One of My Most Embarrassing Moments

It was a meeting room with 30+ people sitting in a corporate office to hear someone on a presentation. The presenter started talking, and in just about 2 minutes, he went blank. He could not utter a word further. Fortunately, one of his colleagues stepped up to do the rest of the presentation. The initial presenter was none other than me, and I felt very embarrassed as that event took place several years ago.

Embarrassing moments are everywhere in our lives. Some are easy ones, while some make us cringe anytime we think about it. They mostly happen either when we lose our temper or don't take enough responsibility for what we do. Primarily, if our acts are not very thoughtful, only then, we get into embarrassing situations for ourselves.

This one embarrassing moment was during the initial days of my career, and it was an opportunity for a presentation on a particular topic at my workplace. The audience size was about 30+. Until then, I was not well-versed with large group presentations. When my manager asked, I agreed to do that presentation though I was not internally ready to do it, either the fear of audience size or the lack of knowledge of the subject.

Though I had spent a little bit of time preparing for it, on the presentation day, something happened, and I could not just do it. I started on it, but there came a pause suddenly through it, and I could not muster the energy to proceed. It was so awkward. I went blank thoroughly. Fortunately, one of my colleagues came as a rescue and covered it for me.

It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Whenever I think of it now, I smile at it because I have transformed myself through that experience, and in a way, I thank that moment. I do not regret it at all!

Post the presentation, I discussed with my manager, and she made me understand the importance of improving my presentation skills. Apart from that, I also did self-introspect to see how I could have handled it better.

These were some questions that made me think aloud about that event.

If I was not comfortable doing it, could I have asked one of my colleagues to do it?

If I was not ready, Could I have said No to my manager genuinely and showed interest to learn as someone else did it for that turn?

Did I take responsibility for my actions?

Did I think of how I could have done a very successful presentation, and possibly that could have paved the way in me being a good presenter, along with the learnings from it to take it forward?

Following that incident, training on presentation skills came up, and I immediately signed up for it. As part of that presentation training program, we got asked to do two presentations, one at the start and one at the end, to see the difference in our overall presentation skill improvements. I would have to remind you. They recorded it as we did those presentations using a video camera.

It was funny to see myself in both visual and vocal elements, as that was the first time my speech was getting recorded. On that note, I would recommend anyone to do that if you want to get better at presentation or oral skills. It is enlightening to see ourselves talking and delivering a message. It gives us a lot of feedback which if we improve upon, can offer best presentation experience for us and for others.

We got asked to choose a topic of our own for the presentation. I decided to speak about some of my self-realization that I had gone through from my life experiences. I thought the topic would bring out the compelling story and make it an authentic one apart from making me natural with what I intended to deliver in my speech.

It came out well and got good applauds from my colleagues.

Ever since, I have done a few things keeping the vision to continue improving my presentation and training skills apart from my various roles of being a business analyst through senior program manager in my career.

- I started volunteering whenever there was an opportunity to do presentations at work for a large group setting.

- I participated and led initiatives that made me present to both employees and leadership in a large group setting up to 200+

- Over the years, I became a running coach by taking a special interest in running sport for personal wellness and have been able to pass on the goodness of running to people through learning and teaching. I conduct both individual and group classes.

- I became an Agile Coach in my career, conducting training and facilitating many tribe and team level meetings at work.

What I noticed is that I discovered in myself a keen interest in working with people in all settings. It is a very fulfilling reward in enabling them to see new perspectives, teach new skills and practices, and much more.

Sometimes, our most embarrassing moments give us the courage to take action in transforming ourselves. It will make us stop, think deeper about why that moment was embarrassing and what led to it. We would muster our strength to reshape ourselves so we would never be in a similar situation again in the future.

Whenever it comes to presentations and talking to a large audience, I loved to grab the opportunity because it feels good to convey an insightful understanding of yours to a large set of people. I believe, to be able to do that, you need to gain expertise, do some deep research on the topic. And, especially be creative/innovative to deliver that message across without losing its intended purpose and value.

Never cringe about your embarrassing moments. Instead, love them because they transformed you. They gave you perspectives and made you aware of your pitfalls or shortcomings.

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You may also read one of my other article on how to improve public speaking here