Six Strategies to Perform Under Pressure with Resilience
Performance anxiety arises at the most inconvenient of moments. During crucial interviews, on client calls, when networking, and during presentations, our anxiety and nerves may seem like an obstacle to success.
This is universal to the human experience. Some of the most impactful speakers have struggled with anxiety. Gandhi spoke openly of his crippling fear of speaking in front of crowds, so intense that he suffered frequent panic attacks as a law student. He often froze on the spot, forgot words, and, on one occasion, had to ask a fellow student to continue his speech due to the intense anxiety.
Today, Gandhi is regarded as one of the greatest speakers in history. He cited his continual practice during those turbulent law school years as instrumental to his success in public speaking.
Anxiety and nerves are a natural response to high-pressure moments. These feelings are a cue that this moment is important to you! The goal is managing nerves effectively, not eliminating them.
Understanding Why We’re Nervous
Our brain perceives both real and imagined threats similarly. To the brain, a threat is a threat no matter if it’s the perceived judgment of our peers during a presentation or an actual grizzly bear chasing you down a mountain trail. These threats activate our physiological stress response: fight, flight, freeze or fawn. It’s important to understand that nervousness and anxiety in high pressure moments are your body’s natural response to stress - not a fatal flaw in your capabilities.
The more you begin to take note of how your own body reacts to nerves, the better equipped you’ll be to understand this response. Common symptoms of performance anxiety might include a shaky voice, blanking out, dry mouth, rambling, or even freezing on the spot.
The next time you feel anxiety rising, pause, notice what’s going on in your body, and simply allow yourself to observe and log the reaction. No judgments. No action needed. We’ll work on building those resilience strategies in the next step.
Reframing Anxiety: A Resilient Perspective
Essential to performing under pressure is harnessing the power of “functional speech anxiety” – the right amount of anxiety to keep you sharp, but not too much to cause true disruption. J. Dan Rothwell defines this concept as, “when the fight-or-flight response is managed and stimulates an optimum presentation.”
Remember; anxiety isn’t the enemy. When managed, nerves can actually enhance performance.
Think of it this way: try to keep stressful feelings the size of a campfire rather than a forest fire. A campfire is safe, keeps you warm and is readily managed. A forest fire is out of control and causes damage.
Learn to harness your natural resilience to overcome public speaking anxiety.
Practical Strategies to Manage High-Pressure Moments
1. Nurture a Growth Mindset
Speaking, presenting and interviewing are a set of learnable, repeatable skills, not innate talents.
Many great communicators started out nervous—confidence grows with deliberate practice and repetition.
2. Name, Normalize, and Neutralize Your Feelings
"Name it to tame it"—labeling emotions reduces their intensity.
Understand that everyone feels nerves; it’s not a personal flaw.
Avoid spiraling and escalation of nervous feelings—don’t become your anxiety; instead, hold it lightly.
3. Prepare, Then Practice in Low-Stakes Environments
Start early—your brain needs time to process.
Practice with a pet, a friend, a mirror, or even an empty Zoom meeting.
Avoid over-practicing to the point of exhaustion.
4. Ground Yourself with Visualization and Sensory Techniques
Visualize a successful event from start to finish. Mentally walk through the whole day and identify needs along the way.
Use deep breathing, listen to music, and identify physical grounding points (like a podium).
5. Shift Your Focus to Audience Connection
Instead of fixating on how you feel, focus on how you want the audience to feel.
Remember that most people are rooting for you—they want you to succeed.
6. Stay Present and Task-Oriented
Shift from self-doubt to action: "What task do I need to complete right now that will move me forward?" —rather than spiraling into “Am I really the type of person that can do this?”
Focus on one step at a time rather than obsessing over the outcome.
Take Small Steps Today
Learn how to better understand public speaking anxiety with a few easy exercises:
Reflect: Rate your nerves on a scale from 1-10 before and after your next public speaking engagement. This could be a big event like a presentation or a small interaction like meeting a new friend.
Act: Identify one small action from the nerve management strategies above to bring that number down to manageable level. *Nerves are managed through action. When we act differently, we begin to think and feel differently.
Empower: You can be nervous and confident at the same time. Nervousness does not mean you are not capable - it means this moment is important to you. Remember: the goal isn’t to rid yourself of anxiety, but to learn to manage it well. This is resilience under pressure!
Supporting clients in communication skills is a mainstay of my 1:1 coaching programs. If you want to improve your public speaking, interviewing, networking or conflict management abilities, learn more about 1:1 coaching programs here!
