Understanding Public Speaking Anxiety
Do You Have Employees Hiding a Fear of Public Speaking?
This email arrived in my inbox today, “Hi, I am terrified about public speaking and the panic attacks that come with it! I go to great lengths to avoid these situations, and it’s having an impact on my life. Is this the sort of course...
Nervous About Public Speaking? Self-Talk That Actually Helps
You’ve got an important presentation coming up. Your stomach’s in knots, your heart’s pounding, and your mind is already racing ahead to all the ways it could go wrong. You barely slept last night, and the thought of standing in front of a room full...
Preparing for a Presentation — Are You a Procrastinator or a Perfectionist?
Few people can engage an audience without preparing and practicing. Even presenters who look like they are speaking ‘off the cuff’, have usually prepared thoroughly— or have presented the same material many times previously.When I first started as a public speaking coach, I stressed the...
Why Avoiding Public Speaking Is Worse Than Doing It! It Is Career-Limiting, Stressful, and Harder Than You Think.
Verbal communication skills are valued by employers. They consistently rank highly on lists of the top “soft skills”. For example, the LinkedIn Learning 2020 Workplace report found that employers ranked “persuasion” as their number two soft skill requirement. And you can’t persuade without good verbal communication skills.Public speaking is...
Seven Stories of People Who Once Had a Crippling Fear of Public Speaking and Did Something About It!
I am doing something new for this month’s blog article. I want to tell the stories of seven people who decided that they were no longer going to let their fear of public speaking define them.Why am I doing this? Most people with a fear...
Why the Imposter Syndrome May Explain Your Fear of Public Speaking- And What You Can Do About It
Research shows that 70% of people will experience ‘Imposter Syndrome’ at some stage in their life. There are conflicting statistics about how many people fear public speaking. But we know that it is a common fear. And I am willing to bet that there is...
Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response to Fear of Public Speaking
In a previous article I talked about how a fear of public speaking could have an evolutionary basis. The fight, flight or freeze response that many people experience is a primitive response to danger. Although the danger is clearly not life-threatening, our bodies respond as...
Feel the Fear (of Public Speaking) and Do It Anyway!
Susan Jeffers’ seminal self-help book “Feel the Fear and do it Anyway” was first published in 1987 . Its messages are just as relevant today and are highly applicable to fear of public speaking. According to a website dedicated to Susan’s work, she identified five...
How Susan Cain Overcame a Fear of Public Speaking to Give a TED Talk That Has Been Viewed More Than 25 Million Times
Susan Cain, author and celebrated TED talk presenter, once had a crippling fear of public speaking. Her TED talk, The Power of Introverts, has more than 25 million views and is one of my all-time favourites.I am also a big fan of Tim Ferris, and so...
Public Speaking and the Shame of Appearing Nervous – Why Do We Care and What Can We Do?
Do you worry that your audience will notice your trembling hands or shaking voice? In this article I explore why we care about looking nervous, whether the audience really does notice (or care), and what we can do to hide the nerves. Why do we...
Why Do So Many People Fear Public Speaking? – The ‘Spotlight Effect’ and Other Explanations
At my Toastmasters club, Talking Heads, we have a quote on our website that always gets a chuckle: “There are two types of speakers – those that are nervous and those that are liars.” – Mark Twain Sound familiar? You’ve probably seen the headlines too—those...
Presentation Anxiety in Students – How Can We Help?
Periodically, a debate blows up on social media about whether young people should be forced to present in front of the class.The Atlantic reported one such debate in September 2018. The story was about a tweet posted by a 15-year-old high-school student: “Stop forcing students to...
Using Your Nerves to Enhance Your Public Speaking Performance
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to stand in front of an audience and feel calm and relaxed? Actually, that should not be your aim! While it might be nice to feel calm, the reality is that you generally perform better when you are...
Stop Trying to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking
Body language expert Mark Bowden tells a memorable story in his book “Winning Body Language”. A man came to him, desperate for help because he broke out in hives every time he presented. Instead of trying to “fix” the symptoms, Bowden encouraged him to do...