Oral Presentation on the previous Monday had allowed me to make a breakthrough in communication and presentation. Although it was not really going well as planned, I was quite glad that my fellow classmates showed enthusiasm and interest towards my team's topic by raising several interesting questions.
"Know that you are your greatest enemy, but also your greatest friend." This is a quote from Jeremy Taylor, and I find it best to suit my presentation. My greatest enemy would probably be my nervousness. I prepared my speech script well. Before the day of my presentation, I made sure that I rehearsed enough by presenting in front of a mirror. All seemed well, but when I was doing my presentation on the spot, I almost forgot my script. I did not talk about some of the important points, nor did I elaborate some notes that I made during the presentation. In addition, my legs was, for the first time, shaking quite violently when I was presenting. I was trying to calm myself down by making some pauses during the presentation. Also, I didn't make eye contacts engagement with my audiences when the nervousness drove up.
On the other hand, by taking into account the feedback from the peer-teaching review session, I learned to redirect the audiences' attention to the screen. If I almost forgot the speech, I would try to redirect their attention by showing my hand to the screen, so that I could somehow refresh and got back to the track where I wanted to express. For the Q&A session, I felt that I didn't manage to answer fully to what my classmate raised.
In overall, I felt that I can do much better if I can overcome my greatest enemy. With this experience in delivering a presentation, I have a better understanding on what areas that I need to improve on. Hopefully after this fruitful experience and in future, I can be a more confident and less nervous presenter.
Hi Jun Lin!
ReplyDeleteIts a great choice of practising in front of the mirror! You are able to observe both your verbal and non-verbal actions then. I should have done that instead of practising in front of my soft toys. haha.
During the presentation, I felt that you began well with great eye contact! However, I also noticed that midway, you lost your train of thoughts. Perhaps instead of looking away and cracking your brain to remember, maybe you could have looked at the slides for clues? Or quickly think of something else to say. I have been in your situation before and its definitely an unpleasant feeling. But I'll try my best to say something else rather than pausing for a long duration to recall my speech. I guess you can try this too! :)
In addition, you can also work more on the pronounciation of words. And I feel that a lot more could be done at the conclusion to ensure that the audience will remember your presentation.
All in all, I felt that you answered the Qand A question knowledgeably and confidently. Thumbs up for that! :D Your dress code was also in-aligned with the team.
All the best for your future presentations, Jun Lin!
Cheers,
Genevieve
Hi Genevieve,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the detailed feedback regarding my presentation =)
It is true that I was not performing well on that day, and there are more rooms for improvement. Thanks for some ideas mentioned in your feedback. Will try these out in future presentations.
Cheers
Jun Lin
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Jun Lin, thanks for your very honest reflection.
ReplyDeleteOver the course of 13 weeks, I really have noticed a difference in the way you stand in front of an audience. Particularly the last session when you stood in front of the class (and noting that you were the first to share, which didn't make it any easier)- that was quite a different Jun Lin. Loud, pleasant, good eye contact, and dare I say I saw a very strong dose of confidence as well - those were indications of good beginnings, pointing the way to successful presentations in the future.
Back to your Oral Presentation. You were right. Nerves indeed got the better of you not long after you began your presentation. You started off well, thanking Yazhini. But soon after, a number of verbal (forgetting what to say, odd pauses…) and non verbal communication (hands behind your back, avoiding eye-contact, eyes looking towards the ceiling…) indicated to the audience that you were starting to get nervous.
Looking at the audience probably made you more nervous, and I could totally understand why you tried to avoid eye-contact with your audience.
Unfortunately though, that action did little to allay your nerves and your stress, am I correct?
What about trying this instead? I remember you said you are a sportsperson – well, then this strategy should appeal to you: overcome stage fright by participating in physical activities.
That is, you direct the additional energy (the tension build-up) in a focused manner via physical activities, using up the excess neurotransmitters, helping you to calm down. Consider going for a quick jog in the morning of your presentation to release the excess energy. Better still, engage in physical activities the day before your presentation. As we are all aware, physical activities provide us with a sense of well-being, and of course they also give us a good night’s sleep.
A student of mine from another group shared that on the day of her presentation, she felt unusually calm, and didn’t ‘succumb’ to nerves, which was her greatest nemesis. She attributed it to the examination which she sat for right before her presentation, draining her ‘brain juices’ (quoting her). I thought that was one very good example how engaging in activities calm one down.
I believe once you have your nerves under control, you should have no problem delivering a fluent presentation. It was obvious to me that you did prepare for the presentation; at certain junctures when you managed to calm your nerves slightly you were able to fluently convey your thoughts. I would say that you already possess a number of positive elements (pleasant smile, loud and clear voice, good articulation etc) present in a good presenter, so your key task is really overcoming speaker anxiety.
All the best to your future presentations – I know you can do it!