I probably should try Toastmasters

For the past few weeks, I've been working with our Chief Supply Chain Officer to develop a presentation for our company's quarterly all-employee meeting. These meetings are typically "state-of-the-business" type presentations where our executive leadership team give updates on their respective areas of the business. Like a re-cap of our earnings calls to shareholders, but kind of dumbed-down for all employees.

I think our Chief Supply Chain Officer realized the meetings can be kind of dry, so he thought it would be nice to spice up his presentation by including me and giving me the stage to discuss some of the more "heartwarming" work I'm in charge of.

So, I found myself in the position of creating a presentation and video to show off my work, heavily edited through many, many, many rounds of review. I believe we landed on version 15 of the presentation and version 9 of the video.

In any case, when I walked into the meeting room yesterday to practice with the A/V, I kind of got very nervous. 800 chairs were set up for all our headquarters employees, two giant screens flanked a big stage with two podiums and a very pretty backdrop of gold-painted branches adorned the stage (It's the holidays, after all!). Very intimidating for this panda.

I got mic'ed up, took a seat, and waited for everyone to file in. Because of my presentation, I sat in the very front row, next to our CEO and other members of the executive leadership team. And since my presentation was about an hour into the meeting, I had plenty of time to psych myself out. By the time it was my turn to present, my heart was racing and my palms were sweaty.

I felt like I raced through my slides and at several moments, I could hear my voice quivering. I tried to ignore the camera that was trained on me, broadcasting my presentation to employees in other locations around the country and I tried to remember to breathe.

When it was finally over, I basically ran down the stairs to get off the stage and returned to my seat in the audience. I thought about all the things I forgot to say and the things I could have said better, but in the end, I think it went very well. Our CEO congratulated me for being a "natural" at public speaking and many employees either came up to me or e-mailed me to say that it was one of the more inspiring or interesting presentations they'd heard at one of these meetings.

I received an e-mail from a colleague in our New York office who admitted that mine was the only presentation that received applause. And one employee, who was recognized for 35 years of service to the company earlier in the meeting, e-mailed our CEO to say that the supply chain presentation made her feel even more proud to work for our company.

I guess all the work, the rehearsing in my car and the nervousness about what I would wear paid off. It certainly was the largest (and most important) audience I've ever presented to, so let's hope it reverses any damage I may have done my career in the past.