Fear of public speaking
The average person loses 300 hairs during a presentation due to anxiety.
Difficult to quanify and measure I know, but the fear of public speaking is the number one fear amongst adults, greater than the fear of spiders or even death itself. The first thing to remind yourself that fear of public speaking, or presentation anxiety, prepares you to perform, and if harnessed correctly, perform brilliantly. Most of the fear we have from speaking in public is unfounded, and never likely to happen, and I have yet to hear of anyone dying from a poor presentation, so at least its not life threatening. Most anxiety is derived from the belief that you are not good enough to present to include things like:
- the audience knows more than I do
- I'm not prepared
- I have a squeaky voice
- I'm shaking visibly
- I'm a fraud etc etc.
The list is endless. To start, the fact that you have the attention of the audience means you should give them what they have come to hear, i.e. a professional, well executed presentation, so preparation is key.
Start by taking an audience centric perspective, look at what they already know and what they want to hear. Think about the venue, time of day and mood of the audience, up beat and humorous or serious and factual?
Be prepared, repeat after me, be prepared. Go through the presentation in detail as often as possible, in the bath, in the car and with you friends and family. If you can present to people you know, a new audience will be a doddle.
Arrive early at the venue to check acoustics, equipment and seating arrangements, walk through the venue and take a delegates perspective of the stage. When its your time, stop, pause, look at the audience and smile, count to 3, then start.
Reflect afterwards what went well, and what could be improved, its a lifetime learning strategy that will allways get better.
