Even outsize personalities suffer from anxiety on the eve of a job change

Take Piers Morgan, the often controversial and always-in-the-news British journalist. As he writes in the opening chapter of his most recent book, on June 15, 2010, he stood on the threshold of the biggest moment of his career:

I ran two British national newspapers for eleven years, judged TV talent shows on both sides of the Atlantic, won Donald Trump's inaugural Celebrity Apprentice, and currently host Britain's most popular TV interview show. But right now, all of this seems like chicken feed compared to what I may be about to do — replace the great Larry King at CNN in America.

And was he nervous? You bet! Later in the chapter, Morgan writes about the meeting he had set up with NBC president Jeff Zucker, to whom Morgan had sent an e-mail pleading to be relieved of his duties as a judge on the network's America's Got Talent so that he could go to CNN. Zucker wrote back to Morgan: "Come and see me to discuss your future."

Morgan writes:

So I boarded a flight from London... landed at 8 p.m. in New York, and had a fitful night's sleep.

At midday [the next day], I stumbled down to gulp oceans of wake-up coffee at the hotel with my manager, John Ferriter.

He was bullish about the meeting with Zucker in two hours.

'I don't think he'd fly you over here just to say no. But he's going to want you to dance for your dinner. How are you feeling?'

'Nervous, but excited.'

And there you have it. So why do we ordinary mortals worry when we suffer from a little nervousness on the eve of a job interview, or just before going up on stage to deliver a speech, or even on the day before a class presentation? It's perfectly normal.

By the way, Zucker permits Morgan to go over to CNN but only on condition that he continues to do America's Got Talent as well. Read the book to learn how Morgan manages to juggle two elephantine assignments, both of which require him to think on his feet and at the same time be ready to jump on a plane and head out to a shoot at moment's notice.

Among the many fascinating things we learn from reading Shooting Straight is how Morgan got Oprah Winfrey to agree to be one of his first guests on Piers Morgan Live.

I was working out in the Beverly Wilshire gym [in the morning] — I live at the hotel when I'm in L.A. — when I saw Radha Arora, the flamboyant general manager who has transformed the place in spectacular style over the past few years.

'Who's going to be your first guest?' he asked.

'Not sure yet. I'm trying for President Obama, but I suspect it's highly unlikely he'll do the show until he's seen what it's like.'

'What about Oprah?'

'She'd be incredible, but I don't know her, or any of her people, and she doesn't give many interviews.'

'Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, is in town right now. Why don't you ask her?'

I sent an email:

Dear Gayle,

I believe our mutual friend Radha has warned you that I may be in touch. As you may know, I'm replacing Larry King on CNN.

What you may not know is that I am a stupendous fan of Oprah. And I'm desperate to interview her for my launch week.

I know she's the busiest woman on the planet, but I want to know how I can make this happen. Short of parasailing naked onto the roof of the White House, I'm prepared to do anything.

She replied quickly: 'I will certainly let team Oprah know of your interest. Please don't show up at the White House naked, you may be shot and that might hurt.'

This e-mail exchange took place on September 12, 2010.

Two months later, on December 22, after many more attempts to get through to Oprah, Morgan receives an e-mail from Oprah's publicist, who writes from Australia:

'We're happy to confirm Oprah has agreed to be your opening guest.'

WHAT A COUP! OPRAH AND PIERS MORGAN

What do we learn from all this? Even outsize personalities can get nervous; even outsize personalities need to put in a big effort to make things happen at work. So there is no need to feel overawed by the task at hand, no matter how important it is; just get down to it and you will be able to get it done.

Um... basically... ah... literally... uh...

BEN DECKER

Do you use filler words?

If yes, you should be aware, says PR guru Ben Decker, that using such filler words when you speak will annoy your listeners and torpedo your credibility.

Helpfully, in the piece he wrote for Entrepreneur magazine earlier this week, Decker, who runs his own communications firm, also provides advice on how to cut out the filler words from your conversation:

1. Leave yourself a voicemail.

2. Try to overdo a pause.

3. If you project your voice, it's really hard to say "um…"

4. Don't get down on yourself.

He elaborates on each point in the article while pointing out that the payoff for eliminating filler words is tremendous:

Heightened credibility. A better delivery. Best of all, a clearer message without the distraction.

