Selbst. Sicher. Auftreten. - Mit Persönlichkeit überzeugen | Markus Fischer

Thank you, thank you. As a child, I always dreamed of one day being a drummer on a big stage. And that dream actually came true. At 22, I'm sitting on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall in London. Now imagine this: sold out, 8,500 people, and in front of me 114 orchestral colleagues. I'm on the small drum, one meter above me the microphone, and I know exactly — live broadcast to 24 countries. And my feeling was simply: awesome. That was the dream coming true in that moment. I was full of confidence, I just wanted to get on stage. I wasn't nervous or tense at all. So I start playing and immediately realize it's not working — the sticks are uncontrollable. And then in the middle of this passage, I stop and put my sticks aside. In that moment, I was simply ashamed. I remember it exactly — it was awful. To my left and right, the two drumming interns beside me, and I'm no longer able to play my parts.

And I'll be honest — I struggled with this performance anxiety for over a year, in every single concert. But this is how it is for many people: they feel tense, they feel nervous when they have to perform, when they have to speak in front of others, at a presentation, an important negotiation, a pitch.

This is Albrecht Mayer. Albrecht Mayer is the principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic and has been considered the world's best for years. He once said so beautifully in an interview: 'Nothing affects stage fright more than the feeling of not having practiced thoroughly and in time enough.' And with this quote, I once confronted his direct orchestral colleague, Stefan Dohr — he's been considered the world's best horn player for years. And listen to what he says: 'Nothing affects stage fright more than the feeling of not having practiced thoroughly and in time enough.' Can you confirm that? Yes — usually you feel like you've practiced enough, but then there's always that spot where you think, 'Oh, what was that?' And it fortunately still happens in rehearsal, so you can go over it a few more times and think, 'Ah yes, yes.'

Preparation is incredibly important. The world's best do it this way too. If you have a presentation, timing is absolutely crucial. I always say: be finished 10 days before, maybe 7 days, so you can still do run-throughs. Another important area is the topic of authenticity — alongside all this preparation. Authenticity frequently causes stress. Now you might think, 'Why, authenticity?' Well, look — in coaching, people come to me and say, 'Markus, my boss said I seem a bit insecure, I need to come out of my shell more, but what should I do? I mean, I'm just the way I am.'

Notice: as soon as you start working on that, the immediate fear is that it might come at the cost of authenticity — that you're no longer authentic. But what does authentic actually mean? I've looked at countless definitions, and at its core it always means: you're authentic during a performance when you don't pretend, when you openly show your thoughts and feelings, when you're honest and don't play a role. And that's the quintessence for me on this whole topic of authenticity. When you ask people whether they find Helene Fischer, Dieter Bohlen, Angela Merkel — whoever — authentic, people never agree. And that's why I always say: get away from this thought that you need to appear authentic to others. You don't have to. And besides, it's not even a success factor. What matters is finding a role you can identify with. That's what it's about. When you're selling, it needs to be clear: am I the hard seller or the soft seller? When I address the team, it also needs to be clear — even if I become unpopular — am I the critic because the numbers don't add up, or am I the motivator? Free yourself from whether others find you authentic or not. Free yourself from whether others like you or not.

And it got to the point where I didn't even dare to speak up in the orchestra assembly and say something in front of my own friends. And then it was clear — as Janine already said so beautifully — I need help. That was clear to me in that moment. So I started taking coaching sessions. Nothing worked. And then I said, okay, now I have to help myself. I did training after training, all in the field of psychology. And in one seminar, I had my aha moment — it was really like the scales falling from my eyes. I realized that every time I go on stage as a Philharmonic musician, I'm in a position of owing something. And then of course I asked myself, where does that come from? And then it immediately came back to me — it was after my probationary year vote.

And you need to know: during the probationary year in an orchestra, all orchestra members vote. And thankfully, the majority voted for me, but there were also a few dissenting votes. But I was full of self-confidence — I simply had the drive...