Nerves travel downhill from the captain. So does calm. Pick which one you’re sending.

Groups take their emotional reading from whoever is nominally in charge, and the transfer happens faster than words do. Your hands, your voice, how quickly you talk before a game or a rush, all of it gets read and copied by people who are already nervous. That is not fair, but it is reliable, and it makes your own state part of the job.

Decide what you are sending before you walk in. Slow your first few sentences down on purpose, even if you do not feel calm yet. Calm you are performing still arrives as calm.