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Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

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Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#61

Number one thing is just stop caring so much if you’re 100.00% correct

I disagree with this, as this is "false confidence." Correctness and humility go a lot further to true confidence, as being correct enables you to speak with authority on a subject (nobody is going to ask a follow up question that causes you to question your correctness and trips you up), and humility enables you an escape hatch to admit when you don't know (your audience will trust the things you correctly say even more, because you're not lying about everything).

Note that "correctness" isn't meant in an absolute sense--you can speak with confidence on something others consider morally abhorrent if you are 100% convinced of its correctness (which is potentially what you mean by "not being 100% correct"?).

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#62
post #35

The best way is practice -- you simply get used to anything the more you do it. When I was in HS, I joined debate club, where we spoke for 5-10 minutes at a time in front of anywhere from 5-20 club friends or opponents. When you do this repeatedly, for most people, your anxiety and nerves eventually go away, and it's just "what you do" now. The same was true of musical performance: I hated performing until I did it a…

Seconded. Practice. I'm not really a social type but at some point in the last few years and after enough repetitions, when people asked me what my company does, my response had gone from "I... uh... controls... hydraulics?" to "we provide a bolt-on control system for fixed plant hydraulic booms which integrates guarding, automation and remote operation capabilities." Also the point on questions is spot on, nobody as…

Absolutely. Practice.

Also, don't be afraid to speak slowly, and to have gaps when you aren't speaking. It doesn't make you look like an idiot or make people interrupt you - instead, it makes it easier for people to hear what you're saying, and it makes it sound like you are saying something well thought through (and it gives you time to think it through too).

Also, get someone to video you giving a presentation or speaking about something. Then go over that video with them, and ask them to point out any annoying things that you should stop doing and useful things to start doing. Practice that, over and over.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can also have default responses to buy time: "Thank you, that's a great question" gives them a nice compliment and buys you 5 seconds to think. It's also important to realize that you don't need to buy time as much as you think you do. When in the spotlight, people tend to think they need to react quickly under penalty of seeming insecure. It's false. You can take a few seconds to prepare an answer and it still…

It's also important to realize that you don't need to buy time as much as you think you do. When in the spotlight, people tend to think they need to react quickly under penalty of seeming insecure. It's false. You can take a few seconds to prepare an answer and it still seems natural, even projecting an aura of confidence. I would add that you can take a lot more time than you probably think you can, as long as you "…

30 seconds saying nothing would be way, way too long. People would begin to think you are having a panic attack or something.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#64
Holding a belief that no matter what happens, I will be able to deal with it helped me. Losing track of where I was, stumbling over my words, going bright red in the face has all happened to me and everytime....I have survived and done just fine. Messing up isnt that bad and makes us human. Being okay with this made me more confident at speaking in front of groups.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important to realize that you don't need to buy time as much as you think you do. When in the spotlight, people tend to think they need to react quickly under penalty of seeming insecure. It's false. You can take a few seconds to prepare an answer and it still seems natural, even projecting an aura of confidence. I would add that you can take a lot more time than you probably think you can, as long as you "…

30 seconds saying nothing would be way, way too long. People would begin to think you are having a panic attack or something.

I would agree that 30 seconds is getting towards the upper end of what you can pull off. But I believe that it can be done, if you manage your body language, hand gestures, facial expressions, etc. properly. Now if somebody stood there for 30 seconds doing the "blank expression" thing, then yeah, it's starting to get awkward for everyone.

Anyway, here's a thought: make a game out of it. Next time you're speaking in a group setting and this comes up, (when it's a situation where nothing of substance is at stake), try and see how long a pause you can engineer before somebody starts doing the "intentional cough" thing, or says "are you OK?" or whatever. Maybe do it a few times and see what you can work up to. Maybe 30 seconds is a bit more than can be managed. And to be fair, it's probably context / audience dependent to some degree as well.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#66
The thing to realize is that you're causing these issues in your own mind, which means you're free to not cause them.

Meditation might help, making a distinction between you and your mind allows externalizing and observing the mind in action.

Once you have managed that, consider giving retrospectives a shot. Simply walk through whatever situation you want to learn from backwards (starting with most recent events help) in your mind as an observer.

