Paul du Toit on Presentation Skills

The manner in which you will approach an upcoming presentation has much to do with

1. The beliefs you hold about yourself and your presenting ability.
2. What you have done to address that belief system.
3. How close you are to believing that you have what it takes to pull off a convincing presentation. 

We adopt our beliefs about ourselves at an early age and in a random fashion. More specifically, we formulate opinions about ourselves at key moments. A teacher telling six-year-old Johnny “put down your hand, Johnny, Sarah will recite the poem for us” can have a chilling effect on Johnny’s self-confidence. If this is later followed by encouragement, a different outcome is likely, but if followed by further discouragement the idea will solidify in Johnny’s mind that he is not good enough to stand up and recite the poem and that Sarah will always be preferred because she must be better. In future he might avoid speaking up to avoid the pain of rejection. This kind of scenario is the source of many people’s anxiety surrounding speaking. It need not be so.

Our first attempt at speaking in front of the class can be quite harrowing. We all react differently to this staged situation and what pops out can be as unexpected as it is random. It is dangerous to assume you will be less nervous as an adult than you were as a child. Emotions are time travellers. We psychologically draw on past experience to anticipate the reaction we are likely to get. So past bad experiences teach us to expect rejection and this expectation robs us of our ability to present with confidence. As a result, the adult who suffered failure at some time in the past is likely to meet with limited success when attempting to speak with authority in front of a captive audience – at least until that early programming is corrected.

Paul du Toit, Certified Speaking Professional…excerpt from “Even You Can Present with Confidence”