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dot me slash TFTS. When it comes to effective communication, confidence is key. I'm Matt

Abrahams and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School

of Business. Welcome to this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

Confident communication boils down to a simple equation. Confidence equals competence. The more

confident you are, the more competent and credible your

audience will see you as. Of course, you can take this to an extreme, and I am certainly not

suggesting that we all be overconfident or arrogant when we interact with others. Believe me,

I work and teach in Silicon Valley, and I spend a lot of time talking about confidence versus arrogance.

Now, the biggest barrier to confident communication is anxiety.

Most people, upwards of 75% of people, feel anxious in high-stakes communication situations,

be it written or spoken, in person or virtual, with large audiences

are small, synchronous or asynchronous.

...