Performance Moment

High-pressure moments don’t break us — but they can reveal us. When the stakes rise, like in a key presentation or crucial conversation, it’s easy to focus on getting everything perfect. But perfection isn’t what moves people — presence is.

In this post, Dean shares a simple but powerful way to prepare not just your words, but your mindset, so you can step into high-stakes moments with confidence, clarity, and real connection.

To learn how to show up when it matters most, explore our shortlist interview support page here.

Transcript

Moments vs. Performance Moments

There are ordinary moments in your career — and then there are performance moments.

Your success isn’t happening in your goals. It isn’t happening in your plans. It isn’t happening in your five-year strategy.

Your success is happening in the moment.

And some moments carry higher stakes.

A crucial conversation. An important meeting. A sales pitch. A keynote speaking engagement. A shareholder meeting presentation. The moment the stakes rise in your own mind — that’s a performance moment.

Why Performance Moments Feel Different

Think about an Olympic skier or snowboarder. They practice until the routine becomes muscle memory. Over and over again. In every possible condition.

But what they can’t fully simulate is Olympic day — the crowd, the cameras, the adrenaline. Suddenly, they’re different.

That’s the issue with performance moments.

You are different.

Your physiology shifts. Your energy spikes. Your self-awareness increases. And if you haven’t prepared emotionally — not just technically — that shift can throw you off.

This is something we work on deeply in leadership presence coaching and executive presentation coaching. Skills matter. But your internal state matters just as much.

Practice the Emotional Side of Performance

If you want to improve your business speaking, your virtual presentation skills coaching outcomes, or your hybrid presentation skills in high-pressure environments, you have to train more than content.

You have to train the feeling.

When you feel good — grateful, appreciative, energized, confident — take note of it.

What does it feel like in your body?

What does your breathing do?

How does your posture shift?

That emotional experience is not accidental. It’s trainable.

Gratitude as a Performance Tool

Start with something simple: gratitude.

When you feel just right — not perfectly calm, not “zen,” but slightly fired up — pause and notice it. That slightly pumped, alive, ready-to-go feeling is powerful.

In Leadership Presentation Coaching and executive presence coaching, we help leaders identify that internal state and practice activating it deliberately.

You don’t wait for the high-pressure meeting to discover how you feel. You practice the feeling ahead of time.

Install the Feeling Before the Stakes Rise

Practice activating that emotional state in low-stakes settings:

In everyday meetings
During internal conversations
While preparing for a presentation

This is the emotional equivalent of rehearsal.

Just as group presentation coaching focuses on repetition of skills, Presence Coaching focuses on repetition of state.

When you can deliberately activate gratitude, appreciation, and energized confidence, you change yourself in the moment.

Changing the Moment by Changing You

The performance moment doesn’t change.

The room is still full. The stakes are still high. The cameras are still there. The executive team is still watching.

But if you can turn on the emotional state associated with success — if you can consciously activate that energized, grateful, confident presence — then you alter your experience of the moment.

And when you change your internal experience, you perform better.

This is at the core of leadership confidence training and screen presence coaching. It’s not just about what you say. It’s about who you are when you say it.