#MiddleburyCT #WinningWays #MentalRehearsal
By PAT IANNUZZI
Imagine that you have to give a presentation at an important meeting, and you want to make sure that you will be as effective as you possibly can. What would you do in preparation for your talk? You would likely rehearse your presentation at least once – probably more – before you deliver it, the reason being that by practicing what you plan to say beforehand, you prime your mind and body to perform the task more successfully than if you didn’t rehearse.
By rehearsing what we plan to say and how we plan to say it, we imprint the elements of our presentation on our neuronal pathways beforehand, so that we develop a certain level of memory that will help guide us when we actually perform, thereby requiring less mental effort at that time. If we plan to take questions from the attendees at the meeting, we would probably visualize what those questions might be and rehearse our answers to them as well, mentally, orally, or both.
The essential point here is that the better prepared we are for a speaking event, the more successful we will be. I’m sure this is pretty obvious to everyone, but why should we limit mental rehearsal only to speaking situations? Mental rehearsal can also help us increase our effectiveness in many other settings as well.
Consider a sales interview, for example. Successful salespeople not only rehearse their sales presentations, they also rehearse their responses to anticipated prospect questions, concerns, and objections, so that they aren’t blindsided and potentially lose control of the sales dialog. Or how about participating in an interview? I doubt any of us would ever engage in an interview without having prepared how we would present ourselves or respond to an interviewer’s questions.
The reality is that mental rehearsal can work for us in any situation where we anticipate challenging conversations. Most of the time, unfortunately, we are inclined to go into such interactions without much preparation at all, essentially winging it. We may know what the issues are and basically where we and the other party stand on things, but often not much more than that. If we take some time before the exchange to plan and practice the actual words and phrases we intend to use in the conversation and visualize what we anticipate the other person is going to say, we can dramatically enhance the effectiveness of our comments and responses.
Although we’re only imagining success during rehearsal, our brain reacts as if it is actually happening; it doesn’t know the difference. There have been many studies on athletes that have shown measurable skill improvement simply through the visualization of successful movements and maneuvers without any physical involvement whatsoever.
By spending some time role-playing word by word – with you playing both parties in the conversation, you will come to feel much more comfortable and confident about any interpersonal encounter. By mentally preparing your communication in advance, you avoid the necessity of having to think deeply about important points on the spot, freeing up brainpower for active listening and strategizing. Doing a mental rehearsal may also uncover issues and insights you hadn’t thought of previously. You may be amazed at how much of what you predicted in your mental rehearsal may actually come true.
Pat Iannuzzi of Symbiotic Performance Group, Inc. is a performance consultant, trainer and coach focusing on selling, presentation and interpersonal skills. He lives in Litchfield and can be reached at 860-283-9963 or piannuzzi@symbiontnet.com.
