Fiona shared with me a story of an experience many people dread – presenting to an audience. And I am going to start with her ‘last words’. “I was speaking candidly with one of our Telstra Directors recently, who is a woman I really admire and value her leadership qualities.  We were talking about speaking in public and even she admitted she gets nervous every time she speaks in front of people.  We spoke about how it makes us feel and how we can overcome the challenges to deliver the messages we are needing to deliver.  So goes to show – even our leaders feel the same as us.” 

I have a similar experience (as well as a similar name!) when several years ago a panel of speakers at an International Women’s Day event shared their shared fear of public speaking – one to the point of nausea! 

In Fiona’s example she had to present to both her senior leaders and the people ‘on the ground’ about the work she was doing. Fiona had many stakeholders wanting to know about her work, a project that continually changed direction, and operational teams who would not hold back on sharing feedback. “I think I was more nervous delivering to the operational teams than to senior leaders – because it’s the people on the ground who understand what needs to be done and will not let any stone unturned.” 

It was important to get this right as she had to ensure everyone involved was on board with the changes.  

As with many things, preparation was key “I had prepared well thinking of all the types of questions I might be asked but in the end I was asked very few. [It] went much better than I had played it out in my head.” 

I think Fiona’s feelings throughout this process are very relatable “Prior to the session I was nervous, plus I was last on the agenda so I had to wait for everyone else to present and talk about their streams which had generated a lot of discussion.  During the presentation I was not really thinking about how I was feeling – because I was talking about my work. Which I knew well so could articulate the information back to the stakeholders.  At the end I felt relief it was over.” 

“As hard as it was, I would definitely step outside my comfort zone again.  I don’t think it gets easier but the feeling you get after the fact (when it goes well) is like a high better than any drug can provide.” 

Fiona has fabulous advice for anyone considering stepping out of their comfort zone: 

“Take a leap of faith and give it go.  No one knows what you are feeling on the inside unless you let them see it.  No one gets stronger sitting still in the corner.” 

About Fiona: 

Background about why presenting my project was out of my comfort zone – was mostly because it’s an ever changing environment in the Digitisation world where the project goal posts are constantly on the move and nothing is stable.  So trying to develop a project to deliver within a really tight timeframe and communicate it without displaying any of the doubts and fears I have to delivering that project – is a challenge.  The senior leaders were mostly ok about the changing goal posts because they are often kept up to date with the changes as they happen, but the operational teams are not and these are the guys being impacted by the processes and instructions I deliver.  So there is a huge amount of pressure for our team to deliver this well.