44. Presentation Advice from Actress Tovah Feldshuh: Concentration Creates Communication

Rudyard Kipling wrote his classic poem “If ...” to commemorate a war hero in the Boer War of 1899–1902. The poem, which begins with “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ...” and ends eight stanzas later with “Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,”^F44.1 is a paean to concentration.

A Wall Street Journal story about rude behavior from audiences at Broadway shows provides a modern example in the theater. The story describes the all-too-common discourtesies of mobile phone ringing and loud talking. But the worst incident was at a performance of Irena’s Vow, a serious drama about the Holocaust, where a “man walked in late and called up to actress Tovah Feldshuh to halt her monologue until he got settled.” The article reported that the actress complied but that “she doesn’t recall the incident, which she says may be evidence of the Zen attitude she’s cultivated onstage.”^F44.2

Ms. Feldshuh was in a state many actors achieve or aspire to achieve when they are onstage. Call it “Zen,” call it “The Zone,” “Being in the Moment,” call it what you will; that state of total concentration is what makes for great acting.

This is also the state that presenters and speakers would do well to enter, with one important difference. Performers such as Ms. Feldshuh direct their concentration inward, to their characters. To be effective, presenters should direct their concentration outward, to their audiences, and, more specifically, to individual members of their audiences.

The rationale for this shift strikes at the heart of the most powerful challenge to effective presentations: the fear of failure and its accompanying performance anxiety, which are all manifested in one insistent, stressful thought: “How am I doing?” This singular focus causes presenters to turn inward, which only heightens their anxiety.

Instead, if presenters focused on their audiences to see how they are doing, the presenters would be able to gauge the effect of their words and react to what they have observed. If they saw their audiences nodding their heads, indicating understanding, presenters could move along; if their audiences appeared to be puzzled or unconvinced, presenters could adjust their content until they got those desirable head nods.

This proactive approach produces a double benefit: It reduces the presenters’ performance anxiety, and it provides instant gratification to their audiences—an essential element for success in any presentation. Therefore, concentration not only creates control, but closes the loop to create communication as well.