How can I turn it around?

[Anonymous]

During a zoom dept team meeting our dept head asked us to do a presentation at an in-person meeting next week. It wasn’t clear to me what he expected us to present on, so I said so during the meeting (although I inartfully said I don’t know if I can do the presentation because I don’t have enough information to present on it intelligently), which sparked a discussion amongst the team on different ways to approach it. Our dept head didn’t elaborate, it was another colleague who was coming up with helpful tips. Then dept head chimes in with it’s just a conversation not a big deal. Seriously? You ask each of us to do a 30 min presentation and that’s a conversation?

Anyway, I probably could’ve handled it better and now I feel like he’ll be annoyed with me when we meet in person. How do I turn this around?

[Anonymous]

You knock the 30 minute presentation out of the park and learn to not say everything you think. You change the negative image of yourself through positive actions.

[Anonymous]

I think it is good that you realize you didn't handle it well. That is a start. Hopefully that will teach you to think before you speak and not say blurt out things that are emotion (panic and irritation) driven.

Beyond that, what PP said. Do an amazing job with the presentation.

[Anonymous]

I actually don’t think you did anything wrong and he sounds like a d*ck