Do you have to get up and speak in front of groups sometimes? And does it stress you out? You know what? You're not alone! It stresses everybody out! But some people just deal with it better than others. Here's a few things to remember for the next time...

Before doing anything that represents a "threat", we get nervous. This is a biologically programmed reaction. It's sometimes called the "fight, flight or freeze" reaction. Essentially the more ancient, instinctive areas of your brain are preparing you to either defend yourself, run away, or play dead, which are the three essential ways of dealing with a predator (the archetypal threat).

What your body needs to do to prepare for these three options explains most of the physiological things that happen to you when you are nervous! You shake, your breathing becomes fast and shallow, your heart rate increases, your mouth dries up, your face goes red, your mind goes blank, you say stupid things... Am I making you feel better?

The bad news is that as long as speaking in front of people remains threatening to you, this will happen every time. The good news is there is something very simple you can do about nearly all of these physiological reactions.

1. ANTICIPATE SHAKING...

Seeing yourself shaking will almost certainly make you feel worse! Do something comfortable and natural with your hands so they are not suspended in front of you trembling.

Don't plan to hold a sheaf of notes in front of you for instance, particularly not on A4 paper! Rest your hands on the table, sit on them or rest them in your lap (depending on how you are standing or sitting). Don't plan to manipulate small complex objects...

Never mind body language dogma that says "thou shalt not...". What's important is to find a natural position for you that stabilises the shaking bits (particularly the shaking bits that you can see yourself, which are your hands!) Plan ahead! You know it's going to happen, so make choices that will minimise its effects.

2. CALM YOUR BREATHING

One of the effects of the fight, flight or freeze reaction is that you take shorter, shallower breaths more rapidly. This action hinders correct oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange in your lungs and contributes negatively to feelings of lightheadedness, confusion etc. Consciously slowing and deepening your breathing will reestablish the correct gas exchange processes in your lungs and get your oxygen concentrations back to normal. This action will also relax your diaphragm (the big muscle sheet beneath your lungs that is the main muscle driving your voice), which has the pleasant effect of stopping your voice from wavering (= vocal shaking).

3. HYDRATE

Although the reasons for this are not completely clear, most people experience dry mouth when nervous. The solution is simple: drink! But drink water!

Not Coke, coffee or anything else with caffeine in it. Stimulants are definitely not what you need when you're already nervous, and hot drinks are a bad idea (remember, you're probably shaking...).

Alcohol is not such a good plan either. Although it is true that a small amount of alcohol can actually reduce the shaking a little, any more and your ability to think and eventually articulate clearly will be negatively impacted. Alcohol is a depressant, and its effects are not conducive to clear effective communication. Also alcohol doesn't do a lot for the feeling of a dry mouth.

Water is the answer, which is why it is almost always provided at speaking engagements. Cool (not freezing cold) water. Note, if you're prone to the shakes, then be sure not to overfill your glass unless you want to splash it all over yourself the first time you pick it up...!

4. USE EFFECTIVE NOTES

When we evolved this response to threat, our options were essentially fight, run away, play dead or get eaten. Conspicuously absent in that list is reason your way out of it using complex arguments!

Our physiological reaction reassigns most of our resources to muscle strength and response times, and draws resources away from just about everywhere else, notably the neocortex... Blood flow to the brain is reduced, and the result is that you can easily get confused, go blank (freeze) or lose the thread of what you are talking about!

Be prepared for this! Plan for it. Of course you should always know what you are talking about: if you are confident with your topic, that will translate into a confidence with you presentation. And vice-versa... That's pretty obvious! But unless you are supremely confident (in which case I doubt you'd be reading this at all) then, you need to use effective notes.

People's theories differ a lot on this point. Here's mine:

Your notes should permit you to speak naturally and fluidly to your audience, using normal spontaneous speech. Spoken language and written language have different characteristics. Speaking in written language (which is what happens when you read from written notes) sounds stilted and is considerably harder to concentrate on when presented vocally. If you want your audience to switch off as quickly as possible, then read or parrot a rote-learnt written script. If you want to engage them, talk to them!

