Forced out due to fear of presentations

lincroft1710

richdeniro wrote: »

I didn't accept this role though, I was just told it would be my role after a restructure. There was a team of 4 but then everyone left apart from me and the CEO restructured the company and gave me the HR manager title. I was quite happy just working in a team of four in a generalist role.

Of course you accepted the role! You may not have chosen the role, but by remaining with the company and not resigning, you have accepted the role in HR

sportsarb

Pennywise wrote: »

Not everyone is good at them, not everyone likes doing them. Don't be so harsh on yourself. I've been to loads of them where the speaker has been pretty poor, either due to lack of knowledge about the subject, lack of confidence, etc. Relatively few are "entertainer" style public speakers, so don't try to compare yourself to the best you've seen. Think about the worst and try to ensure you wouldn't be that bad!

I don't wish to speak for the OP but for me this would be nothing to do with not thinking I have the talent for it etc. It's an all pervasive state of panic where all sense of rational thinking is pushed to the side and irrational thinking takes over.

I've seen people make bad presentations but they were happy to do it, they didn't fear the presentation itself, they weren't affected by this...affliction.

The OP is clearly talented at what they do (From everything that has been told) but that becomes irrelevant when the impossible task is placed in front of them.

Nothing is ever as bad as you think it is, with regards to presentations etc. but what use is that rational thought when fight of flight responses are engaged.

Brynsam

sportsarb wrote: »

Nothing is ever as bad as you think it is, with regards to presentations etc. but what use is that rational thought when fight of flight responses are engaged.

Quite. So you need to find another way to deliver what the company wants.

Bexgrossman

Can you do it with a microphone and your back to everyone?

Marcon

Bexgrossman wrote: »

Can you do it with a microphone and your back to everyone?

...making yourself look a complete idiot in the process...

Samsonite1

How about writing the slides and standing or sitting there with someone else doing the presentation. Initially doing nothing yourself, perhaps working your way up to answering some questions if you feel comfortable. The point here is being involved and being there without being the presenter - it may be a starting point and shows willing to be involved and be a part of making it happen, even if you are not the presenter.

TBagpuss

OP, I see that you have made various attempts to address your fear - have you ever spoken to your GP and been given any kind of formal diagnosis or specifc reference to a phobia or anxiety attacks?

I think it is possible that if you are diagnosed as suffering from anxiety attacks, that might meet the definitation of a disability

A person is considered to have as a disability if "he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".

in which case you can ask for accommodations.

Even if it doesmn't, I would suggest that you approach your superviser with practicalsuggestions for how your condition can be accommodated - one option might be for you to pre-record the presentation itself, and then to attend to answer questions at the end, or even suggest that you provide a pre-recorded video presenation and answer questions using chat
In other words, rather than focus on what you can't do, offer specifc, practical solutions for what you can do.

Think about what the CEO wants to achive through the presentations, and tailor your suggestion to that. For instnace, if part of it is letting diferent departments a nd offices get to know the key people in the other offices, then a video presentation with live Q&A could achieve that, as there is atill time for direct questions / comments.

if it is promarily about sharing information, then a recorded presenataion might have advbantages as it is easy to refer back to.

If it is that the CEO thinks all senir managers should be able to do it, it is trickier, byut maybe focus of your role and how it is different to those of other managers - for instance, becuase HR is mainly concerned with internal isues rather than 'selling' the comapny brand to outsiders, but you might be able to suggest that a more junior member of your department gives the presentation as they may benefit from honing those skills if lateral promotion or cross training into other departments are things the company is interested in doing (or saying it does)

Finally, if this is something that your boss is going to insist on, speak to your Gpo to see whether there is anythingthey can offer to help you get through it.

Mistral001

motorguy wrote: »

+1

An HR manager who cant talk to people? Hmmm

An HR manager who comes here looking for HR advice?

Samsonite1

I would try to avoid quitting before securing another job - you should be in a strong enough position to carry on doing your job and not doing the presentations. Maybe start up regular therapy appointments again so that you can simply say "I cannot do presentations until further notice, but I am receiving professional help".

Most people that I know who have quit to avoid things at work, have ended up in some kind or rut of unemployment and further stress - problem is that if you do not get another job quickly, it starts to become a bigger problem and you are less and less likely to get another job. At the very least, keep getting paid while you look for another job.

As I mentioned earlier, you could work with someone else to only do as much as you can towards the overall presentation effort, you could also do the presentation to a small group locally (as you said you could do that) as a handover to someone else to present to the larger group. Sometimes you need to be creative, but creating a solution for the problem in some way - it will probably be a big plus point if you manage to find a way of getting past this, even for future jobs.

KiKi

I would completely re-frame this. It's not a presentation to 60 people with public speaking involved. It's you explaining your career framework / your work experience programme with some people you work with. The fact that there are slides to help show it is incidental.

See it as a workshop where you're sharing information with the participants. 60 people from around the company who are here to listen to the work that you've done. Don't stand up at the front with a mic - sit down in a normal seat and talk out at everyone.

Standing up at the front and 'presenting' suggests that there's right / wrong information, right / wrong things to say, and makes it a 'thing'. The reality is that most 'presenting' is just explaining something that you already know inside out. You don't need to remember a script, or learn what to say; there is no right or wrong in it. Just share the information as you would with your team or a workshop group, as if you were explaining the concepts to them before asking them to do an activity (it's just that in this case you won't get to an activity!). Use the slides to help you share that info.

If you can think about it in that way, rather than a 'presentation' with 'public speaking' it will feel much easier. Doing it sitting down rather than standing up will also help.