Creating Icebergs Out Of Hostility

Have you ever dreaded an upcoming presentation, meeting or function because you just knew that the group would be hostile? Maybe you had heard that these people are very critical, even aggressive.

*How can you prepare for such a situation even though you wouldprefer to disappear into thin air.*

1 Use Adversity To Make You Stronger

Very often we make our greatest breakthroughs in the face of hugechallenges. We improve our performance overnight because weabsolutely have to so as to avoid dire consequences. It mighteven be a case of get this result now or lose your job.

Knowing that you will be facing a hostile crowd, why not decidenow to prepare for the presentation better than you have everdone before. Decide that you will absolutely take charge of thesituation and then devise a plan to make sure you will be awesomewhen the pressure is on.

Work on the content of your presentation, your delivery, andespecially on how you will interact with a difficult audience.Anticipate heckling, negative responses and resistance. Thendecide before the event how you will deal with it. Devise answersand responses for stupid questions and boorish behavior.

All too often we do a little preparation before a big event andthen just hope that it will all turn out right. If professionalsportspeople approached their work like that sport would not evenbe worth watching. If all those famous singers, dancers andcomedians did not constantly work on their skills BEFORE aperformance then you would never have heard of them.

Giving a presentation takes very little time, and it is the tipof the iceberg, an iceberg that you sculpt in the days before theevent.

Think for a moment about how much time you spend in preparationfor a speech, a job interview or a meeting. Now DOUBLE the timeyou normally invest in yourself. Spend time on becoming excellentinstead of just aiming to be good.

Use the force against you to become stronger - turn the threatinto an opportunity. The stronger the breeze, the stronger thetrees.

2 State Management

To perform well when the crowd is openly hostile it is criticalto be able to maintain your composure. You will need to be coolunder pressure despite the negativity that you see and hear infront of you. If you need a magic wand then anchoring is theanswer.

Anchoring is the single most effective way of taking charge ofyour emotional state. With an anchor you can change how you feelin an instant, I devote an entire chapter to it in my e-bookbecause it is such an important skill to master.

Consider for a moment - *if you could feel any way you wanted to,how would you like to feel in the face of hostility*

Write down the various answers that come to mind. Maybe you wouldlike to feel confident, powerful, energetic, or even courageous.

Now, refer to my chapter on anchoring if you need a reminder,then set up an anchor for those resourceful feelings that youwill need in the heat of the moment when the pressure is on.

Then later on when you are speaking, whenever you need to, youcan fire your anchor and instantly go from feeling overwhelmed tofeeling confident and strong.

By the way, if you have never used anchoring you are in for amind blowing experience.

3 Disaster Planning

The final stage is to run through worst case scenarios for yourupcoming presentation. Think about what could go wrong, whatmight go wrong, and even, what is unlikely to happen that wouldbe catastrophic if it did happen.

Then work out a plan to deal as best you can with each scenario.Until you have completed this stage you are not ready to face thecrowd.

By the way, you are the best person to devise your strategybecause your approach must fit with your personality andpresentation style. Make sure you feel happy with your planbefore you decide to implement it, otherwise on the big day youcould well end up getting stuck. Not knowing what to do, youcould just end up feeling confused.

The presentation itself is the tip of the iceberg - be sure yousculpt a fine iceberg that will not melt under the spotlight.

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report: 10 Simple Steps to Developing Communication Confidence. This report reveals the secret strategies all high achievers use to communicate with charm and impact. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: http://www.howtotalkwithconfidence.com/report.htm