Overcoming Stage Fright (Performance Anxiety)

If you dread the thought of getting up in front of a group of people and performing, you are not alone. Millions of people suffer from performance anxiety, commonly called "stage fright." In fact, most people would rather get the flu than perform. Athletes, musicians, actors, and public speakers often get performance anxiety.

Performance anxiety can prevent you from doing what you enjoy and can affect your career. Worst of all, performance anxiety can negatively affect your self-esteem and self-confidence. Although it may be impossible to totally overcome performance anxiety, there are many things you can do to control your emotions and reduce anxiety.

Performance Anxiety Symptoms
Being the center of attention and having all eyes on you can be stressful. Your body reacts to this situation in much the same way as it would if you were being attacked. Your body's "fight-or-flight" mechanism kicks in, which is why symptoms of stage fright are similar to symptoms that occur when you are in real danger.

Performance anxiety symptoms may include:

• Racing pulse and rapid breathing
• Dry mouth and tight throat
• Trembling hands, knees, lips, and voice
• Sweaty and cold hands
• Nausea and an uneasy feeling in your stomach
• Vision changes
  
  Performance Anxiety Causes
• Simply put, stress and anxiety about performing in front of people causes performance anxiety. 
• Confronting your fears and vulnerabilities, accepting yourself for who you are, and not feeling like you have to prove yourself to others, is the first step toward overcoming performance anxiety.
•  Keep in mind that nobody is perfect, nobody expects you to be perfect, and it is OK to make mistakes.

The second step is learning how to redirect your negative thoughts, beliefs, images, and predictions about performing in public. Doing this is not as difficult as you might think.

Performance Anxiety Treatments
Here are 10 tips to help you overcome your fears and shine on stage, on the field, or at the podium:

1. Be prepared: practice, practice, practice.
2. Limit caffeine and sugar intake the day of the performance. Eat a sensible meal a few hours before you are to perform so that you have energy and don't get hungry. A low-fat meal including complex carbohydrates -- whole-grain pasta, pizza, or a bean and rice burrito -- is a good choice.
3. Shift the focus off of yourself and your fear to the enjoyment you are providing to the spectators. Close your eyes and imagine the audience laughing and cheering, and you feeling good.
4. Don't focus on what could go wrong. Instead focus on the positive. Visualize your success.
5. Avoid thoughts that produce self-doubt.
6. Practice controlled breathing, meditation, biofeedback, and other strategies to help you relax and redirect your thoughts when they turn negative. It is best to practice some type of relaxation technique every day, regardless of whether you have a performance, so that the skill is there for you when you need it.
7. Take a walk, jump up and down, shake out your muscles, or do whatever feels right to ease your anxious feelings before the performance.
8. Connect with your audience -- smile, make eye contact, and think of them as friends.
9. Act natural and be yourself.
10. Exercise, eat a healthy diet, get adequate sleep, and live a healthy lifestyle.

Keep in mind that stage fright is usually worse before the performance and often goes away once you get started.

Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations

 

How to Deliver Effective PowerPoint Presentations 

There are so many times when you have to deliver PowerPoint presentations - be it in a corporate setting, as part of a school project or to your business clients. Here are some tips for delivering effective PowerPoint presentations that can help you seize the day! 

Presentation First, PowerPoint Second 

PowerPoint presentation is an acquired skill. It's also one that's commonly overlooked during training, whether that learning effort is completed independently or in the work setting. It's important to make sure you fully grasp the dos and don'ts necessary to deliver a good PowerPoint presentation before you step in front of a room filled with a hushed and expectant audience; otherwise, whatever important information you have to relay will likely be totally lost on your listeners. 

So what's the first pitfall to avoid on the way to a great PowerPoint speech? 

The biggest mistake people often make when creating a PowerPoint presentation is that they make the slides the focus. Many of you are probably still haunted by high school teachers and college professors who ponderously read almost exactly what was being shown on the screen -- whether by an old school projector or on a newer digital medium -- without any elaboration or additional scholarly flourishes. How dull and repetitive. Attention should be on the presenter and on the compelling story that he or she has to tell. 

PowerPoint is effective at providing supplementary information, like simple, colorful graphs or other relevant imagery, but should never be the main source of information. The worst thing a presenter can do is to turn around and read from the PowerPoint. If all of the information is already on the screen, then there's no need for the person speaking to ramble on about it .

