Here's How to Finally Beat Your Fear of Public Speaking

 

Sunaina Girdhar, 32, runs a successful events company in Mumbai, and a major part of her job requires making business pitches and presentations to prospective clients and colleagues. She’s amazingly thorough—and confident—when it comes to researching, meeting, and schmoozing with clients, but there’s a little problem...Sunaina is terrified of making business speeches and proposals. “I know it sounds silly, given my profession, but just the thought of talking in front of people makes me jittery. I often find myself in a situation where I’m in front of 10 people and am dumb-founded for words. Which is why I have a team of people who do the job for me, while I sit quietly on the side, saying as little as possible. I’m great at doing everything else, as long as you don’t ask me to talk. I know this harms my career at some level, but I really can’t help it.”
Unsurprisingly, Sunaina is hardly alone. Glossophobia, popularly known as speech anxiety, is a medical condition that arises with the fear of public speaking. And according to a poll by the Wall Street Journal, public suffer from some form of social Mumbai, and a major part of speaking is one of the most common fears in the world! Worry not though, because we have the solutions.

WHERE DOES THIS FEAR STEM FROM?

According to Glenn Croston, Ph. D., the panic of getting in front of a crowd comes from a fear of rejection. “At a primal level, the fear is so great because we are not merely afraid of being embarrassed, or judged. We are afraid of being rejected from the social group, ostracised and left to defend ourselves all on our own.” As a social psychologist, teacher, and a sufferer of social anxiety, Dr. Signe Dayhoff had intense fear of public speaking every time he got up to teach a class. “My tongue stuck to the roof of my dry mouth and I couldn’t swallow. I blushed, sweated and trembled,” he said. Getting help made him deal with the situation better. “As I recovered 12 years ago, using patience, persistence, and practice, I discovered that nearly 20 million individuals at any one time suffer from some form of social Mumbai, and a major part of speaking is one of the most common anxiety.”

REMEMBER THAT THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

All you need to do is admit that you are a bit nervous about speaking to your audience. They will be more forgiving if your nervousness shows up later on. Also, you’ll feel more relaxed now as they won’t be expecting a world-class presentation. And then imagine their surprise when you deliver an excellent one! A  good line to use is: “On the way here, only God and I knew what I will be presenting. Now, only God knows.” Don’t equate your public speaking skills with your self worth, suggests Preston Ni, author of How To Communicate Effectively And Handle Difficult People. “Whether you’re good at public speaking or not has nothing to do with your value as a person. It’s simply a skill that you can learn and become better at with practice.” “Each one of us suffers from stage fright,” says anchor and VJ Juhi Pande. “I was mortified of public speaking until I started working as a TV presenter. It took me a couple of years to sink my teeth in and not have a nervous breakdown every time I had to go up on stage. Whenever I’m nervous, I just take a break, pause, and then start over. This really helps me.” Martinuzzi also believes in this pausing therapy—“In The King’s Speech, a movie about the true story of King George VI, one of the successful strategies the speech therapist uses to help the king overcome his stuttering is the use of pauses. Pausing helped the king regain his composure whenever he was gripped by anxiety. When you feel anxious while presenting, consider pausing more frequently. A few strategic pauses between points 3have a calming effect.”

PRACTICE DOES MAKE YOU PERFECT

“The main advantage a speaker has over the audience is knowing what comes next. Comedians—the best public speakers—achieve what they do largely because you don’t see the punch lines coming. To create a similar advantage, I practice my material,” says Scott Berkun, author of Confessions Of A Public Speaker. Stand in front of a mirror and imagine an audience around you, then talk exactly the way you would had you been in a crowd. See how you look and sound and improvise on that. Start small and present in front of your friends, and gradually increase the number of people to the group before you feel confident to take on a large audience. Headlines Today anchor Preeti Choudhry shares her top tip—“There is no formula to get over shyness. Give it time and do it over and over again—it’ll work in your favour.” Her colleague Padmaja Joshi, Senior Producer with Headlines Today, believes the key is to keep the focus on yourself. “Don’t fear the camera or the audience. If you feel the audience intimidates you, focus on a point and make your speech instead of making eye contact,” she says.

VISUALISE YOURSELF SUCCEEDING

Instead of dreading the process of going to a stage and giving a speech, imagine yourself speaking loud and clear and the audience applauding your performance. Each time your mind begins to ring panic bells, shake yourself out of it and say ‘stop’ to yourself loudly, and quickly take your mind away from the given situation. It’ll help you ease your nerves. In The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, author Steven Covey tells his readers to “begin with the end in mind”. Visualise yourself giving that speech the way you want to, and the audience appreciating your points. It’ll make you feel confident. Another good idea is to keep your key points handy. “Before I’m centrestage, I jot down an outline that includes the major points I want to make, any personal stories that I can share to drive those themes home, one to three pieces of advice and a concluding idea. That’s my recipe for making a good presentation,” says Berkun.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES

better. “The trial and error technique works best in this situation,” says Padmaja. “You’re bound to stutter and make mistakes when you start, but keep at it and hone your technique. And do your research well. Most often, it’s not the fear of facing the public, it’s the uncertainty of what could be thrown at you. Be well versed with your topic, so you’re not caught off guard”. Preeti adds, “Never be afraid to make a fool of yourself. You might say a few things wrong, but say them nevertheless.”

“To be able to take on the world, it is imperative for you to love yourself. Accept yourself in totality, with all your follies,” summarises RJ Archana Pania.