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Presentation Advice from Michael Phelps and Dara Torres

August 26, 2009 by Jerry 

Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing last year, and Dara Torres, who won three silver medals, represented the United States again this year at the FINA world championships in Rome, Italy. Before the race, in an interview in the New York Times, both swimmers shared their methods of dealing with the inevitable butterflies (pun somewhat intended) that go along with such high pressure events.

Although these champions have training resources and regimens far above and beyond the scope of any business presenter, their stress levels are no different; all human beings get the same adrenaline rush. Yet Phelps and Torres have developed some simple and effective anxiety-controlling techniques that every presenter can use. The athletes’ techniques differ from those of performers (please see my prior blogs on how actress Tovah Feldshuh and pianist Murray Perahia deal with performance pressures) but, taken together, the athletes and artists offer presenters a choice of proven solutions to deal with stress in mission critical events.

Ms. Torres, who captured attention of the world by becoming the oldest athlete to qualify for the Olympics at the ripe old age of 41, described her stressful experience in her first Olympics in 1984 when she was just 17, “I freaked out when I walked out on the pool deck and saw 17,000 people.”

One of the veteran members of that team brought Ms. Torres back to the Olympic village and “plopped her in front of a television to watch soap operas to take her mind off her race.” This is known as redirection and, while presenters cannot step away from the podium and watch soap operas, they can redirect their attention from their own stressful feelings to observe their audience’s reactions. In response to what the presenters see, they can adjust their content. If they see that the audience is nodding their heads—reacting positively—they can move forward; if not, they can adjust their narrative. This simple mind shift reduces tension.

Mr. Phelps uses two stress reduction techniques: structured relaxation and visualization. The first is a progressive relaxation of the individual parts of the body to eliminate the tension; the second is to focus the mind on the endgame—winning. The Times article describes how Phelps brings the techniques into play, “Once he has cleared his mind and loosened his limbs, Phelps will swim each race over and over in his mind. It is not just the perfect race that Phelps pictures. He sees himself overcoming every conceivable obstacle to achieve his goal time.”

Because presenters must remain in the moment and think about their audience rather than their own body parts, there is no direct equivalent for structured relaxation in presentations. But every presenter would do well to pause for a moment before stepping up to the front of the room and take a few deep breaths. Breathing brings oxygen into the body and oxygen brings relaxation.

The equivalent of visualization in presentations occurs during the all-important preparation process. In advance, think about your audience, think about what they know and what they need to know to respond favorably to your pitch; think about their goals, desires, issues, concerns, and hot buttons. Think about the questions they might ask. As Michael Phelps puts it, “I do go through everything from a best-case scenario to the worst-case scenario just so I’m ready for anything that comes my way,” If you do this in your preparation for your presentation, there will be few surprises when the moment of truth arrives.

Redirection, relaxation, and visualization adapted to presentations will help control the butterflies. Butterflies in the stomach are as common at the podium as they are in the swimming pool. And yet the solution in both venues is the same: Make your butterflies fly in formation.

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