Know Your Audience 

As you begin preparing a PowerPoint presentation, consider whom you'll be addressing. A classroom crammed with novice students? A somber boardroom composed of barely attentive commissioners ? A meeting room packed with veteran colleagues? 

You'll want to tailor your message and your presentation format based on a number of factors, like the current knowledge level your audience possesses on the topic and how much it engages them. If they grasp quite a bit and (better) are already excited to hear what you have to say, then you can delve into more detail.

On the flip side, if they know nothing about the topic you're about to present or (worse) hold doubts they'll be persuaded by your talk, you'll want to make sure your PowerPoint is especially straightforward and simple. In the latter case especially, really focus on letting your words do the explaining, in particular when it comes to persuading them on any complex ideas you need to convey.

 Inspire your Audience 

 The goal of any presentation is to sell the audience on an idea. It could be a pitch for investing in a new company, a plan for reorganizing a business or a proposal for a scientific research project. For the audience to understand the presentation intellectually as well as emotionally, it needs to be told as a cohesive narrative -- a story. 

 The audience needs to know three things: 

•  Where we are now
•  Where we want to end up 
• How we're going to get there
  
  Slides should communicate those three simple ideas backed by simple text statements, strong images and graphs. But in most cases, try not to get too heavy on the text aspect -- let the story you're telling play off the slides, and keep in mind, as we'll learn on the next page, seeing is believing.

   Show It, Don't Write It

Human beings are highly visual learners. It's much easier for our brains to remember a strong, unique image than a series of facts and figures. PowerPoint is a great, easy-to-use program for creating dozens of different types of graphs and charts. Remember that the simpler and bigger the graph, the better.

The purely visual portion of your PowerPoint presentation will be chiefly responsible for about 55 percent of the impact you have on your audience, compared with 38 percent in regards to the things you say, and 7 percent of the text you quote on each slide

Embrace Color – CarefullySlides should communicate those three simple ideas backed by simple text statements, strong images and graphs. But in most cases, try not to get too heavy on the text aspect -- let the story you're telling play off the slides,and keep in mind,  seeing is believing. 

FLY THE COLORS 

Some colors may look different when thrown up on a projector screen. It's a smart idea to do a test run to make sure your carefully crafted slideshow doesn't look weird on the available machinery when the moment of truth arrives. You can also ensure your slides have enough contrast to be read clearly at appropriate distances and are agreeable for easy audience consumption -- even if some of those audience members are colorblind. 

Color psychology is an interesting field, and one that you can draw on to make a successful PowerPoint presentation. You want to use meaningful and memorable colors, but you don't want to get too busy or flashy. PowerPoint is an extremely versatile program, but that doesn't mean you need to exploit every gimmick and design trick available. Rather, look for ways color combinations can assist you in delivering both the contextual detail and the emotional impact in each slide you craft, so they support your message succinctly, clearly and intuitively. 

A vivid contrast or a soothing balance might be called for to help make your points. By using complementary colors (those opposite on the color wheel) and analogous colors (those adjacent on the color wheel) you can affect how your audience perceives your message. Also, let colors work for you.

Green is commonly associated with both action (such as at a stoplight) and wealth (the old greenback) so you might want to employ it strategically if you're hoping to convey these sentiments. 

 Use large fonts throughout your presentation. It is OK even if you include only two three major points on each slide - but make sure the points are clearly visible to your audience. On the right you can see an example of a slide with large fonts.

Try to add enough interesting pictures and animations related to topic on your slides as possible. You must tnto add pictures when they are not very much required! This is because pictures and animations make the slides less interesting - and they make your audience not want to look at the slides.
If you were being shown a PowerPoint presentation, animations makes text interesting.However, use of additional pictures must not off tangent the Topic.

You can gain access to loads of free pictures by clicking on the "ClipArt" option under the Insert tab in PowerPoint. You can animate text and pictures using the "Custom Animation" option under the Animations tab in PowerPoint.

 Draw charts, tables and blocks whenever you need to explain a concept in detail. 
This way, you will able to make your presentations more interesting as people don't like reading through lots of text to grasp a concept. You can insert special charts using the "Smart Art" option under the Insert tab in PowerPoint. You can similarly use the "Table" option under the Insert tab to insert a table.

