3 Solid Tips To Avoid Getting Panicky During Your Next Speech
Summary: While being afraid of public speaking is normal, what makes a speaker great is how they overcome it. It’s not easy, but it is by all means simple. If you follow these effective tips, you will find your fear evaporating over time, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start any sooner!
Stage Fright- something that every great speaker has had to go through. How can you avoid getting panicky during your next speech? How can you fix your concentration on understanding what is happening around you instead of trying to deal with the anxiety happening inside of you? Read on to find out.
Taking a step on the podium automatically gives an impression to the audience that you must know everything about the subject. And while everyone seems to be looking up to you, it also makes you feel extremely panic-stricken and nervous. It seems, stepping on the stage suddenly robs one off of all the confidence they ever had, make them seem foolish in their own eyes.
This HBR Article1 discusses how speakers read the room they are in, sense the different tones people project and then act upon it. While one executive mentor picked up on the surprise and shock of an evaluated employee, another picked up on the dissatisfaction of an employee with announced news. In both these cases, what helped our protagonists is to focus on how people are reacting and then saying/doing things in the meeting which gave the command of the room back to them.
Fall in Love With The Fear
Visualize Your Way to Success
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Impact on Leadership
Having a set goal and being determined to get to it through your speeches can push your followers to have high ambitions and expectations from themselves and the team as a whole. Research shows that leaders that speak confidently manage to attract more investors and the backing up of shareholders2. Confident speeches spur others into action, and since you are able to express conviction in your own ideas, others are optimistic about how it will turn out as well.
Do you want to talk about potentially awe-inspiring ideas that can push people into actions in a feeble tone without any conviction? Do you want to find solace in your own ideas and capabilities even when the expectancy to deliver is high and stressful?
3 Immediately Applicable Action Steps
- Talk to two-to-four teammates you’re close to and you can trust about your ideas, and then move onto bigger audiences when you have it set in your head.
- Before starting to speak, take 5 minutes where you only focus on the pattern of your breathing and block out other thoughts.
- When you are going to write down or prepare a speech, first close your eyes and imagine what you want your teammates’ reactions to be when you finish speaking.
References
- Knight, R. (2018, May 10). Tips for Reading the Room Before a Meeting or Presentation.Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/05/tips-for-reading-the-room-before-a-meeting-or-presentation
- Moore, D. A. (2021). Perfectly Confident Leadership. California Management Review, 000812562199217. https://doi.org/10.1177/
0008125621992173
Authored by Coach Vikram
Vikram is an Executive Presence Coach who supports CXOs and senior leaders to make an impact, influence, and lead with ease. He advises C-level leaders and teams to strengthen business performance through their executive presence and star leadership.
Vikram works closely with Boards and senior leaders to align leadership needs with strategy. His forte is his ability to develop trusted partnerships with senior leaders at some of the most recognized companies in the world. Vikram coaches senior leaders to draw upon their best selves, while growing their business and their leadership capabilities.
Vikram and his team have developed a groundbreaking model of executive presence and an Executive Presence Index (EPI) Assessment, the first frequency based, scientifically validated tool to measure executive presence.
Connect with him if you want practical and immediately applicable strategies to accelerate results, develop your people, and influence others to make a positive difference in your organization.
