Addressing an audience – fears and conquering methods
Public Speaking is commonly defined as “addressing a group of people in a disciplined, intentional and previously thought out style”. The main goal of a speech is to convey a valuable message to your audience. The information could be anything, explaining a subject, demystifying an issue, persuading them to take action etc.
Public speaking is mostly a one-way transfer of information and its effectiveness hinges on the capacity of the orator. Whether the speaker can bring about a perceptible change in the listeners life or attitudes is secondary. Orators are feared by governments as they wield vast abilities to influence the decision of people. By delivering an absorbing address the speaker can persuade his audience to take action immediately, while the same speech if delivered shoddily can damage the goodwill of a product/ company/ service in the eyes of the audience.
Well prepared and presented speeches can make even the most mundane subjects sound enlightening and spectacular and vice versa. Anybody can achieve this state of effective public speaking by suitable training, preparation, research, rehearsals and adapting a systematic approach to the talk.
The skill of public speaking is vitally important but rare to be found. Many assured looking people lose their nerve when faced by a crowd. They just break down and become a stammering, stuttering bundle of nerves struggling to deliver a proper sentence. All the calm, strength, confidence seems to come to naught at this moment. The horror is so great that even our body reacts; racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, weak knees, stammering etc are common symptoms.
My initial memories of the public speaking horrors were when I was 13 and was competing in a debate competition. I had to present my case to an audience of about 400-500 peers and though fully prepared and assured about my case and quite sure of winning, I just couldn’t utter a word on the stage. I saw so many kids in front of me critically examining me and then shivers went down my body and I literally went into amnesia.
All my efforts went in vain and the students made fun of me in sign language. I took over half my allocated time to begin and delivered my speech. Later as I grew up I examined this stage fright and discovered that this is known as ‘Glossophobia’ and also realized that I am not alone with this fear there are millions of us out there who experience glossophobia day in and day out.
One can become an effective orator by submitting to the stage, rehearsing, overcoming this panic and hard work at practice and training how to become a good speaker. The old adage ‘Success if 99 percent hard work and one percent luck’ is good to remember at this juncture as it exemplifies what successful public speakers practice. To get adequate practice one must take every opportunity to speak to a gathering, make mistakes and learn from them.
Command over the topic of speech is another important tool for success in oration. You can deal with the listeners’ questions only if your knowledge about the subject is deep enough. Undergo suitable training to become a good public speaker but nothing beats the practice. Observation is another important tool; you should study the methods and style of famous and successful public speakers and try to adapt them in your speeches. This will stand you in good stead. Practicing in front of friends, family and work colleagues will also help in overcoming your fear of public speaking.
Remember the three keys to become an effective public speaker, thorough understanding, numerous rehearsals and tremendous exposure are vitally important. If you can achieve this you could become a world-class public speaker soon.
