Confidence comes from deep within. As a quality, it falls under the Law of the Harvest—you cannot suddenly cultivate a deep and prevailing sense of confidence. It is built over time and is a product of right living rather than a state of mind that can be achieved at will.
It is for this reason that it makes the most sense to start building your confidence right now, regardless of when your next presentation is. And just so we’re all on the same page, let’s go ahead and point out that confidence on stage is pretty much the most important quality you can possess as a presenter. So it’s worth the attention if you want to present at your highest level.
So what does it take to have confidence on stage? Here are some of our observations from working with great presenters over the years:
1. Integrity: Stephen Covey defines integrity as “the value we place on ourselves”. He talks about how this value should be intrinsic, defined from within, rather than dependent on external factors like social status or results. If you think long and hard about this, you’ll see the correlation to confidence on stage. There are always going to be variables that threaten to diminish your confidence if you look outside of yourself for your value. But if you have a strong personal compass and find your value in timeless principles, you’ll have an effortless, natural confidence that no one else can take away from you.
2. Diligence: Covey goes on to note that we can build up the value we place on ourselves by “making and keeping small commitments”. This spans all areas of our life. Following through on that morning exercise routine, honoring your ambition to order salads instead of burgers, following through on family time, and other small commitments all add up to a fundamental confidence that you’re an individual that follows through. Again, the end result of such living is a confidence that surface techniques will never touch.
3. Vision: Nothing erases temporal fears like a clear vision of what it is you’re trying to accomplish. If your thoughts have even a shred of insignificance—that it really doesn’t matter one way or another that you succeed—then you’re bound to focus your mental energy on less significant realities like audience approval. This has the reverse effect of limiting your ability to influence the audience.
You’ll find plenty of tricks and techniques and quick fixes for pre-presentation confidence out there, and lots of them are really good advice. Of course exercise helps with stress management; of course eating well leads to comfort on stage. But we are deep believers that the best presenters in the world are operating one level below the simple techniques. They’re working on themselves as individuals, building up their integrity, diligence and vision. As they grow in stature as people, they gain natural influence and rely less and less on the approval of others. They have a clear understanding of what they’re trying to accomplish that eclipses any short term stressor. They’re less prone to circumstances and situations.
If you want to step into another echelon of presentation ability, this is ultimately where you have to go. Great presentations, deep deep down, depend on the quality of the individual.
Question: What do you do to improve as an individual?
