Description
Conquer Stage Fright
Preparation, practice and passion overcome fears of public speaking
"Mr. Beaver, I'm not in your class, but if you have a moment, I would like to talk to you. I need some help with a problem that I've had for years, but now it's affecting my job."
The "student' was a vice president of marketing for her Midwest bank. Over coffee, this seemingly confident woman revealed her "secret fear."
"I am terrified of public speaking," she said. "And in less than a month, I will be required to make a number of presentations to groups all over our state. Can you help me so that I can do this? It means my job!"
The discussion took place at a seminar I gave last year on effective presentation techniques. Little did she know that 70 to 75 percent of our population reports a fear of public speaking. Her secret fear is shared by almost every professional group you can name, including lawyers, accountants and bankers. Yet this form of stage fright is a lot less difficult to overcome than most people realize.
To overcome fear of public speaking, embrace the "Three P's" of public speaking: Preparation, Practice and Passion. Take heart if you get the jitters when you appear before the local Rotary Club. There's a great deal of hope for you.
Why We Fear Public Speaking
I'll bet you know someone who is an articulate one-on-one communicator, but if given a choice between delivering a public presentation and a root canal, he or she would opt for the root canal!
For about 20 percent of people who fear speaking in public, it all started when they were children. Communication research has shown that where children receive praise, smiles and other positive reinforcement for speaking, they learn to associate positive consequences with communication.
Reinforcement theory is spoken here. Kids are cruel, and though we may have forgotten the event, the laughter of others and embarrassment experienced in speaking in front of classmates may have had a lasting effect.
Another large group of stage fright victims is terrified of failure and think that they will never measure up to the expectations of their audience. That was the case with my banking student. "Anybody can give a better speech that I," she said. "I'm not polished. I sound like a dummy up there, and I know that everybody is looking at me and will hear every mistake or 'um' that I say."
The simple reality of public speaking is that your audience isn't expecting an address from the speaker of the House. All they want, all any audience want, is to listen to a well-prepared, honest speaker who believes in the message and is willing to passionately communicate that belief.
What Can I Do?
There's a lot you can do, and the first thing is a little self brain washing.
Much of what you probably know or have thought about giving a speech is completely wrong. I will say that again. If you suffer from stage fright because you think your audience won't like you, that they will be critical and that they will think you don't know what you're talking about, then you're wrong. It isn't that way at all.
University research in stage fright shows that it is much more easily overcome than you might think. There are dozens of approaches - from learning how to relax through breathing exercises to creating positive images of the way the audience will react to honing skills in the art of delivering presentations.
I call my approach the "Go Through the Motions and the Emotions Will Follow Method," as it incorporates research-based theories into a practical. user-friendly recipe. This recipe - which requires the ingredients of preparation, practice and passion - will transform your fears into positive expectations of having fun with your audience.
The Preparation Step
If you want to guarantee failure as a speaker, then don't prepare. Don't take the time to know your material inside out and backwards! Try to "wing" it.
That said, preparation is more, much more, than merely knowing the subject matter. You've got to know your audience. Who are they? Why are they there? What do they know about your subject? What do they know about you?
And just what is the connection between knowing as much as you can about the makeup of your audience and reducing stage fright? You've heard the saying, "knowledge is power." The more you know about your audience, the greater the power you will have as a speaker.
Recognize that you don't want to give a speech. Your goal should be to build a dialog. Create a dialog, with questions and answers throughout as much of your presentation as possible, to make your speech a participatory event.
When the audience participates, your speech ceased being an ordinary presentation and becomes a real conversation with people.
Passion and Practice Together
Often when I mention practice to people who suffer from stage fright, it's like suggesting going on a roller coaster to someone afraid of heights. But even these people have been public speakers all their lives. Everyone has. No matter what language you use to communicate - sign language included - we all communicate. We can't stop communicating.
You are and have been a public speaker from the moment you uttered your first words.
"Yes, but it's different when you're up there talking to a group of people," I frequently hear. Wanna bet? It's no different at all - you just think it is. Good public speakers know that speaking to a colleague at work and talking to a group of people amounts to the same thing.
A super public speaker leaves you thinking, "Wow, he was talking to me! What enthusiasm! I'll buy into that!"
The skills that make you a good "private" one-on-one speaker are the same ones that make you an exceptional public speaker. And you're using these skills all the time: good eye-contact, listening, gesturing and animated facial expressions. These include using a tome of voice that says, "I believe what I am saying! I want you to, also, because my message is truly important!"
That is what the word passion means to me. Passion is excitement, involvement, belief by the speaker in the message - a belief that goes beyond what is said.
If you've organized your talk in virtually any kind of reasonable manner, then your audience might remember a few of your main points. But it is when you move them that public speaking - whether in front of the local Rotary Club or conducting a seminar for a group of fellow bankers - becomes the joy that it truly can be, for you and the audience.
After the applause, smiles, handshakes and "Wow, GREAT JOB!" what you'll hear waits a more powerful reason to step up before that audience. It is that wonderful feeling of having done a good job and knowing that it was appreciated!
By H. Dennis Beaver. When he isn't teaching bankers public speaking at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Beaver can be found practicing law in Bakersfield, Calif. He may be E-mailed at: Thebeav@webtv.net
A good way of overcomming stage fright and anxieties is to become organised try looking at the actors-pages software on the acting web site and you may find it useful
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