This is not my first letter to one of my classmates from my Masters program. I love my Masters program, and our Tribe is a very close-knit group who continues to dedicate itself to supporting each others' learning journeys. This past weekend was a school weekend for me, and I shared a particularly awesome experience Sheila. The experience was so awesome I felt the need to write her a letter commending her for it and thanking her for her support.
Some people just don't like speaking in large groups. They have dozens of reasons for why, it could be stage fright, it could be an issue of prep time, it could be they have a sore throat and don't want to speak up... Sheila is usually one of these people. I have worked with her in past classes on presentations, and witnessed first hand how badly she stresses, how much time she takes writing out word-for-word what she is going to present, and how she speedily reads through it in front of the class at a volume barely above a whisper. This weekend, I made Sheila my mission.
I don't typically have a problem speaking in front of large groups of people. I get nervous like anyone else, and I have times when it's the last thing I want to do, but in general, I'm pretty comfortable in front of a crowd once I get going. My educational and professional backgrounds have both enhanced this in me. When our class is assigned group presentations, I'm the one who takes the "let's talk out the basic points and just wing it" approach. This weekend I was assigned to Sheila's group, and I decided she needed a confidence boost.
As our group prepared for our presentation, Sheila kept stressing various facts from the reading she was focused on. I could see her getting more and more worked up, so I finally sat down immediately across from her and told her she needed to chill. She looked a little taken aback, which was part of my objective. I explained to her the strength of her perspective as I saw it, and tried to minimise the importance of the presentation and the grade. I also helped her craft her message so she was focused more on the story than on the facts and numbers. She seemed to settle down a little and seemed a tad more confident, though still pretty nervous. Luck would have it our group was to present last, so Sheila sat nervously through 3 other presentations and feedback sessions, waiting for her turn to speak. Then, she NAILED it. She was calm, spoke at a reasonable volume, didn't read her script, and she told the story. She still stumbled over a few of the facts she wanted to include, but she didn't freak out and lose focus when she stumbled. It was awesome.
When our group finished and the professors were giving feedback and the class was asking questions, one of our tribe members raised her hand and said "not that you didn't all do well, but I just really want to commend Sheila for the amazing job she did... what a huge improvement from the first time we ever heard her share in class!" Sheila was beaming. I was so excited for her.
My letter was pretty simple. I told her how awesome it was for me to watch her grow in skill and confidence, and reminded her of the important role she plays in our tribe.
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