Speaking confidently wasn’t the most important thing last year when we didn’t communicate in person. Now that the masks are coming off and the distancing is easing, some professionals are struggling to regain their confidence to present, report and speak publicly with others. There’s no need to worry that you can’t get your “communications mojo” back. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind to help restore and strengthen your confidence in oral communications:

1. Focus on the content: Focus on what you have to communicate. Give yourself a break from worrying about the judgment of others. Focusing on getting the content right will naturally help your performance. This is not acting; you have to back up what you are saying.

2. Have clear and high-level messages: Don’t make your audience struggle to figure out why they should be listening to you. Make sure you have clear and concise messages that you have confidence in. If that means there are only one or two high-level messages, that will suffice as the basis for your talk.

3. stay in the moment: Don’t worry about completing someone else’s time frame or meeting someone else’s performance expectations. Don’t try to make a 15-minute briefing last half an hour. Build in flexibility (such as allowing more time for qya) and go for brevity rather than trying to fill the gap.

4. Play to your strengths: If you’re good at storytelling, practice finding a good (short) one to work on for your briefing or presentation. If you’re someone who sticks to a script, pare down your material until you can deliver a high-level abbreviated version. If you like to use materials, try to make them as visual and simple as possible. It’s better to have your audience engaged at all times than to wonder why you’re repeating yourself.

5. Be realistic: Give yourself some time to rebuild the trust you had or discover a new trust. That comes from your connection to what you’re saying and your knowledge of why your audience needs to hear it. It doesn’t come from memorization or fear of not being perfect.

Be kind to yourself as you “take the public stage” once again, strengthening that “performance” muscle you may not have been exercising last year. Your performance and confidence will increase with practice. In the meantime, remember the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Be honest, be brief, sit down.”