Growing Fear of Presenting | Michael Beale


Solving Fear of Presentations Case Study - By Michael Beale


Situation

The principal of a successful £0.5M turnover consultancy and coaching business had a number of senior lawyer clients. She had to present to groups of senior law partners on an ongoing basis and while her presentations led to successful business she was beginnining to feel itimidated and anxious several days before the presentations.

She enjoyed working wih senior lawyers and wanted to further devolop the business, however this fear of presenting was beginning to interfere with both her career and her general state of mind.

Objective

The principal was the client and she wanted to overcome this fear.

Action

The coach took the client through a number of visualisation exercises, which included imaging the lawyers in various stages of dress, which significantly reduced the intensity of the fear but didn't reduce it completely.

After further discussion the coach asked the client whether she had any past experienced of succefully dealing with similar siuations. She confided that when she was actively dating she had had a slighly mischevious attitude that men had to prove themselves to her before she would go out with them.

The coach built on that and suggested that maybe it would be useful for her to reverse her current attitude. It wasn't she that had to convince the laywers that she was good enough for them, it was the laywers that had to convince her that they were worth working for.

She immediatly relaxed and smiled, she had realised that she knew exactly how to act.


Result

The client approached future meetings with a different mindset. She now does occassionaly decide that she isn't prepared to work with a particular group of lawyers and often quite surprises them (and herself) by saying so directly.

She now enjoys her work even more.

And So?

As well as enjoying her work more, the client now realises she has other mental resoures within her, which she is now developing,  to deal with not only similar situations, but new and different ones  as well.

The coach continued to be amazed that as in this case what appeared to be a straightforward two hour discussion (and sometimes a lot less) can significantly change a clients apparent problem.


Michael Beale on the  Executive Coaching Network