Recognizing Presentation Anxiety

Developing presentation skills is important to those who make regular presentations as part of their work, such as sales people, project managers and finance personnel. Most people not accustomed to making presentations will feel some intense form of anxiety as the time for presentation draws nearer. Some professionals who do presentations regularly also profess having anxiety fears every time they undertake a presentation. People feel that the anxiety and stress is normal and comes with the fear of making a presentation in front of an audience. No matter how great their Gantt chart and other supporting charts, they also feel queasiness in their stomach before the start of a presentation. You might be experiencing presentation anxieties if you exhibit some of these symptoms, such as sweating profusely, dryness in the mouth, increased heart rate, nausea and headaches. Experiencing one or two symptoms are indications that you may be undergoing a presentation anxiety.

No matter how many times you redo the Gantt chart or spruce up your slides, you still feel fear creeping throughout your body. For some people, a presentation anxiety is one step away from a panic attack. Actually, being nervous increases the adrenalin and makes you take extra precautionary steps to ensure a good presentation. Most people get nervous before a presentation. This can be due to fear of the unknown, fear of losing control, fear of being intimidated, and overall fear of failure. Fear is inherent in everyone and what differentiates a top performer from a poor employee is the ability to take control over the fear. Fear is one of the emotions and feelings which a person may undergo from time to time, for whatever reason. What is significant is how the person takes control over their fear and turns it into an opportunity.

When a person thinks their presentation is not up to par, one area which undergoes intense scrutiny is the presentation material. Presenters sometimes have a sixth sense when they feel something is not right with their materials. They go over their Gantt charts over and over checking the milestones and activities listed in the Gantt chart. Misspellings could be overlooked when the presentation material was being prepared but provide some time afterwards to do several reviews on the content. The audience is reading every word displayed on the slide and trying to absorb your verbal explanations at the same time. The audient may be critical on the content and very particular on correct spellings. After all, you should have had sufficient time to recheck the words and spellings prior to the presentation.

Another area that should be subject to scrutiny is the timeline and schedules reflected in the Gantt chart. This area is more sensitive than the spellings since a wrong date can make the project askew. People are more critical with dates as the impact on the resources and even the entire project could get affected drastically. Go over the materials several times to ensure you don't overlook anything of importance. Recognizing the symptoms of anxiety and stress is the first step towards ensuring a closer review of the presentation materials, especially the Gantt chart which in most probability is the key slide to the entire presentation.

To learn more about using a gantt chart, visit http://www.ganttchart.org.