I watched a colleague give a brief talk this afternoon about the nature of her work. Normally, she is the proverbial ‘cool cucumber’ but not today. You could see in every aspect of her body language that she wanted to be anywhere but here, and when she wrapped up her comments, the last syllable was barely leaving her mouth when she lurched away from the podium.
Later she sent me an email fretting about her performance. Why oh why would she fizzle like a cheap firecracker on the 4th in front of her peers/friends/co-workers? People she talks to every day?
It’s the difference between sitting in the front row versus the back. In the front, all eyes have the potential to be on you, even if they aren’t. If you sit in the back, giving you the hairy eyeball requires a little effort: plant, pivot, turn.
From the time we’re young, there is an expectation placed upon those in the front. An expectation that you will not only know the answer, but deliver with aplomb in a voice unwavering. If we’ve always been a back row, or even mid-row rider, getting up to the front can be very unnerving!
