Both my wife and I were dancers in college; me specializing in flashy international folk dancing like the Russian Hopak and the US Clog plus ballroom dancing like the quickstep, waltz and jive. She specialized in Latin and American Ballroom like the samba, fox trot and swing.
So when we heard that the world champion international collegiate ballroom dance team was performing not far from us, we decided to attend, both to relive old memories and to show our high school senior daughter another possible aspect of the college experience.
We were there on opening night of a two-week stint. The dancers were just getting used to the hot lights, the small stage, and the inadequate quick-changing rooms in this facility.
As former members of a internationally competitive dance teams, we know that performance perfection is lots more than each dancer knowing and dancing their routine flawlessly. That alone takes many hours - I literally spent 2-4 hours on a dance floor virtually every day of my college career.
It also takes hundreds of hours working as a team to ensure that every line is perfectly straight, every hand is raised to the exact same height, every kick is smaller for the tall people and larger for the short ones so that it looks uniform. Then once you get that done, you've got to work on stylizing - smiles, the flick of the head at exactly the right moment, the seemingly casual placement of the flower in the hair, even the way you hold your mouth as you dance to make it look like fun, not work.
It's those little things that make the difference between finalists and champions.
And those little things are the elements that go first when performers are nervous or things start going wrong.
|
|
That's exactly what happened in the performance we saw.
Lines were jagged, costume pieces fell on the floor, someone was actually chewing gum, stage entries were a split second late, partners were whispering to each other on stage, and syncopations were off.
At the end, the audience erupted into a standing ovation. But those of us who knew what a championship performance should have been weren't as excited. My comment to my daughter was "their coach is going to have them in rehearsals for 6 hours tomorrow!"
Then something interesting happened. The show hosts came on the stage and announced that an outside show from a different performing company had just been cancelled due to rain, so the ballroom team would repeat their performance in 20 minutes. We decided to stay.
That one was a totally different performance!
Maybe the nervousness was gone, the dancers were used to the stage, the standing ovation had vitalized them, or maybe the coach had said "you can do better."
But this time the lines were sharp, the entrances flawless, the smiles real and the syncopations perfect. Other than that same girl chewing gum, it was a masterpiece. This time every person in the audience heartily stood in applause.
As I pondered what I had just seen, I thought about, amazingly enough, public relations...
About nerves, and their effect on performance,
And about preparation.
One of my basketball coaches used to say "you can never over prepare" (usually just before uttering the words "let's do it again.")
Far too often I see otherwise competent professionals verbally fall apart when the lights go on and a microphone is thrust in their face.
Sometimes it's nerves, but I'm personally convinced that much of it is under preparation.
Unfortunately, many of us have grown so comfortable presenting in meetings that we tend to underestimate what happens to us in a media situation.
First, we're suddenly faced with questions, possibly even attacks, that we don't normally hear in our daily working lives.
Second, we recognize that anything we say could potentially come back to haunt our company and us personally potentially for years to come. (Just watch this year's elections to see evidence of this!)
Here's some tips on adequately preparing for your next media contact:
1. Recognize that this is serious and worthy of preparation. Remember that, though we give allowances for mistakes made on stage by college kids, in the eyes of the public viewing the media, everybody must be a professional. Schedule time for preparation.
2. Carefully script and rehearse your answers to a wide range of questions, both positive and negative. Rehearse your answers, (ideally videotaping your rehearsals) until you sound like your answer is natural and spontaneous. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but adequate preparation actually creates a spontaneous sound.
3. Identify your key message(s) before any media contact so that you clearly know what you're trying to say, even if the reporter has his own agenda.
4. Learn and practice the art of answering the question you want to answer, not the one actually asked. I know, I hate it when I hear it, but pros do it for a reason. I sometimes use the line "what I'm really hearing you ask is ______" then I answer the rephrased question. Or try "what's really important here is..." Practice until you can do this without offending and inviting a rephrasing of the original question. You also have to answer a question that's fairly close to the one they're asking, but this is a great way to turn an attack into a restatement of your agenda.
5. Learn how you personally can burn off some nervousness at the last minute. For me, I find that some physical activity helps - I'm often found jumping up and down and stretching in the wings just before going onstage. If I can't do that, I find that digging my fingernails into my palms or flexing my leg muscles until it starts to hurt helps. Finally, I focus on repeating that innocuous "thank you, I'm very pleased to be invited" phrase over and over in my mind because that's what breaks the ice and gets me going. For you it may be mediation and eating yogurt laced with carefully peeled grapes. Whatever it is, find it and if possible, do it just before you enter the interview situation.
6. Stongly consider getting professional media coaching if you've got either big interviews coming up, touchy issues to be discussed, or are wanting to prepare for future crisis possibilities. It's expensive, but well worth it if you can prevent a disaster.
To get you started in the process of learning more about how to prepare for media appearances, check out our two Audio CD's: How to Ace Your Next TV Appearance and How To Be A TV Show Host’s Dream Date
Posted July 22, 2004
More Public Relations / Publicity Comments:« PR Basics: Emailing Press Releases
Public Relations and Publicity Blog
PR Basics: Preferred Method To Receive Press Releases »
