Introverts, marching and presentations

I’ve been grinning at the humour and inventiveness of some of the banners in the women’s protest marches recently. Personally I feel that a few of them go a bit too far and that the use of bad language gives people who don’t want to listen to their issues the excuse to not do so – but I also understand why they feel so angry. (A few of the more entertaining ones are here.)

Someone holding up a sign saying "So bad, even introverts are here"
I’ve seen a number of variations presented but the idea is the same… 🙂

One of those which particularly caught my eye, as an introvert is this one: “So bad even the introverts are marching”.  As I’ve said before, being an introvert presenter can cause problems when you make a presentation – but also has it’s advantages.

Lets take ’em on one at a time. We might even get around to looking at what we can do about covering the weaknesses and building on the positives!

Problems for introvert presenters

Engaging with audiences can be a challenge. My instinct under pressure is always to retreat and to try to put distance (literal and metaphorical) between me and an audience: it gives me time to think. I can’t always do that on stage and as a result presenting can be very demanding (notice that I don’t say ‘stressful’, that’s another myth, equating introversion with shyness etc).

There’s also the issue of talking to people before the presentation. All too often, people will insist on talking to you for a number of reasons:

  • they’re Extraverts and simply don’t understand the need of an Introvert to get their head together
  • there are technical issues that need to be sorted out (such as who’s sitting where 😉 )
  • they think you need to be distracted to stop you getting nervous.

I’ve been on the receiving end of all three all to often – and sadly more than one at once, usually.

It’s often not just the presentation itself that’s challenging for introverts.  I know this isn’t the typical experience of people who aren’t professional speakers but I recently had ‘big gig’. So big, in fact, that my wife came with me. (She’s universally known by the initials TSC, standing for The Sainted Corinne, on the grounds that only a saint would have stayed married to me).  Anyway the session for me to deliver my presentation arrived, I duly went on stage and rocked it. I was absolutely in the zone and doing a great job… until I came offstage.  At that point my Introversion kicked in and I found myself struggling to cope, because

  • I was shattered; and
  • a bunch of people wanted to talk to me and/or buy my book.

At this point, TSC stepped in literally. She got between me and the gaggle of would-be conversationalists, to handle their questions while giving me the space I needed as an Introvert. The beauty of this, of course, is that as TSC was my wife, people were happy to accept her as “the presenter’s proxy”.

A final problem for a lot of Introverts is the dreaded Q&A session.  Given Introvert’s preference for things like email over face-to-face sessions and quick-fire interaction in particular, the question session can be particularly anxiety-inducing.

Advantages for being an introvert presenter

As an introvert, I get my emotional energy to present (and anything else) from inside my head, so I’m not beholden to my audience’s reactions. The big advantage of that is that if what I’m saying isn’t popular it doesn’t make me anxious as I see people’s reactions. It’s not that I’m immune, and not that I don’t care, it’s just that I’m less susceptible.   (It’s a myth that Introverts don’t worry if people don’t like them!) Consequently, as an introvert, I’m less likely to be thrown off course by one person in the audience sitting there with a perpetual scowl on their face.  Unless that person is the key decision-maker their response isn’t going to throw me into a full-scale panic ?

Even more handy in many ways, is that when I’m presenting (and I don’t know if I’m a typical introvert here) there is a part of me that’s held in reserve, held back and not “there”. It’s a little like I’ve got a part of me watching my own presentation. And that observer can be remarkably useful in making suggestions about what to do next in a more objective and detached way than Extraverts’ instinctive person-based responses.

For example, if Big Fred is sitting on the front row, not listening, this observer can calmly inform me of a whole list of reasons he might not look like he’s listening, even though he is. What’s more, it can also objectively triage him and if Big Fred turns out to be in the camp of “would never agree with you no matter how overwhelming the evidence you give him is and would rather die than admit he’s wrong” then observer-me will help presenter-me move on and concentrate on more amenable members of the audience.

On another note, it’s a common refrain for presentation trainers like me to encourage the people we train to rehearse. But here’s the rub: while everyone finds it hard to make a presentation to a totally empty room, Extraverts find it particularly challenging – because presenting needs emotional energy and you can’t get emotional energy from people if you’ve got no audience. Rehearsal is easier as you don’t need the audience and that gives Introverts a slight edge. Many’s the time I’ve given my best presentation to blank wall  🙂

What can each type learn from the other?

I’m going to cheat here. I’m going to write a follow-up post at some point (many years into the future, apparently!) but for now… just go back, re-read the advantages of the opposite of what you are and future out how to incorporate stuff like that in your presenting.

For example… extraverts – consider not being so hooked up on the feedback in the room! 😉

By the way, there’s a blog here that relates to this, looking at the differences between levels of reaction.

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