The problem with confidence is that it's a side effect of knowing and trusting yourself, and that takes real world experience.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can also have default responses to buy time: "Thank you, that's a great question" gives them a nice compliment and buys you 5 seconds to think. It's also important to realize that you don't need to buy time as much as you think you do. When in the spotlight, people tend to think they need to react quickly under penalty of seeming insecure. It's false. You can take a few seconds to prepare an answer and it still…

It's also important to realize that you don't need to buy time as much as you think you do. When in the spotlight, people tend to think they need to react quickly under penalty of seeming insecure. It's false. You can take a few seconds to prepare an answer and it still seems natural, even projecting an aura of confidence. I would add that you can take a lot more time than you probably think you can, as long as you "…

If you have a beard, thoughtfully stroking it works too.

I joke it's the Windows 98 hourglass cursor of personal interactions - they can't tell if you're thinking, or have just locked up with no hope of continuing.

Pauses and silence are OK, to a point.

Absolutely. And you will, in almost every case, come across as more intelligent if you're silent while thinking, than if you try to fill space with content-free filler. It can't go on forever, but 20 seconds of silence is far better (and far more useful to put a response together) than 20 seconds of "lips in neutral" noise.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#68
I would suggest separating the ideas of speaking confidently in public versus speaking confidently about technology. Specifically I think that the same confidence that can make you an engaging public speaker can be too much confidence for technology conversations.

When it comes to technology I agree with other comments that you should immediately and intentionally set expectations around your level of knowledge on a subject (or conviction about a certain opinion). It's very rare that I can speak so definitively about a subject that it's impossible for me to have biases or gaps in my knowledge. When you speak with a tone of complete authority on a subject you create a game in the room where listening to you is no longer as important as finding a way to pierce the veil of your expertise, which is exactly the situation you would like to avoid. I intentionally say things such as "I could be missing something, but...", "From what I can tell it looks like...", "My personal opinion so far is...", "I'm not saying the other way is wrong, but I can't see how it would be better than...", or "Perhaps the reason I don't agree is that I am misunderstanding something". This language gives me room to have my conclusions, perspectives, and opinions without claiming any dominance or authority over the rest of the room. Being the team expert in a subject is not the same as having perfect intuition or understanding. People will generally understand the difference between doing your best and being perfect, and will gladly accept your best effort as long as you've openly admitted it is not perfect and left room for it to be improved. After all, you're just trying to help reach the best possible outcome. One of my mentors framed this as "It doesn't make anybody look good to kick a friendly dog, so learn from the friendly dog's technique".

The problem is that in order to accommodate these somewhat self deprecating phrases and feel comfortable admitting your imperfect knowledge in public you need to have the confidence to spare, otherwise you'll have an experience similar to overdrawing a checking account. I agree that Toastmasters and debate are two excellent ways to build confidence when speaking with others. I also think that having more one-on-one speaking confidence can translate to public speaking confidence. I always make a point to start conversations with waitstaff, barbers, bartenders, Uber drivers, the person next to me on an airplane, etc. so that I can get small reinforcements that people generally respond positively and at worst are uninterested or indifferent but not mean or aggressive. This helps me keep the mindset that "the worst that can happen is not that bad" when I speak publicly regardless of subject or audience, and one-on-one interactions are much more available than public speaking opportunities.

Conversational experience is also a big tool in maintaining the flow of a presentation, because as you point out unlike a structured debate during meetings people can interrupt you at any time at which point your presentation temporarily becomes a conversation. This is a big reason why memorizing a presentation, reading your slides, and other strictly linear approaches can be inadequate strategies. It is common in conversation to admit that you have never heard of something or don't understand it, and that actually facilitates progress in the conversation. Once somebody explain themselves I am not required to engage further, I can simply say "I'll have to think more, but it's interesting", or "I still don't fully understand, perhaps we could have a longer conversation about this later when I've had a chance to digest what you just told me". I do the exact same thing in meetings, and it is a politely coded way of saying "What you're talking about might be valid but we're going to proceed without addressing it further". You never want to give the impression that there is no room for other people's ideas, just that now is not the right time to expand the scope of this conversation/meeting/presentation. In this way you can maintain control of the overall flow without projecting the authoritarian tone that causes the room to become adversarial.

