If one were to do a survey of people’s biggest fears, the list would undoubtedly be topped by death, getting dumped or never meeting somebody, losing a pet among other fears and irritations that any one of us would list off the top of our heads. However, one fear we often overlook is the fear of public speaking.
Some are naturally good at it, while others get better at it through practice and experience. In Bangladesh, a common belief, which starts in schools and is carried to university where public speaking engagements become frequent, is that extroverts are natural public speakers. However, there are many extroverts in reality who suffer from the same crippling fear when push comes to shove – no matter how talkative they are among friends.
This starts to become a real problem at work where public speaking may be called for in a number of ways – presenting weekly updates at a meeting, pitching an idea to seniors, making a sales call at a company, updating stakeholders – the list becomes endless.
Fear of public speaking is not fear of speaking in front of a large group of people. Fear of public speaking is really the fear of being ridiculed, rejected and publicly humiliated. This fear stems from a number of factors such as lack of confidence in self, lack of belief in what one is speaking for, unfamiliarity with the topic in question etc.
If you have any real interest in what you have to speak about, and have done your homework, there is little reason why you cannot overcome your fear. Following are a number of suggestions that will further help you relax and deliver a winning presentation at work.
1. Take a [figurative] bow. You should consider it an honour to be speaking in front of people who took time out of their day simply to listen to you. Start by thanking them for their time.
2. Be prepared. Maybe you have gone through university “winging it” for every presentation. Even if you are great at improvising or adlibbing, prepare for your speech. Going with the flow and being permeable to change is a great strength, but even professional speakers don’t trust themselves to be brilliant without preparation. Practice your speech and carry written key points.
3. Know your audience. Are you speaking to a hall full of engineering students? Underprivileged mothers? Business investors? Tailor your speech to your audience to captivate them. Even if your speech is essentially about the same thing, when talking at different engagements, it is best to fit the speech accordingly. If you know of particular personalities likely to be present during your speech, Google them beforehand and try throwing in an anecdote or joke they can relate to. There is no shame in such measures to win an audience.
4. Lead with a bang. Whether your public speaking engagement is only for ten minutes, or an hour,
open your speech with your big idea. Building up to your best point simply for effect is a bad idea – you will do yourself great service by grabbing the audience from the get go.
5. Respect your audience. You are not always going to be so lucky as to speak to people you personally like or find worthwhile to talk to. It is your job not to allow this fact to become apparent in your speech. Find at least a few things you can relate to with your audience and stick to those.
Back in university, we had a live skit once about women’s rights and a fervent speaker constantly referred to “men” in such a sardonic and confrontational tone that it resulted in a number of audience members leaving, and others becoming completely reluctant to speak during the following Q&A session.
6. Visualise your success. You have delivered the most winning speech. You are getting your first standing ovation. The audience members are throwing rose petals at your feet. Instead, if you constantly dwell on all the ways you are likely to fail your speech, you most likely will.
It is important to believe you will be great, and to know that everyone present wants you to be great. The audience wants to be amazed, entertained, and come off having learned something new, they are on your side. They are rooting for you, because they do not want to be bored.
7. Do not announce failure. It is such a common trend to start a speech by announcing how nervous one is. You immediately lose any weight you may have carried with the audience when you announce that you are nervous. Even if you don’t feel like you’re in control, let the audience believe that you are. Audiences will excuse nervous speakers if they believe that the speaker is at least passionate about what he is speaking. Do not ruin that belief with admission of doubt.
8. Do not be overly apologetic. Are there technical/PowerPoint related problems with your presentation? Is your speech starting later than it was slated for? Rather than apologising, it is best to just carry on. Chances are the audience has not even noticed what you are apologising for till you point it out. However, certain cases do call for a quick apology, such as mispronunciation.
9. Maintain pace and eye contact. Practicing your speech beforehand gives you an idea of how to pace your speech – where to speed up, where to slow down and emphasise. Pacing is important to draw the audience in during an important point and breeze through unimportant ones. Lightning fast speeches are a clear indication of the speaker’s nervousness while slow ones are boring.
While maintaining pace, it is also important to maintain eye contact. One of my instructors in school once told me to avoid eye contact during a debate, as it would make me nervous. Bad advice!
People will not trust you if you do not look them in the eye. Look at your audience while you are talking to them. There is nothing interesting happening on the floor or the ceiling so stop looking there.
10. Be the best you that you can be. A five o’clock shadow and dishevelled hair might look sexy under an Instagram filter but it will win you no points under harsh light in front of a large group. Groom yourself for a speaking engagement, dress well and look the best version of yourself that you can possibly look, but do not get carried away playing dress up.
