Fear of public speaking can be helped
Did you know (and I didn’t until I started writing this post) that the fear of speaking in public is known as glossophobia? The word glossophobia in fact comes from the Greek γλῶσσα glōssa, meaning tongue, and φόβος phobos, fear or dread. Makes sense doesn’t it.
And of course many people have this fear. (The stats suggest 3 out of every four people
The physical symptoms (dry mouth, pounding heart, nausea, sweating) result from an adrenal fuelled ‘fight or flight’ reaction.
The verbal symptoms can include tense voice, quivering voice, over use of ‘Umms’ and ‘Ahhs’. Not good – especially when you are trying to create a good impression, which is probably where the panic probably stems from i.e. ‘I can’t afford to look a fool in front of these colleagues/ relatives/parents’’ type thoughts.
There is hope for sufferers though. Yes, you can learn to master your fears, although maybe not eradicate them. (It’s estimated that 95% of all speakers experience some degree of anxiety/nervousness when public speaking).
When I was a young teacher I badly wanted to be able to stand in front of the school to introduce and conclude parent assemblies and admired my colleagues for doing so. At that stage standing in front of 400 children was a ‘walk in the park’ to me – but adults were different.
The fear of public speaking IS one of the most common phobias, but you DON’T need to let it hold you back, as one of my clients describes:
When I first went to see Amanda I was a Personal Trainer who loved one-two-one sessions but dreaded the thought of standing in front of a group and teaching an exercise class. I wanted to feel comfortable and it was important for my career development, so we started by talking a lot about why I didn’t feel confident in these sorts of situations. I then got an invitation to guest speak at Leicester College in their Business Department. In preparation Amanda helped me devise some coping mechanisms, which would get me through the presentation. They worked, I presented to the 40 students, I loved it, it went really well and I felt liberated. It’s been about two months since then and I have been trying to find an opportunity to teach an exercise class, the next step. The opportunity finally came three weeks ago when I taught my first Spinning class. I now have a regular weekly slot. I am by no means perfect, but I think they went well, I enjoyed them and I’m improving with practice. I needed to break the ice and jump in at the deep end and Amanda supported me in doing this, there is still lots of work to do, but she has given me a solid starting point. Thanks Amanda!
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