Faking confidence (i): Improving your presentation technique

That sweet, sweet freedom

If you have navigated your way to this page, it’s safe to bet that you feel like you lack confidence in public speaking. Like so many of us in academia, you are probably an introvert, and even worse, probably secretly living with a crippling case of the Imposter Phenomenon. A potent combination. The very idea of standing in front of a room of experts at a conference or workshop probably fills you with dread, and having to actually speak in front of them…that’s the stuff of which nightmares are made. You’re certainly not alone in that. I’m not going to tell you, “don’t be nervous!”, because that isn’t helpful. You can use your nerves to help you give a better presentation, though.

It’s a good idea to start practising long before you ever get to a conference. Communication is such an important skill in the scientist’s repertoire that any opportunity to exercise these muscles should be taken. If you’re able to give small presentations within your department, to your friends, to a local science club, or even just to the sparrows in your garden, it will help you to become gradually more at ease with the format so that by the time you have to give a really big presentation, you’ll already be much more comfortable with the idea. It’s very easy to say “no” to things when they’re uncomfortable and we’d rather not do them, but if you’re asked to give a talk and you have the time – say yes. The only way we can grow is through experience.

Even if you don’t mind public speaking in general (or are one of the weird minority who actually likes it), it’s normal to get an attack of nerves before you give a big conference presentation – especially if you’re early in your career. Any time you’re nervous, chances are you’ll start to display odd behaviours or speech patterns that you would never normally do. You may not even be aware that they’re happening. Self-reflection is a key part of the process of practising. Getting feedback from others, and learning where you need to improve, will help you to become a much stronger presenter over time.

Step 1: Identify your “problem areas”

Everyone has at least one verbal or physical tic that comes out when they perform in public. These tics are any repetitive behaviour, movement, catchphrase, or gesture (that they may not even be aware that they use) to help them to “cope” with the situation they are in. These coping mechanisms are usually only noticeable when they’re excessive, but if they are frequent or obvious they can be distracting to an audience. Often they make you look nervous, whether you are or not. In order to disguise these behaviours, you first need to identify what tic(s) you have. The very first thing you need to do is to record yourself speaking aloud. For this, you will need:

• A recording apparatus (any phone camera will do)
• A set of slides that are more-or-less ready for presenting
• Some willing victims friends to be a quiet & non-judgemental audience

As far as possible you want to try and create a realistic scenario, so you will achieve better results if you’re a bit stressed. You don’t have to do this with an audience, but if you can find a few friends (Ph.D. students can be easily bribed with free food…just sayin’) to sit in front of you and simulate a conference audience, you will feel the same embarrassment and fear – this will lead you to make the same “mistakes” as you would in a real scenario.

Next, have one of your audience record you while you give your talk. If you can book a seminar room at your University that has projection capabilities and space for the audience to spread out, this is ideal as a more accurate simulation of a conference environment. Don’t stop and restart if you make a mistake, just keep powering through until you’ve made it to the end. Long periods of silence, stuttering, tripping over words, even technical problems – doesn’t matter at all. This is not a real practice, rather just to give you an idea of how you come across to the audience when you are nervous.

Step 2: Study

Most people find it very uncomfortable to watch themselves, but try to review the footage objectively, as if you’re watching a talk being given by someone else. You will probably find your own nervous tics very obvious when you see them on screen, and cringe at the sound of your own recorded voice. However, it’s important know that these tics are not an inherent problem – only when they are excessive enough to distract the audience, or make you look nervous when you want to portray confidence. It can help at this point to ask the people who sat through your talk to give you some feedback on what things they noticed or found distracting. If there is a large discrepancy between the number of tics you think you have, and the number they spotted, it’s possible you’re being overly self-critical.

I also learned a huge amount about presenting by watching and copying other people (especially people who are confident at public speaking. So, if people ask you to be in their “audience”, do it! Even better would be for you to organise a group presentation session for your peers, so everyone can get some feedback on their technique. You can get an idea of what tics your peers manifest when they’re nervous. You can also see what they do well, and discuss this as a group – this takes the focus off you specifically, and it can also be an effective “team building” exercise to help each other to get better in a constructive and supportive way.

