Guinea Pigs and Eagles - Presentation Skills and Interview Skills

Impact Factory's Words of Wisdom - Presentation Skills and Interview Skills

Guinea Pigs and Eagles - Pesentation Skills and Influencing Skills

by Liz McKechnie

If you hover over a guinea pig and it doesn't have a cave available to scamper into, it will freeze, tremble, and hope you won't notice it.

For this read job interview, presentation to board, the big pitch.

It's easy to feel like a guinea pig when what we seem to facing is a bunch of hungry eagles. It looks like lunchtime and we are the hors d'oeuvres.

It's at this point that it might be useful to reframe.

The Interviewer & Presentation to the Board Scenario

What is the interviewer / board member afraid of in this situation? It may be that they are fearful of the consequences if they make a wrong decision, for example. Trembling and freezing on our part may well only serve to feed that fear. The situation goes from bad to worse and we can end up not doing ourselves justice.

If this is the case then it might be useful to go in to the meeting or presentation considering how to feed them (the interviewer, audience, colleagues, etc.) the idea that they are safe in your hands. It is difficult to remain prey if you are focusing on reassuring your predator and taking care of their needs.

In this way the guinea pig may find his/her courage and the eagle may be interested enough to look and listen for a moment rather than hover and swoop. After all there's a tasty mouse waiting outside.