Presentation Skills That Will Take You to the Top (Collection), 2/e

59. The Free Throw: A Presentation Lesson from Basketball

“It takes me a couple of minutes to settle down” is one of the most common utterances presenters make, and they make it in reference to the jolt of adrenaline that every presenter—novice or veteran—experiences at the start of every presentation. The jolt produces the Fight or Flight reaction to stress, which, in turn, causes the presenter’s eyes to dart around the room—regardless of the size of the room or the size of the audience—in search of escape routes; the darting then makes that person appear furtive to the audience. If you’ll pardon the play on words, in the blink of an eye, the audience gets an immediate negative impression of the presenter, and there is never a second chance ...