Assessment and presentations are universally feared, and most people are likely to feel nervous and under pressure! However, the ability to present ideas and gain support is a key business skill. To be successful, you must be able to speak clearly and confidently to large and small groups and to known and unknown audiences. The assessment is no different. It is likely that the interviewers have provided you with a topic. So as well as impressing them with your presentation skills, you will also need to provide them with the information they are after.

Good speakers are not born – it is all about some basic rules and practise. Speakers suffer from nerves because they worry about making fools of themselves or being ineffective.

These situations all require positive presentation skills. The quality of your performance affect how successful your are.

You may be apprehensive about speaking in public – nerves, making a fool of yourself, being criticised, or forgetting what you intend to say. Remember that we have provided a number of tools for controlling nervousness. Use them.

Why Assessment and Presentations are Feared

Good speakers are not born – it is all about some basic rules and practise. Speakers suffer from nerves because they worry about making fools of themselves or being ineffective. In particular:

• Drying up or forgetting words;
• Being challenged by a more knowledgeable person or not being able to answer a question;
• Looking nervous e.g. shaking hands, sweating, trembling voice;
• Not being perfect e.g. fluffing pronunciation/dropping a OHP transparency

Good speakers do not allow fear of failure to prevent them giving a good performance. They have learned to use their nervous energy positively. They suffer from butterflies but have learned to control them. They don’t kill the butterflies – they train them to fly in formation.

We have prepared a download for you that will help you in your preparation. You can access this below. The download will also enable you to be part of our mailing list for our latest articles.