Lastly always keep in mind that you can be well prepared and demonstrably correct and sometimes you will still be derailed in the moment for silly reasons that have nothing to do with you. I can't seem to find the artist who said this, so maybe I'm paraphrasing the quote, but it's something like "no amount of expertise can prevent an ignorant critique". Try and keep in mind that just as you're not perfect neither is anybody else in the room.

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#69
tl;dr: Great advice in the many other comments. My $0.02 is to accept that for the most part, your colleagues are as interested in you as are your friends, and are as safe an audience. They are listening because you have experience and knowledge and perspective they do not, they want to be informed.

Making that mental/emotional switch from considering your colleagues as potentially questioning or hostile to accepting them as collegial and helpful can remove at least some of the anxiety that degrades one's self confidence.

Slightly longer version....

One major difference between speaking with friends and addressing colleagues or strangers is how we, the speaker, perceive the situation: We often perceive the latter differently and have different expectations, and these expectations can make us anxious.

Friends are generally supportive, we want to hear them and they want to hear us, because we are friends. Ribbing and personal needling aside. :->

We expect when speaking with friends that they will be receptive and relatively less judgemental. We are confident and engaged and engaging because we believe we are accepted and that our thoughts are wanted, appreciated.

Then we talk to colleagues or strangers and we feel the stakes are different, we feel they might challenge us and/or our ideas, might question us, might put us on the spot.

Yes, that can happen. Be prepared for it. When it happens, take a breath, take a moment, ask the person to clarify or expand on what they are saying. If they go ad hominem, suggest that the conversation remain focused on the topic. Patience and a few deep breaths can help navigate these situations, when they occur.

Which is, IMHO, rare. Be prepared for it, but do not expect it as the norm. Have those tools (patience, focus on the topic, asking questions) ready, but don't get them out before you begin!

If you can make that mental and emotional switch, you will generally feel more confident, because you will feel less like you and your ideas are about to be challenged or rejected.

Keep things conversational, appear and be thoughtful, try to state the key point(s) succinctly, then offer details only if people engage. If they don't, take things off line.

Heck, you can even suggest doing just that, e.g., to keep a meeting on track and focused: "I've got a concern with that approach, should we discuss it now, or take it offline?"

That does several things: 1) It gives you time to gather your thoughts and prepare that summary; 2) It gives you the appearance of being respectful of the meeting and of other's time (it's not about you and your ideas, it's about keeping things on track, only drilling down if there is consensus) - and it's not just appearance, you are being respectful in fact; 3) it gives others an opportunity to indicate that they may also have concerns and provides a forum - the off-line/after-the-fact conversation - to air and address those concerns.

The other thing that helped me be heard and helped me make my point was to change in my overall approach. I am a very enthusiastic person, even in my 50s, but I am often calmly enthusiastic, if you will.

That's a big change from 30 years ago, where I was so eager to share and to make my point that it was off-putting for others.

The more measured and respectful you seem, the more people will value your opinions and seek them out.

Finally, something super simple: Make notes. When you are saying "I have a concern, should we discuss it now or take it offline", jot down a couple of words or phrases that will jog your memory if you lose your train of thought.

(Ever watch a standup comedian get distracted and lose their train of thought while interacting with an audience? It's amazing: They are literally 100% exposed, people are expecting them to continue, and the train has exploded, because someone said something unexpected and unexpectedly funny. They take the time. They take a deep breath. Sometimes they even admit to being distracted and they use the same tricks the rest of us do: "Where was I? Oh, yes, Mom's wonky foot....")

Re: Ask HN: How to Speak Confidently?

#70

It sounds like you're asking primarily about participating in meetings more than giving formal presentations. Here are some of my ideas. * Set a good example for kindness. Show respect to everyone, praise others by name when you think they've made a good point, give other speakers your attention and smile at them with your eyes. * Be humble and be willing to admit what you don't know. * If you feel that you're not be…

> * Be humble and be willing to admit what you don't know.

It takes confidence to do this, but it is infinitely better than giving a bad or bullshit answer. No one knows everything, and there's no shame in that.

> * If you feel that you're not being given respect, there is a tendency to finally blurt out words of anger towards someone.

I think the Hacker News guidelines [1] state this well:

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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