 Follow the Rule of 10
Guy Kawasaki -- former Apple "chief evangelist," venture capitalist and professional speaking guru -- has established his famous "Kawasaki Rule of Ten" in which he only uses 10 slides during a PowerPoint presentation, often in a top 10 fashion. Those slides generally consist of nothing more than a single sentence or phrase and a supporting image. All 10 give the audience powerful visual cues that reinforce the message that Kawasaki is communicating. And since audience members know that there are only going to be 10 slides, they know when the presentation is about to end. Kawasaki suggests a steady narrative stream for these 10 slides. Starting, for example, with the problem on slide No. 1 and the solution on slide No. 2, all the way down to the timeline on No. 9 and the summarizing call to action on slide No. 10

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

 • Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.
The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1.  Problem 
2. Your solution 
3.  Business model 
4.  Underlying magic/technology 
5.  Marketing and sales
6.  Competition 
7.  Team 
8.  Projections and milestones 
9.  Status and timeline 
10.  Summary and call to action 

• Twenty minutes. You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
 • Thirty-point font. The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.
 The reason people use a small font is twofold: 

• first, that they don’t know their material well enough; 
• second, they think that more text is more convincing.
  
  Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.
  
•  So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem.

Source

Don't choose messy fonts. 

You're trying to sell an idea, not seem like you write ransom notes in your spare time. In closing: When you deliver your PowerPoint presentation, make sure you talk to the audience with the intention to explain your topic to them - not just to read what is written in the slides and finish off with the presentation.

Use the points on the slides as markers that tell you which direction you should proceed in but don't only read out those points. Let the points give you ideas which you can explain in detail as you talk to the audience. Talk to the audience as if you were talking to a friend - with the intention to make them understand what you are saying. A wonderful way to make your presentation interesting is to involve the audience in your presentation.

 As you talk, ask your audience some questions. For example, if you are talking about designing a website, ask your audience - "Which website do you visit the most? What do you like about this site?" The audience will then feel more involved and interested and you will be able to get your point across in an even better way. Or better yet..Conduct an Open Forum after presentation.

by:  Ms. Dahlia D. Sagucio - Ph D Linguistics

Methods of Speech Delivery

There are four basic methods of delivering a speech: (1) reading verbatim from a manuscript; (2) reciting a memorized text; (3) speaking impromptu; and (4) speaking extemporaneously. Let us look at each.

• READING FROM A MANUSCRIPT

Certain speeches must be delivered word for word, according to a meticulously prepared manuscript. Examples include a Pope’s religious proclamation, an engineer’s report to a professional meeting, or a President’s message to Congress. In such situations, absolute accuracy is essential. Every word of the speech will be analyzed by the press, by colleagues, perhaps by enemies. In the case of the President, a misstated phrase could cause an international incident.

Although it looks easy, delivering a speech from manuscript requires great skill. Some people do it well. Their words “come alive as if coined on the spot.”2 Others ruin it every time. Instead of sounding vibrant and conversational, they come across as wooden and artificial. They falter over words, pause in the wrong places, read too quickly or too slowly, speak in a monotone, and march through the speech without even glancing at their audience. In short, they come across as reading to their listeners, rather than talking with them.
If you are in a situation where you must speak from a manuscript, practice aloud to make sure the speech sounds natural. Work on establishing eye contact with your listeners. Be certain the final manuscript is legible at a glance. Above all, reach out to your audience with the same directness and sincerity that you would if you were speaking extemporaneously.

• RECITING FROM MEMORY

Among the feats of the legendary orators, none leaves us more in awe than their practice of presenting even the longest and most complex speeches entirely from memory. Nowadays it is no longer customary to memorize any but the shortest of speeches—toasts, congratulatory remarks, acceptance speeches, introductions, and the like.
If you are giving a speech of this kind and want to memorize it, by all means do so. However, be sure to memorize it so thoroughly that you will be able to concentrate on communicating with the audience, not on trying to remember the words. Speakers who gaze at the ceiling or stare out the window trying to recall what they have memorized are no better off than those who read dully from a manuscript.

