When silence is golden

I’m not sure why we have convinced ourselves that anyone can be taught, guided or cajoled into being a public speaker or presenter

Some people, indeed almost certainly most people, are nervous and even terrified of speaking in public. I have heard many say they would rather die than speak in public, especially as they fully expect to die on stage anyway. It’s the ultimate performance anxiety because the price of a poor performance is very public failure and humiliation.

Inexplicably, seasoned speakers often advise ill-at-ease speakers to imagine their audience in their underwear, or even naked. They claim this to be their personal strategy for success. Really? If the very idea of speaking in public makes someone nervous, the prospect of addressing a roomful of naked strangers is hardly going to allay their fears.

The premise of the underwear/naked strategy has never been clear to me. I’ve never actually heard an explanation as to why this would be helpful. The advice sits somewhere between point-blank useless and depraved. And what would the advice be for someone addressing a meeting of nudists: imagine the audience in their Sunday best?

Nervous speakers adopt many strategies to get them through their ordeal: claiming a cold, coughing or clearing their throat repeatedly, pausing to collect their thoughts, walking around the platform to buy time and hiding behind PowerPoint presentations. This solves nothing and merely reinforces the speaker’s dread of speaking and confirms to the audience that this speaker would be better off sitting in the audience. Using tricks to mask discomfort merely ensures that he or she will have to go through the same trauma next time around. So why have a next time around?

Can a terror-stricken speaker become an accomplished or at the very least competent performer? Public speaking and presentation trainers say “yes”. And it is true that well-founded technique will enable some people to get the job done. Experience is an even better teacher. But I’m not sure why we have convinced ourselves that anyone can be taught, guided or cajoled into being a public speaker or presenter.

If you don’t like speaking in public, don’t do it. If making a presentation to colleagues, peers or potential clients is not your thing, let someone who is more adept at the job do it. Surely there’s more to your amoury of skills and experience than whether or not you can deliver a spellbinding oration.

The underwear/naked myth is premised on the unconvincing notion that anyone, furnished with the tricks of the trade, can win over an audience. And equally the stream of advice out there on how to become a better speaker is premised on the dubious contention that everyone should be prepared and able to speak in public. