Consulting Journal: Techniques

Techniques: Public speaking

by David Blakey

Do you fear speaking in public? You can enjoy presenting.

[Monday 9 November 2009]

Despite all the advice that people receive about public speaking, many business people dislike giving presentations.

Rather than giving people a standard set of steps designed to help them to overcome your fear of speaking in public, consultants could analyze why you dislike speaking in public as a first step to helping them.

Audience

Is it the audience? Are you afraid of speaking to your subordinates, your peers, your superiors, or your stakeholders? Are you confident in front of the board but nervous in front of your own staff? Or the other way round? Are you more afraid of internal than external audiences, of strangers rather than colleagues, of people in your sector than other people?

Remember a presentation that you enjoyed giving and another one that you hated giving. See if you can work out what the similarities and differences are. It is not enough just to look for differences, as that only provides evidence for when you are afraid. You need to look for similarities, as those similarities may help you to overcome your fears.

As an example, a person may be afraid of speaking to prospective clients and confident when speaking to colleagues. There is a clear set of differences, as the speaker may see prospects as strangers, as people making decisions on what the speaker says, as people who will be less warm towards the speaker, and as people who are looking for mistakes. There are similarities. The speaker may both audiences as wanting information, as being knowledgable about the industry, and as wanting to hear a concise description of new products or services.

You can use the similarities to overcome the differences. Because the prospects are making purchasing decisions, you may feel a need to add more detail than you would when speaking to your colleagues. You might agree that the need of the prospects for a concise description should make you treat them as colleagues, by giving them the same short description and then leaving it to them to ask questions if you want more detail.

You might present for ten minutes to colleagues, with twenty minutes for questions, and present for twenty minutes to prospects, with ten minutes for questions, simply because you feel that need to add more explanation in your presentation. You may believe that your prospects may enjoy the presentation less than your colleagues, and this could be correct. Your failure to deliver a good presentation to prospects may cause a cycle of nervousness and poor presentations.

Performance

Some speakers have little confidence in their own abilities as presenters. Really, this often does not matter. I worked with a salesman who introduced each new feature by saying And another thing the system will do ... This actually endeared him to audiences. They could see his excitement over the products that he was presenting, and his eagerness to tell them more. They liked him. A colleague once asked me if we should try and improve the salesman's presentation techniques; I said no. I explained that his way of presenting meant that his audience rapidly noticed that he was continually saying And another thing the system will do ... This meant that they became aware of the fact that there were many things that the system could do. Without the salesman giving a number to each feature, they knew that there was a long list of features. Audiences also understood that his presentations, which he did without notes, were full of his own excitement about the system and its features. His performances were not polished and rehearsed; he was a man communicating his enthusiasm (and his knowledge) to his audience.

So, think carefully before taking any remedial action that could dull the spontaneity of your performance.

If it helps, your audiences have come to learn, not to judge. A presentation is not a talent show. You want to convince the people in the audience of the value to them of the subject that you are presenting. You can always do that best through your knowledge of the subject, your enthusiasm for your subject, and your eagerness to tell people about your subject.

Fear

There is a difference between being nervous about presenting and having stage fright. Stage fright is an irrational fear of going onto a stage, or any public platform. Although it is not specifically a lack of confidence, it can often be alleviated through techniques that increase confidence. If you believe that you suffer from stage fright, it may be worth your while to enroll in an acting or public speaking course. It may be that your stage fright will diminish if you are more confident with your presentation technique. Be aware, though, that stage fright is not restricted to performers who doubt their abilities. Many great actors and musicians have suffered from stage fright, often at the height of their talent and popularity.

You may be affected by stage fright or you may just be worried about failure. It is worth analysing the possible reasons for worry. You may be worried that you may not remember what you should say or that you will somehow make a fool of yourself or that your audience will not like you or that your techniques as a presenter are not good enough. If your suffer from any of these worries, you can overcome them in two ways. First, you can get training, so that you improve your skills and techniques. Second, you can prepare yourself before a presentation to be relaxed and confident. Both ways involve training.

You should always be aware that your audience wants to know about what you have to tell them. They are not critics. They really want to see and hear you. You should be more than happy about this: you should experience real joy and delight as you prepare to speak and this feeling should last throughout your presentation.

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