Professor panda

Yesterday, I was invited to guest lecture for an MBA class at UC Berkeley. I'd prepared my remarks with the professor last week and reviewed the slide deck we assembled before the class met.

I'm typically not that afraid of public speaking, especially when I know a fair amount about the topic at hand (yesterday's topic was my job at The Corporation). But for whatever reason, I found myself stumbling through the class period, tripping over my words and feeling like I was babbling nonsensically.

In retrospect, I think what hurt me was the use of slides. When I address groups, I typically make the session more interactive or I simply "wing it." However, since this was for a class, the professor thought the students would want slides to follow along and to ensure that we covered key points. I guess that makes sense, but it's just not my style.