Carefully watch their body language as they present. How do they seem? Do they appear nervous or confident? What are they doing that gives you that impression? Pay attention to their posture, their body language, their voice, the pacing of the talk. Is their voice shaking or cracking? Are they looking at the floor? Are they rushing through it? As well as giving them feedback, it’s useful for you to see what mannerisms you can copy to make yourself look more confident than you feel. In the next article, I’ll chat about my own experiences as an introvert who had a large number of tics to watch out for, and the techniques I used to counter them. For now though, here are some of the most common ones I’ve seen:

Things to watch out for:

• Looking down – you want to try and make eye contact with the audience;
• Saying “umm”, “ahh”, “and umm yeah” more often than you say words;
• Shaky, cracking, croaky voice;
• Shaky hands;
• Hunched shoulders and “talking to the floor”;
• Pacing around the floor or making wild gestures; or
• Rushing through slides.

Step 3: Create an action plan

Tension is often carried in the shoulders, causing rounding. Simple yoga stretches can loosen them up and help you appear more confident – and you don’t need to be a contortionist! 
(stock image: Ekaterina Bolovtsova/Pexels)

It takes time and practice to minimise or disguise your tics enough that they are reduced to a “background” level. There is always a background level of “umms” and “aahs”, a certain amount of hand gestures, no matter how confident the speaker, and as I said before, there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. If you have multiple tics that appear for the same underlying reason, addressing that reason instead can make all of the tics disappear. This is where the self-reflection and awareness play their part. Remember, this is not about suppressing your individuality, or making yourself robotic as a presenter, but rather about giving the impression that you are confident even if you’re not by replacing “nervous” behaviours with ones that portray confidence.

Once you know what your tics are, try to think about strategies you can employ that would reduce them. If you find that your voice gets very dry and croaky, keep a bottle of water beside you, for instance. If you also tend to make repetitive hand gestures (as opposed to those we use in speech to “act out” the story we’re telling), perhaps hold onto that bottle while you talk to occupy your hands. If you rush and that causes you to forget what you wanted to say (causing you to say “umm” frequently), try deliberately slowing down by pausing at the end of each point you wanted to make. At first this will feel weird, but it gives you a little thinking room – you will end up going back to a normal speed as the pause starts to feel more natural, without having to make a conscious effort to do so. Deliberately taking in, and then letting out, a breath when you switch slides will also help slow you down.

If you hunch your shoulders and look at the floor, practice standing up straight. Breathe in as you bring your shoulders all the way up to your ears, then roll them backwards and down as you breathe out. Try to imagine your shoulder blades meeting in the middle of your spine. Picture an invisible thread joined to the top of your head, and imagine it being pulled upward – this will naturally lift your chin and lengthen your spine – then try to find a spot on the opposite wall (like the top of a door frame or window, for example) to focus your attention on at that eye level. If your head is up, the audience gets the impression that you’re making confident eye contact, even if you’re not really looking at anyone in particular, and your voice will more easily carry to the back of the room. Practice this sequence of movements any time you notice you’re slouching or hunching your shoulders. It’s also great to help loosen up your shoulders after you’ve been sitting at your computer for a long time.

Step 4: Practice your talk

This is important. The more often you practice your talk, the better an idea you have of how long certain things take to explain, or where you forget things. If you have a lot of moments where your brain goes blank, you can amend your slides to add some keywords that jog your memory. It also allows you to set good habits in a non-stressful environment. Your brain has a chance to become familiar with both the contents, and how to move your body, until your performance starts to feel more natural – even if at the start you have to move and speak very deliberately to train yourself.

You don’t need to do this in front of other people, either. This is more about you, and making yourself feel more prepared. If you have a week, say, before you have to give a talk in front of people, you could start six days out by running through the presentation multiple times, setting aside an hour or so for the task. Then give yourself a few hours’ break, and run through it again a couple more times. For the next three days, spare thirty minutes per day to run through it again. A few days out, and you should feel fairly relaxed when you run through it. At this point you probably want to practice it in front of other people (friends, peers, or your research group) to make sure that everything still works with a live audience, and see where things may start to go awry. In this way, you still have a few days left to practice, armed with this knowledge, before you have to give the talk for real.

Of course, it’s a great idea to revisit step 1 again, and re-film yourself presenting this talk so that you can see the difference from the original video to how much you’ve improved. This is usually a pretty big confidence booster, especially after all your hard work and practice.

Next article

Faking confidence (ii): An introvert’s story or go back to Guides