• SPEAKING IMPROMPTU

An impromptu speech is delivered with little or no immediate preparation. Few people choose to speak impromptu, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. In fact, many of the speeches you give in life will be impromptu. You might be called on suddenly to “say a few words” or, in the course of a class discussion, business meeting, or committee report, want to respond to a previous speaker.
When such situations arise, don’t panic. No one expects you to deliver a perfect speech on the spur of the moment. If you are in a meeting or discussion, pay close attention to what the other speakers say. Take notes of major points with which you agree or disagree. In the process, you will automatically begin to formulate what you will say when it is your turn to speak.

Whenever you are responding to a previous speaker, try to present your speech in four simple steps:

1. State the point you are answering. 
2. State the point you wish to make. 
3. Support your point with appropriate statistics, examples, or testimony. 
4. Summarize your point.
   
   This four-step method will help you organize your thoughts quickly and clearly.

If time allows, sketch a quick outline of your remarks on a piece of paper before you rise to speak. Use the same method of jotting down key words and phrases followed in a more formal speaking outline
 This will help you remember what you want to say and will keep you from rambling.

In many cases, you will be able to speak informally without rising from your chair. But if the situation calls for you to speak from a lectern, walk to it calmly, take a deep breath or two (not a visible gasp), establish eye contact with your audience, and begin speaking. No matter how nervous you are inside, do your best to look calm and assured on the outside.

Once you begin speaking, maintain strong eye contact with the audience. If you are prone to talking rapidly when you are nervous, concentrate on speaking at a slower pace. Help the audience keep track of your ideas with signposts such as “My first point is …; second, we can see that …; in conclusion, I would like to say ….” If you have had time to prepare notes, stick to what you have written. By stating your points clearly and concisely, you will come across as organized and confident.

Whether you realize it or not, you have given thousands of impromptu “speeches” in daily conversation—as when you informed a new student how to register for classes, explained to your boss why you were late for work, or answered questions in a job interview. There is no reason to fall apart when you are asked to speak impromptu in a more formal situation. If you keep cool, organize your thoughts, and limit yourself to a few remarks, you should do just fine.

As with other kinds of public speaking, the best way to become a better impromptu speaker is to practice. If you are assigned an impromptu speech in class, do your best to follow the guidelines discussed here. You can also practice impromptu speaking on your own. Simply choose a topic on which you are already well informed, and give a one- or two-minute impromptu talk on some aspect of that topic. Any topic will do, no matter how serious or frivolous it may be. Nor do you need an audience—you can speak to an empty room. Better yet, you can speak to a digital recorder and play the speech back to hear how you sound. The purpose is to gain experience in pulling your ideas together quickly and stating them succinctly.

• SPEAKING EXTEMPORANEOUSLY

In popular usage, “extemporaneous” means the same as “impromptu.” But technically the two are different. Unlike an impromptu speech, which is delivered off-the-cuff, an extemporaneous speech is carefully prepared and practiced in advance. In presenting the speech, the extemporaneous speaker uses only a set of brief notes or a speaking outline to jog the memory (see Chapter 10). The exact wording is chosen at the moment of delivery.

Extemporaneous speeches are prepared ahead of time, but the exact words are chosen at the moment of presentation. This allows for more direct delivery than does reading from a manuscript.
This is not as hard as it sounds. Once you have your outline (or notes) and know what topics you are going to cover and in what order, you can begin to practice the speech. Every time you run through it, the wording will be slightly different. As you practice the speech over and over, the best way to present each part will emerge and stick in your mind.

The extemporaneous method has several advantages.

• It gives more precise control over thought and language than does impromptu speaking;
•  it offers greater spontaneity and directness than does speaking from memory or from a full manuscript;
•  and it is adaptable to a wide range of situations;
•  It also encourages the conversational quality audiences look for in speech delivery.
  “Conversational quality” means that no matter how many times a speech has been rehearsed, it still sounds spontaneous. 

When you speak extemporaneously—and have prepared properly—you have full control over your ideas, yet you are not tied to a manuscript. You are free to establish strong eye contact, to gesture naturally, and to concentrate on talking with the audience rather than declaiming to them.

A good speaker  clearly has practiced a great deal, and she knows what she wants to say,and  she may or may  not memorized her  speech. She can have  a brief set of speaking notes in case she needs them, but she is not tied to the notes. Rather, she selects her words as she goes along, maintains strong eye contact with the audience, and has excellent conversational quality.

source : Inklink