Your notes are mnemonics only: single words and phrases. No full sentences. Certainly not your whole presentation written out! They should be written on a single sheet of paper that you can rest on the table in front of you so that you don't have to touch them at all during the presentation. The font should be big enough that you can read it easily just by glancing down (and not by bending and squinting!)

Do not use PowerPoint slides as your notes! Yes, bullet points are big, easy-to-read mnemonics, but

It's an awful use of PowerPoint (for a whole bookful of reasons...), and
It means that to check your notes, you will be turning your back on your audience (rule of thumb: your audience should not know what your back looks like!).

Don't do it! I'm going to write a few posts about PowerPoint later in this blog... Look out for them!

Ideally you should never have to look at your notes at all. If you do, it is just to find your place, check the next mnemonic and pick up where you left off. Each mnemonic should correspond to a logical section of what you intend to say, such that a natural pause at the end of an idea will allow you a moment to glance at your notes smoothly, and move on without breaking your rhythm.

Some people recommend a stack of small notes that you can hold in your hand. I don't. You can drop them and get them in the wrong order. You can't see them all at once, so you are locked into a linear presentation that limits your ability to spontaneously modify the structure should you need to (for timing considerations for instance), and holding something in front of you during the whole presentation places a barrier between you and your audience which, personally, I don't think is a powerful way to present.

I would even recommend against holding a microphone for the same reason, but there would be people who would argue with me on that point...

5. CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Everyone in your audience knows exactly what you are going through. We've all been there. Unless you are in front of a hostile audience (which is a specific challenge... another blog post perhaps), then they feel for you, and would like you to succeed! Acknowledge your nervousness! Own it. Make a joke out of it! It's OK. You'd be amazed how affirming it can be to realise that you're not in front of a panel of judges ready to condemn you for your human frailty... you're in front of a bunch of humans who are probably all glad it isn't them having to do what you are doing!

Being nervous is OK. And owning it is a sign of confidence that makes you look better and feel better. Acknowledging your nervousness also creates an in-group bond with your audience which is a rhetorically powerful thing to do. There are lots of ways to achieve in-group identification, but this is an easy one that actually makes nervousness into an advantage (well... less of a disadvantage!)

6. ...BUT KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE GOAL!

Make a joke out of your nervousness, own it, but then move on! You are not there to talk about yourself, presumably. Taking a few moments to forge a relationship with your audience is an excellent idea, but if it goes on too long, then your audience will lose patience with you.

Keeping your eye on the goal is also important if/when you lose your place. Avoid panic and avoid nervous inane prattle. Even more important: don't get annoyed and start showing signs of irritation – very off-putting for your audience. Pause (point 7). Remember what you are doing there (look at the title of your notes), scan down your notes slowly, find your place. Everything will come back and then you can move on.

7. SLOW DOWN AND PAUSE

Muscles full of adrenaline fire faster. Speaking is a muscular activity and so not surprisingly, when you're nervous, you speak more rapidly and pause less: racing. Make a conscious effort to speak more slowly. It will feel weird, but it will probably not sound weird to your audience. Your effort to consciously speak slowly will actually cancel out your racing and the result will be that you are speaking at normal pace.

Another interesting psychological effect of the kind of panic that people experience in this context is time-dilation: the time it takes to stop, scan down your notes and find your place feels like minutes of uncomfortable silence. In reality it is probably seconds at most and nobody in your audience will notice. Pausing allows your audience the time to process what you are saying, which is critically important if you don't want them to dial out. When you reach the end of a point or a section, stop speaking, look around, smile! Take a few breaths! Ask your audience directly if they are still with you if you like (works for small intimate audiences, less so with auditoriums), then move on.

The more you practice these kinds of things with attention, the better you will feel about your own performance, which will relax you further and the whole experience will spiral upwards and will end with you giving a really good presentation!