Fear of Public Speaking – more than death?

I am regularly reminded of the “statistic” that the majority of people have a fear of public speaking greater than that of death. Google leads me to Richard Garber’s analysis of the origins of the ‘research’.

Published in ‘The Book of Lists’ of 1977, and probably originating from ‘What Are Americans Afraid Of’, The Bruskin Report, 53, July 1973, the claim has been reviewed many times – especially when most people who cite the statistic are frequently in the Public Speaking training industry.

• STOP PRESS – DATELINE: October, 2015 Chapman University in California recently published some interesting statistics on America’s top fears. Worth a read.
  https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2015/10/13/americas-top-fears-2015/

In the end, the specific proportion of fear and its relation to the perception of death is inconsequential….

What matters, is how you approach the prospect of presenting in public!

 

Like many of you, I’ve felt the headache the night before an important presentation, and the perspiration as the time approached to present my pitch. I look back now, and realise the chain of events. I could feel the stress, because I wasn’t prepared enough. I could hear the audience asking tough questions. I could see that I had gaps in my logic.

Human behaviour consistently shows that when faced with something with which we are unfamiliar, we choose how we respond, based on whether we see it as an opportunity or as a challenge. We utilise a range of strategies to qualify and quantify what we face, and more strategies as we manage our progress towards or away from the event itself.

Once we realise that, we can make different choices. We can modify our strategies, so that we can approach the event in a different way.

 

Just think.. I could have prepared more thoroughly. I could have prepared answers for the questions that the audience could predictably ask. I could have ensured some of the audience were already on my side, before the actual presentation!

I had a range of strategies that could have prepared me and my audience for a better outcome. All I needed to do, is consider them, and utilise those strategies rather than those that led me to experience the fear, risk the embarrassment and expose my weaknesses to the audience I would really have preferred to impress.

What strategies do you use, when faced with a potential public speaking opportunity? How could you utilise better strategies to make your performance a memorable one – for the right reasons?