How to Minimize Anxiety When Presenting Online - Part 4

How to Minimize Anxiety When Presenting Online - Part 3

How to Minimize Anxiety When Presenting Online - Part 2

How to Minimize Anxiety When Presenting Online

Scholar K. Anders Ericsson was an expert on how people become experts. While there are many elements embedded in his work (see the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise for an incredible read on how people build skill), they can be simplified to include four primary elements: time, repetition, real-time coaching/feedback, and working on skills outside of your current abilities.

For many of you, presenting online is still a relatively new medium, and one that you may not like, nor were you trained in school (or maybe even early in your careers) to present online. As a result, the sudden shift can feel uncomfortable and awkward at first.

In previous posts, we explored several non-verbals that aid in your delivery of a successful online performance. Solid eye contact, appropriate hand gestures, smooth transitions, and congruent facial expressions each help you tell the story. We have noticed a few nonverbal behaviors that we would encourage you to minimize or avoid.

Although it can be difficult to incorporate hand gestures into an online presentation, any hand gestures you do use in an online setting should accentuate your main points, add to the story, and be regarded as another tool to help engage listeners.

When presenting online, everyone has a front-row seat. They are right there with you. As a result, facial expressions are a critical element of an outstanding online presentation.

Although it can be difficult to incorporate hand gestures into an online presentation, any hand gestures you do use in an online setting should accentuate your main points, add to the story, and be regarded as another tool to help engage listeners.

In addition to our previous posts on the importance of voice, there are a few other concepts we would like you to know about voice. What we discuss below are habits that may distract from your message.

In this post, we explore the importance of pitch, tone, and cadence as a speaker. As we have asserted, in previous posts, we feel that the use of voice is one of the most important aspects of speaking - whether in person or online. Voice is the heart of great storytelling and great presentations.

We’re continuing our series of posts about voice with another important topic: Pausing. Scholars have shown “that listeners were more likely to recognize words which had been encountered after silent pauses, demonstrating that silence affects not only the process of language comprehension but also its eventual outcome.”

We’re continuing our series of posts about voice with another important topic: pace. Intentional pacing in your talk is essential to its success. Unfortunately, there is no concrete, agreed-upon range of speech that we could find in our research; we can tell you, however, that recommended ranges from different sources suggest anywhere from 120–225 words per minute.

A theme we consistently heard from the executives we interviewed for our book, Captovation: Online Presentations by Design, was the importance of a speaker’s voice. A speaker’s voice is his or her primary tool for engaging the audience.

It’s not if you make a mistake, it’s when you make a mistake. All presenters make mistakes. Great presenters take these in stride and do not make more of the mistake.

Excessive use of filler words and phrases (e.g., um, mmkay?, right?, ah, like, so, err, you know what I mean) distract the audience, communicate anxiety, and diminish fluency.

The words you choose to use (and not use) are critical and can make or break your talk. The Atlas of Emotions (www.atlasofemotions.org), developed by world-renowned emotions scholar Paul Ekman, can help you think through the concept of emotion and key words to communicate sentiment

The words you choose to use (and not use) are critical and can make or break your talk. The Atlas of Emotions (www.atlasofemotions.org), developed by world-renowned emotions scholar Paul Ekman, can help you think through the concept of emotion and key words to communicate sentiment

rom a delivery standpoint, a challenge for each of us is to strike a balance between authenticity and professionalism. Another way to say it is, are you professional and accessible? Participants want to get to know you—the professional version of you, of course, but also what you might be like outside of presentation mode. This can be a difficult balance.