Present

It’s been a busy week for presenting and Tuesday found me striding into the gothic magnificence of London’s historic Guildhall to deliver the after-dinner address to the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators at their annual banquet. Now I have immense respect for these senior folk, the guardians of corporate governance in the UK and around the world and I considered it a real honour to have been invited to address them.

The top table faced the Wellington and Nelson memorial statues as we took our seats in the room which Her Majesty the Queen chose as the venue for her Coronation Breakfast.

Around four hundred members of the Institute took their seats for dinner, formally dressed.   I shared my table with two Knights, the President of the Institute and guests from around the world.

Now I speak to audiences of over five hundred on a weekly basis. It gives me a pleasant adrenaline hit. But for some reason during dinner, my Tiger came to tea. Roaring wildly and telling me that this was all going to go wrong. He was a surprise guest. And very unwelcome.

I excused myself after the main course and went out into the cold evening – desperately missing my old comrade in arms, the cigarette – and set to work on my Tiger with the 10 Rules.

Rule 1 would play its part – but not until I heard my name announced and stood up to their applause. Now it was time for Rule 4. Time to follow my own advice on dealing with the battle in your head when the crunch moment comes and the pressure, for whatever reason, is causing a problem. The book goes into more detail but my favourite weapons in this battle are to look for  real evidence that you’ll be fine – and to get lost in the task rather than the self analysis. I also used some of the tips from the Taming Tigers Learning course – “Present” – particularly Key 6 “You Cannot Read Minds”.

The alert was reduced from Red to Amber (I enjoy Amber) by the time I re-entered the room to face the “tasty looking dessert” Tiger before speaking.

I enjoyed the speech immensely and I hear that the members and guests of the Institute did also. It came as a surprise to be attacked by the Tiger before presenting. But a salutary reminder to stay alert.

The message?  Rule 4, “It’s all in the mind” is the only way to deal with pressure situations, where you risk delivering a second rate performance (in sport, at work, wherever!) simply because of a Tiger… (that isn’t really there, is it?)

Finally my thanks to my hosts on Tuesday for their kind hospitality. I wish them every success with their difficult but vital role in a hard climate where they are sure to be tested.