By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

Many of my clients struggle with clarity and confidence in both routine and high-stakes communications.

1. A creative director appears scattered and nervous during the pitch of a new concept

2. A junior analyst races through her update in a meeting with senior executives present

3. A successful sales associate leaves rambling voicemails for her internal clients

 What all of these situations have in common is that there is an unconscious intention influencing the speaker’s actions.

Let’s start with the 1^st situation.  Negative self-talk such as “My job is on the line!” or “It’s critical that I land this client!” thrusts a presenter into panic mode.  As a result, I often find that anxious presenters have intentions like “I need to look good”, “I can’t make a mistake” or “I need to be perfect”.  All of these intentions create internal anxiety.  I often illustrate this in workshops by standing behind the presenter and whispering all of these statements in their ear as they try to present.  The result: mental blue screen and reduced confidence.

So which intention should you choose to bust your nerves?  My pick: “I want to help my audience/I want to be of service”.  If I am trying to help someone – whether that’s a manager who needs my data to make an informed decision or a group of administrators who need to follow a new policy – my ego goes on the back-burner, my vibe becomes more relaxed and I am more tuned-in to my audience.  You will actually look and sound better if you ignore how you look and sound during your presentation (you can practice that in rehearsals) and focus on how you are helping your audience.

In the 2^nd scenario, all of the above might be true (and only the presenter knows for sure) but I’m guessing that the intention to “get this over and done with as fast as possible”.  This intention is common with analytical and/or more introverted people.  Switching gears to a help/serve intention PLUS focusing on only one person at a time when speaking can help lower the stress levels.

And the final scenario?  I’m guessing there was no intention operating here other than to “leave a message”.  If you know you ramble or sound too informal setting the intention to be “clear and concise” on all of your voicemails will mean that you take time to bullet-point your ideas, re-record if necessary and not multi-task while leaving the message (see: Annoying Communications Part I)

My intention here was to be helpful.  Was I?