Read the piece in its entirety here: "How to Cut the 'Ums,' Uhs,' and 'Literallys' When Speaking".

ADDITIONAL READING:

• Here are four ways to "quiet your presentation anxiety"

RELATED READING:

• How to avoid struggling to make conversation

Are YOUR PowerPoint slides doing more harm than good?

PowerPoint is ubiquitous. Not only in boardrooms and conferences rooms but also in classrooms (yes, I use it, too, and so do my students when they make in-class presentations).

As Bob Parks writes in a recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, "No matter what your line of work, it’s only getting harder to avoid death by PowerPoint."

The article continues:

Since Microsoft launched the slide show program 22 years ago, it’s been installed on no fewer than 1 billion computers; an estimated 350 PowerPoint presentations are given each second across the globe; the software’s users continue to prove that no field of human endeavour can defy its facility for reducing complexity and nuance to bullet points and big ideas to tacky clip art. (italics mine)

Ouch!

There's more in the same vein:

As with anything so ubiquitous and relied upon, PowerPoint has bred its share of contempt. Plug the name into Twitter and you’ll see workers bashing the soporific software in Korean, Arabic, Spanish, and English as each region starts its business day. Part of this venting may stem from a lack of credible competition...

Microsoft’s other ubiquitous products, such as Word and Excel, don’t draw the same widescale ire. As PowerPoint’s sole function — unlike word processing and arithmetic — is grounded in visual arts, its slides do more harm than good. They bore audiences with amateurish, antiquated animation and typefaces and distract speakers from focusing on the underlying structure of their creators’ speeches.

Double ouch!

If you use PowerPoint (and who doesn't?), you will want to read this article in its entirety and then rethink your own slide-presentation strategy: "Death to PowerPoint!".

• Also read: Helpful advice on making better PowerPoint presentations.

• Related reading: "Four ways to quiet your presentation anxiety". 

• Cartoon courtesy: CartoonStock

Here are four ways to "quiet your presentation anxiety"

It can be unnerving for some youngsters to walk to the front of a room, or go up on stage, and make a presentation to twenty or thirty people, forget a few hundred, in the audience. Is there a way to quiet their anxiety? Yes indeed, writes Selena Rezvani on the Forbes website.

Rezvani, who recently had to present a workshop to more than a thousand women around the globe at a "webinar", says she began feeling the pressure as the event neared.

As the registration numbers climbed prior to the event, so did my anxiety. I fussed and fretted — and it wasn’t until I found a list I’d jotted down last year that I got my focus back; that list contained four strategies that I’d focused on and upheld during my best presentations.

Rezvani then shares those four strategies:

• Don’t be self-centered!
• Find your right rehearsal level
• Get right to it
• Think connection, not perfection

These are all excellent tips, which Rezvani elaborates on in her article. Check it out here.

• UPDATE (June 15, 2013): Here is a must-read piece by Vivek Wadhwa, a Stanford University scholar, which I happened to see on LinkedIn today: "How To Go From Being a Disaster—To a Great Speaker".

• UPDATE (September 20, 2013): Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte, an American company that specialises in "turning ideas into persuasive presentations", has this important advice to offer:

Let’s clear something up: you, as the presenter or speaker, are not the most important guy/girl in the room.

Just because you’re on a stage or in front of a crowd does not make you the savior everyone has been waiting for. (This applies whether you are addressing a conference of ten thousand or holding a team meeting with three people.)

Recognize that you are Yoda, not Luke.

The most important people in the room are your audience: make them the heroes of your story. Defer to them, because if they don’t engage and believe in your message, you are the one who loses. Without their help, your idea will fail. Become the mentor in their story and whisper guidance in their ear, empowering them to be the agents of change and achieve greatness.

Read Duarte's post in its entirety here: "Like Yoda You Must Be" (I hope you have watched the Star Wars movies, or know about this cultural phenomenon.)

• UPDATE (November 7, 2013): If you are serious about becoming good at public speaking, you should think seriously about enrolling for this free online course offered by the University of Washington on Coursera: "Introduction to Public Speaking, by Dr. Matt McGarrity". (To learn more about Coursera and Massive Open Online Courses, read this post: "How would you like to take the world's best courses, online, for free?")