more background on this.

When you are nervous you probably also speed up your speech.  So controlling the speed that you speak at is a good way to help control your nerves.

There are lots of other physical strategies that people employ to help reduce nerves and focus their minds and we’ll cover several more in a later article.

Psychological techniques

There are also some key pyschological techniques that you can apply to help you to kick out those negative thoughts that can creep into your mind and reduce your confidence.

These techniques can help you to maintin a positive mental attitude towards your presentation and help you remain  in control if any negative thoughts start to creep into your mind.

One technique is to imagine that the presentation has just taken place – and it that was successful.

Spend time imagining that success – and how you feel at that time.  Imagine the voices and other sounds that you hear at the end of the presentation and what the audiences’ faces look like and what else you can see in the room.  Take time to imagine all of the positives about the presentation that made it a success.

A lot of the time our imagination focuses on the negatives – so forcing it to focus on the positive can help to turn things around and will help build your confidence.

Rehearsing the presentation

We’ll also look at the practical techniques of how to rehearse and to actually apply the techniques you have developed to all sorts of presentations that you might actually do without even realising it because experience is obviously one of the best ways to get rid of your nerves.  The more presentation experience you have the more confident you will feel.

Finally we’ll look at how to control that nervous energy just before you present – what you can do that 3 minutes before you present, what you can do 20 seconds before you start and also what you can do during your presentation if the nerves start to kick in again and how to try and control things.