Public
Speaking!! When I hear these words what comes to mind first is anxiety,
nervousness, losing train of thoughts, dry mouth, increased heart beat and
uncomfortable body language and that I am standing in front of the audience
scared and lost. Yikes! That is kind of a nightmare. But this is what happens
when you are not comfortable with public speaking and have issues like speech anxiety. It is
surprising how an individual who is super smart, intelligent and very
communicative in one-on-one or group settings may get totally stumped and be a
completely different personality when it comes to standing in front of the audience
and speaking on a topic. The spotlight
effect mentioned in the
book always gets me. During
presentations, I feel like I am in a spotlight and everyone is looking at me.
It’s like I am being analyzed or judged invariably by everyone standing in
front of me, so instead of focusing on the contents of my presentation I start
paying attention to the noise factors. I guess it sometimes results in a
chicken and egg effect as the reason for speech anxiety, according to
psychologist is the fear of making a mistake and due to nervousness if I do end
up making a mistake not only it slipshod my presentation but also makes things worse for the future.
Therefore, it is important to not let any abject memories affect you as your
past life experiences do have an impact on your ability or inability to deliver
a good presentation. Also I agree with the uncertainty
reduction theory and
can totally relate to it. Having moved from another country and a different
culture makes you a little diffident as you may not be aware of certain social
norms or may not have the language proficiency. I have always felt that my
anxiety is partly associated with this factor as sometimes I’m afraid to speak
up for the fear of refutation. After reading the chapter, I felt that I can use
some of the techniques mentioned in the book, to help me avoid public speaking
anxiety and be an adept speaker. I guess the mantra is as long as you stay in
control and keep your presentation interesting, your audience continues to stay
with you and everyone has fun…..
Hello.. I agree with you and feel same way as well as you. Chapter 2 of Public speaking book have a lot of good advice how to manage our speech anxiety. I know that speech anxiety we will feel all the time when we need to report or tell something in front of audience and we will feel the spotlight effect on our self because we are part of society and people want to know us, can they trust us or not. If we deliver some message people estimate our speech and compare their opinion with our opinion. If we want to reduce tension during our speech I thin we need to be very honest with people and opened to them. It is very important to make eye contact, always to be flexible to any changes and ready for any questions even if it's unexpected. And our answer can be like I need time to think about it or question back to the person, "Ok, but before I answer you, what do you think about it? I think everybody is afraid to speak up for the fear of refutation, but that is part of communication, we need to have a strong opinion and to have ability prove our view or to be ready change our view and to have a wise to build the bridge with people regardless their views.
ReplyDeleteThorough planning, preparation, and practice give us confidence that we are truly ready for our speech.