You already know that the key to successful and confident performance is presentation practice.
But what you think you know about practice may not be quite right.
The effect of the right kind of diligent rehearsal is twofold: 1) your material is delivered in a logical, cogent fashion without stumble, and 2) the practice imbues you and your team with confidence so that stage fright is reduced to a minimum and your team’s credibility is enhanced.
The Right Presentation Practice
Practice strips away the symptoms of stage fright as you concentrate on your message and its delivery rather than extraneous audience reaction to your appearance.
But it’s absolutely essential that you practice the correct way.
This means that you practice the way you perform. This means you do not start your presentation repeatedly, as almost all of us have done at points in our presentation careers.
There is something in our psyche that seems to urge us to “start over” when we make a mistake. When we stumble, we want a “do-over” so that we can put together a perfect rehearsal from start to finish. But when we do this, what we are actually practicing is the “starting over.”
We become very good at “starting over” when we make a mistake.
Start Over? Bad Mistake!
But is that what we plan to do when we err in our actual presentation? Start over?
No, of course not. But if we have practiced that way, what will we do when we stumble? We won’t know what to do or how to handle the situation, since we have never practiced fighting through an error and continuing on.
We have practiced only one thing – starting over.
Instead of starting over when you err, practice the gliding over of “errors,” never calling attention to them. Practice recovering from your error and minimizing it. Perform according to the principle that regardless of what happens, you planned it.
Practice according to the principles enunciated here at Business School Presenting and according to the hard preparation you have conducted leading up to your presentation.
Practice it all for an especially powerful presentation.
For more on perfect presentation practice, consult The Complete Guide to Business School Presenting.