How to Make Anxiety Work for You in Your Legal Career
Picture yourself making a high-stakes presentation to 200 of your most influential, and challenging, legal colleagues. Among them is your manager. And the managing partner of your international law firm. If that isn't enough, you're being videotaped so people from Los Angeles to London can benefit from your cutting-edge insights and their significant impact on the legal profession, your practice area, and the reputation of your firm.
Are you stressed? Can you imagine a sleepless night and churning stomach before you go on view for all to see? Does a day job flipping hamburgers suddenly sound more appealing than the track you're on?
Presenting to large and small audiences is an everyday affair for attorneys. You are called on to engage, inform and instill confidence in you clients, fellow lawyers, law school classmates, senior partners, judges, juries, corporate board members, and large audiences at conferences, awards dinners and legal association meetings. It is expected that you will present yourself as an influential and respected professional, speaking in a manner that is clear, concise, precise, persuasive-and confident.
How do you boost your confidence? As you prepare to speak in front of any important individual or group, consider these questions:
1. Where are you directing your energy?
Nervousness results from our bodies doing precisely what they were designed to do-produce adrenaline. Unfortunately, this hormone causes our hands to shake, hearts to pound, and mouths to feel like the Sahara Desert. Not the best way to come across as creative, quick-thinking, and spontaneous legal professionals. To counter these reactions, we need to relax our muscles so oxygen-rich blood flows to the brain, not to our shaking knees.
How do you relax your muscles and let go of debilitating tension?
Breathe-Inhale and exhale deeply, even in front of an audience. Comfortably fill your lungs with air and let all the tension flow from your body as you exhale. Yes, it works!
Move around-One way to regain control over your own tension is to move. Use the space in the front of the room. Walk toward people or move to the screen to reference a slide. You will channel your energy into something positive and add interest for the audience. Note: pacing back and forth is NOT the same thing.
Connect with your eyes-When presenting in front of a live audience, if you stare at your notes, the floor, or your slides, you miss valuable clues that may indicate a need to adjust your presentation.
Look at each person, or sections of the room, for a few seconds to build rapport and display trustworthiness. Note: have a trusted colleague check you out. We sometimes think we are making sustained eye contact when we're actually just glancing around the room.
Pause-Have you heard lawyers who hardly take a breath and fill every second with words? It's as if all they want to do is finish and leave. Yet the most confident and compelling lawyers, or law students, aren't afraid to pause for emphasis or to gather their thoughts. You can add impact by pausing before you begin to speak, ask a question, or deliver the punch line in a story. You will add authority to your presence and help your voice relax.
2. Are you "for real?" In everyday conversations, we use stories, humor, and examples to make a point. That's obvious, but when we stand up in front of an audience we often think we should be The Expert. While I'm not suggesting being unprepared, I am saying that people connect with you more easily if you become "one of them." You will also feel more relaxed if you talk about your own foibles or use appropriate humor. In this way you can make even dry legal material more engaging and illuminating.
One of my favorite one-liners about nervousness is: "The human brain is a wonderful thing. It operates from the moment you're born until the moment you get up to make a speech." This gets a chuckle every time, which relaxes me and connects with people's fear of forgetting what to say. The laughter puts everyone at ease and establishes common ground.
Give yourself permission to be yourself in front of others. The dean of one of the most prestigious law schools in the U.S. is praised for his ability to come across as "approachable, self-deprecating, and someone who puts people first." You can tell a humorous story, relate a personal example, or use an inspiring quote-anything that makes you feel alive, energized, and fully invested in everything you say and do.
3. Are you prepared?
This may sound like the usual advice of "Preparation. Preparation. Preparation." It is, but with a twist. Of course you need to know your material. But you also need to think carefully about how it fits for this judge or senior partner and how it will be delivered in this environment. How much detail do people want? Do they like to listen for two minutes and then ask rapid-fire questions? Is the room setup conducive to your type of presentation?
Consider what happened to an experienced legal team as they launched into opening arguments in a high profile trial. They had meticulously crafted slides to make a compelling case to the jury. After testing their visuals at the hotel the night before, they knew nothing would go wrong. Or so they thought. As lead counsel pressed the button to show the first slide, the image flickered dimly onscreen... then died. As did every other slide! After a desperate search, the problem turned out to be an insufficient supply of electrical current in an aging courtroom. Lesson learned? Prepare every detail carefully, including where listeners can see best, how tables are positioned, and where/how your equipment will be set up. Only very careful preparation will ensure that your presentation goes smoothly, eliminating the possibility that a nightmarish glitch will ruin your talk.
Preparation means knowing your material, having confidence in your message, and understanding your listeners.
4. Have you gotten lost "in the weeds?" A young lawyer attended one of my classes recently and said he toiled for three weeks to prepare a five-minute presentation for a meeting of senior partners. Three weeks! Looking back on it he realized that he wasn't expected to explain every microscopic detail. In fact, he ran out of time before getting halfway through his talk.
Studies show that people remember very little of what they hear. While you may include lots of details, you only need to make two or three main points to be successful. By boiling down your subject to a few key points, you'll be able to naturally draw on past experiences and knowledge without getting lost in the weeds.
Prepare a strong opening statement, deliver your key points with supporting evidence and illustrations, and wrap up with a compelling conclusion. Make your statements relevant. Get to the point. Keep them brief.
5. Is it about you or them?
When I ask people why they fear public speaking, they often say: "What if I forget everything? What if the audience thinks I don't know what I'm talking about? What if they get bored and leave? What if they nail me with difficult questions?" Of course these are legitimate concerns. However, the best way to deal with normal or adverse circumstances is to focus away from yourself and concentrate 100% on your listeners.
Right now you may be thinking, "Yeah, right. With my heart pounding, how am I supposed to tune-in to my audience when I can hardly breathe?" One "secret" in successful presenting is surprisingly simple: Focus on giving your audience something of value - to them - and you won't get distracted by your own discomfort. A well known trial attorney says he imagines handing out $100 bills each time he makes a point. He says that giving a "gift" is rarely stressful, so this way of thinking makes him less self-conscious and far more effective with the audience.
Show your audience how what you're saying will make their caseload easier, cut costs, get more potential clients, stand out in a legal area, or win more cases.
Turn the focus back on them by using terms such as:
"Have you thought about....?"
"What would happen if your best client...?"
"For your situation the real payoff is....."
"The most important thing for you to consider....."
Once you're face-to-face with your listeners, it's not about you-it's about what value you can deliver to THEM on their terms.
Anxiety can help you prepare and deliver a better legal argument or presentation. The trick is to take control so you don't crumble in front of an important audience. Focus on your listeners. Move around. Use appropriate humor and stories to bring your material-and you-alive. If you understand what's causing your stress and use a few key strategies to manage it, speaking in public will become an invigorating and rewarding experience.
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Mayla Clark has helped thousands of accomplished professionals communicate more skillfully. Her presentation classes and private coaching sessions offer practical knowledge and skills, targeted practice using video, and honest feedback geared to meet your unique needs-no "cookie-cutter" approach. Her course "Legal Presentation Skills" earns 7.25 MCLE credits for members of the California Bar Association. Website: www.maylaclark.com You can reach Mayla at mayla@maylaclark.com