How to handle the fear of Public Speaking?
Public speaking is a process of communication whereby speaker presents his ideas on any topic before the large audience. It is a cause of fear amongst many people because of several reasons like:
Concern that people are judging you: Many speakers fear that audience would be judging their speech, personality etc.This creates a sense of consciousness amongst the speaker and in this feeling some speakers overdo or over emphasize in their speech that depicts their nervousness.
Past failures: The speaker may have some past bad experience in the case of public speaking which may be hovering around his head. He may not have been able to completely deliver some speech and that thing may be keeping him nervous.
Poor or insufficient preparation: The speaker may not be fully prepared with his theme or may not be ready to handle the queries of audience that may be lowering his confidence level and ultimately causing nervousness.
Unbalanced body movements: Body movements and perfect body posture goes a long way in making the speech effective. If the speaker does not have confidence on his body movements or feel that his body posture is not the perfect, then he may have a feeling of nervousness on his part.
Stage fear: Some people have inborn stage fear that is difficult to be removed. They fear facing so many people at one go. This creates a low confidence level amongst the speaker.
Poor breathing habits: A speaker should have control over his breathing habits as it an important factor to calm you in case of using long phrases or sentences. Uneven breathing habits may create some sort of nervousness amongst the speaker.
Comparing over selves to the others: some speakers are continuously comparing themselves with others that create a feeling of consciousness and low self esteem.
This fear of public speaking needs to be handled in a very tactful manner
- Practice, Practice and practice: The best way to overcome the nervousness is to practice many times. Speak loudly, before your friends, relatives who can guide you positively. Be comfortable with the tools you would be using while giving the presentation.
- Memorizing the sequencing of slides: If the speaker is using slides for the presentation then he needs to be well versed with the matter and sequencing of the same.
- Practice the expected questions that can be asked: The speaker can prepare a list of the expected questions that can be asked and the structured answers for the same. This will help in reducing the nervousness to a large extent.
- Relax before the presentation: Relax your mind and body before the presentation. Clear yourself from any negative thoughts, pressure or sense of past failures.
- Take pauses: Try to take frequent pauses in between the presentation that will help to relax and one can get some time to think about the next phase of the speech.
- Don’t misinterpret the non verbal language of the audience: The speaker should not over judge about the expressions and the body language of the audience as it may disrupt the normal flow of the ideas and cause a feeling of lower confidence.
Thus going about in a well planned way and having faith on one’
You can overcome on these challenges by-
Planning before public speaking
Preparation before public speaking
Practice before public speaking
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