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YEAR AFTER YEAR, THE BOOK OF LISTS RANKS FEAR of public speaking as the No. 1
bogeyman in people’s minds ahead of such surefire nail-biters as death,
disease and nuclear war. Just last year a Gallop News Service poll found that in
America where people are free to be afraid of anything, public speaking was
second only to a fear of snakes.
Indeed, there’s something about stepping in front of an audience that is
almost pathologically frightening to many people, even professionals who do it
every day. About the only people for whom this is good news are presentation
coaches and consultants who make a living among other things, teaching people
how to overcome fear of the podium.
Presentations recently talked to six of the nations top presentation
consultants to find out how they reach their clients to overcome speaking
anxiety and take control of their nerves. In the process we found that there are
as many ways to tame the nervous beast within as there are speaking coaches to
teach you how. All use different techniques to help people keep their inner
coward at bay. And, in any case you’re wondering, none of their methods have
anything to do with envisioning an audience in its underwear.
Luanne White Owner and President of Theatre Techniques for
Business People, Inc. ®,
Atlanta
Luanne White is a speaker and trainer on the subject of incorporating
theatrical techniques within the corporate world. The president of Theatre
Techniques for Executives. in Atlanta, her client list includes
Coca-Cola Co., BellSouth Corp.’s cellular division, Johnson & Johnson,
Hallmark corp. and Brystol Myers-Squibb Co. She can be reached at 770-913-0400
or her Web site: www.energyspeak.com
The techniques Luanne White teaches originally developed from the performing
arts world. White, who has appeared in numerous stage performances and
television shows, believes people are fearful when it comes to presenting
because they don’t know how their physical mechanism -- their body -- works.
"People can only get over their fear by first going on tour of this
mechanism, taking command of their ‘control room,’" she explains,
"and then understanding what performance energy is and how to get to that
level, which is where their best self will emerge."
Anxiousness, then, can be a powerful ally when
presenting if it involves
flowing adrenaline. If you want to engage someone in conversation, for example,
you have to do more than look and speak; you have to direct your energy toward
them. "When you connect correctly, you get rid of your fears and become
engaged," White says. Transfer this idea to speaking at a podium. |
You still
need a level of engagement, but you must direct an equal amount of energy toward
the audience. "Like an electrical current, think of any performance you’ve
seen where there’s someone onstage who has the high energy that fixates
you," White suggests. "They aren’t the loudest people; they just
have the performance energy that captures you." When presenters realize
their potential and exercise their control-room switches, they will have less
fear, she says.
Fear starts when we’re children, when we’re humiliated," White
explains. "We’re usually in [a state of high] energy and having fun until
something happens," causing us to be laughed at or get in trouble. After
that, she says, "your cellular memory is developing negatively and
conditioning [you] that when in high energy with other people, [you’ll] end up
embarrassed."
Fear of judgement, humiliation and embarrassment are the big issues for
presenters. To fix this cellular programming, White teaches people how to
reprogram themselves to think the experience will be good -- of benefit to the
audience and themselves.
To accustom clients to the energy level needed to be an effective speaker,
White uses trigger exercises to teach people how to get their energy up in a
snap--exercises that will allow them to walk into a room and be in command.
"One exercise I use is to get a speaker to marry their physical energy
with an icon to create an association which will create relaxation
onstage," White says. She has clients raise their heart rates until they
are almost out of breath (using activities such as running in place), then stop
and close their eyes. "When this cardiovascular energy is roaring through
their body, I coach them to be aware of it and to associate it with something --
a firecracker going off, a gong sound or a volcano erupting -- coupling the high
energy level with the image," she explains. "I have them do it at
least once a day for two to six weeks, so when they walk on stage, if the nerves
are there, they can click into their energy by associating it with the trigger
icon." The beauty of this technique, says White, is that it’s available
for the rest of their lives, in any situation.
 We’ve all heard the maxim, "Just picture the audience in their
underwear." But does anyone ever actually do this, and has anyone ever been
helped by it? Probably not, yet the common wisdom about how to vanquish one’s
fear of speaking tends to boil down to this and a few other tired bromides, such
as "take a deep breath" or "get your butterflies to fly in
formation." In addition, here are a few other misguided ideas our experts
think you should disregard.
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