Overcoming the Fear of Presentations

Let’s be honest – we’ve all been there. At some point in our lives, on various occasions or even on a regular basis, we have to give a speech in front of a larger crowd. May it be in front of a class, at a wedding or in business life – earlier or later, each of us will be forced to stand in front of a crowd of people, being the center of attention, and present a given topic.

Some people get used to giving public speeches after holding presentations for a couple of times. Others, however - especially if they have no practice in speaking publically, have enormous difficulties, even cases of anxietywhile speaking in front of a larger crowd, often with disastrous results. Yet, there are various tips and tricks to overcome the fear of public speaking.

First, it is important to differentiate between nervousness and anxiety. While probably most of us get a little excited before standing up in front of the audience, which can cause a faster heartbeat, shaking hands or a faster breath, the matter of is far graver. Especially during the last few years, the number of people claiming to be the victim of public anxiety has increased rapidly. Being confronted with a larger crowd of people can have an impact on the affected person’s circulation, physical well-being, it might even result in depressions. The technical term for this fear is called "glossophobia".

Unfortunately, there is no common solution for cases like this: the affected individuals need to act according to the given circumstances and the level of the psychological impact. However, there are some common guidelines that speakers have to keep in mind, no matter what the occasion for the presented speech may be.

First, of course, it is absolutely essential to prepare the text carefully, the spoken one as well as the written notes. The best way is to practice the speech beforehand, even if there are no listeners present yet – it still gives the speaker confidence in their own text and the way they convey it.

This is also helpful in terms of body language and organization. If the text has never been revised earlier, the speaker might appear awkward or even clumsy, hastily checking notes or constantly sticking their look to their PowerPoint presentation, completely avoiding any directs interaction with the actual audience.

If there is a PowerPoint document used, it is important not to overly stuff it with massive text blocks and words. This might result in the audience reading the whole text by themselves and thus leading their attention away from the actual presentation.

This should be avoided at any rates – if the complete presentation is already provided in the PowerPoint file, there is no need for a speaker in the first place. Instead, it should merely display key terms and words, sometimes supported by graphics or short video clips, still keeping the main attention on the speaker. This is why it is advisable not to fully rely on the PowerPoint presentation, but still keep personal notes on the speech, invisible to the audience.

A useful advise on the matter of notes is to write them down on small pieces of paper rather than a fully printed DinA4 page – this can, for instance, hide shaking hands and allow the speaker to move more freely instead, making a more secure impression.

A commonly spread advise for people with public speaking anxiety is to imagine the audience naked. In most cases, this is not really effective and can even result in a distracted speaker. Instead, a way more positive approach is to imagine that the whole audience likes you – even though this might sound a little utopic at first, there is a glimpse of truth in it. After all, they are assembled in order to listen to the presentation, which already proves at least some sort of interest in the topic. A great part of the audience actually has a positive attitude towards the presentation, and is probably willing to forgive smaller mistakes in the way the speech is presented.

Moreover, what is important to realize is that in many cases, fear is invisible. Even though shaking legs and sweaty palms, even a shaky voice might appear disastrous towards the speaker, most of the listeners are a lot less likely to notice. This is why even though speaking anxiety in most cases never leaves completely, it can still be controlled to a certain extent. What needs to be kept in mind is that this fear is mostly in our head – and the audience will never see what is going on inside of it.

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