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Stanford Graduate School of Business69. Feeling Nervous? How Anxiety Can Fuel Better Communication
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Reframing anxiety and designing audience-first communication with concrete clarity
- Kelly McGonigal reframes anxiety in communication as evidence that something matters and as energy that can support performance when aligned with purpose and preparation.
- She identifies a common communication failure—especially among academics—as hiding behind abstractions instead of using concrete examples, artifacts, and plain language that let others truly “see” the work.
- She defines communication success less as persuading or proving correctness and more as sparking the audience’s own spontaneous questions, interpretations, and engagement.
- She describes her message-creation process as starting with the best outcome for the key audience and working backward, using content (stories or studies) sparingly and intentionally.
- She connects communication and wellbeing by describing a joy-focused workout built from natural celebratory movements that can increase happiness, optimism, and connection.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasTreat anxiety as a signal that you care, not that something is wrong.
She says anxiety often shows up when something matters, and using a phrase like “my heart is in it” helps redirect attention from symptoms (like a pounding heart) to purpose and care—reducing self-criticism and keeping you engaged.
Anxiety can be fuel when you have a goal and something to do.
She describes anxiety as useful energy when you have a role to perform (like teaching), especially when paired with preparation and self-trust; she contrasts this with anxiety in situations where there’s “nothing to do,” which calls for other coping skills.
Move from abstractions to concrete, “crunchy” details people can visualize.
In coaching PhD students, she repeatedly pushes them to replace “a string of nouns” with specific examples, objects, images, and plain language so listeners can picture what the research is about.
Successful communication creates interesting thoughts in the audience’s head.
She argues the goal isn’t to rush through information to avoid critique; it’s to prompt the audience to generate their own thoughts and questions (“Wait, what if…”), which she treats as the real measure of success.
Don’t assume a slide explains itself—walk the audience through what it means.
She notes that speakers often assume slides make things obvious (“As you can see…”), but she insists presenters must guide attention, interpret visuals, and show what to notice so understanding actually happens.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI think that for me, what I have come to value about anxiety is it's a sign that I care.
— Kelly McGonigal
For example, when I start to feel anxious now, I will say to myself, "My heart is in it," which is a kind of a mindset reset.
— Kelly McGonigal
Sometimes my anxiety is a sign of presence, which is so different from how people typically think of presence as being very calm.
— Kelly McGonigal
The purpose of any really interesting communication should be for the other person to have interesting thoughts in their own head about your work.
— Kelly McGonigal
I always start with the best possible outcome for the audience that I care about most, right?
— Kelly McGonigal
SPEAKERS
Matt Abrahams
hostLecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business who teaches strategic communication and hosts the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast.
Kelly McGonigal
guestStanford lecturer and health psychologist known for work on stress reappraisal, anxiety, and the science of movement and joy.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
