by Rachel Faye

Created on: February 01, 2010   Last Updated: February 02, 2010

How to overcome the fear of public speaking

You have this task of standing in front of either the home crowd – your fellow colleagues or complete strangers.  Both fill you with fear like never before.  In fact, speaking in front of your fellow colleagues may be even worse!  If you did a poor presentation, your boss may be present, even if he was not, he would surely hear about it, you still have to face your colleagues the next day.  You would feel terrible if you walk into the room and all the whispering suddenly comes to an end!  For sure, you would know they were talking about your presentation skills! So what do you do if you have a big presentation that you are about to give? Just remember these 5 Ps.

1 PREPARE

Everybody will tell you the same thing. Prepare, prepare and prepare.  Know your material like the back of your hand, or until you can even do it in your sleep!  Think of the worst possible questions that can be asked and prepare those answers.  Prepare your Power Point slides – if you are not familiar with it, get someone to help you, but you have to do the work.  As you prepare your Power Point slides, you become even more familiar with the work.

2 PRACTICE

This is vital to the process. No use knowing your material but not ACTUALLY saying it out loud!  When you first practice, you can do it alone in your room, out in the garden, by the pool – anywhere – as long as you actually speak the words.  No running through in your mind!  That does not count!  Then, when you are more familiar with the content, it is time to gather some audience.  You can start small – spouse and children, slowly expanding to your neighbours and eventually to some of your closer colleagues.  Better still if you know where the venue of the final presentation is, get up on that stage or room and give it a go!  Do this as often as possible, so that when the day comes, you will be comfortable up there. 

3 POUR OVER/STUDY

Look at other public speakers and how they deliver their speech, study how they do it.  Then get someone to video you as YOU deliver your speech before the actual day.  Look at the difference (if there are any) and work on the weak points.  You are looking at yourself critically, not over rose-tinted glasses, make the necessary changes otherwise your peers may not be as forgiving.  Time yourself so that you know how much time you take.  Usually you will be told how much time is given to you so that will give you a benchmark of whether you are on time or exceeding your time limit.

4 PICK YOUR ATTIRE

Believe it or not, this will help boost your confidence level.  The better you look, the better you feel, the more powerful your image will be.  When you know you are looking your best and no one can fault you for that, you invariable walk taller, look more confident and it will show in your presentation.  Your colleagues will be wondering if you are the same person or an invited speaker for this presentation!

5 PRESENT

When everything is in place, you have prepared to the best of your ability, you have controlled things that you have control over, the only thing left to do is to present.  After all, this is what all the effort is for.

Happy presentation .

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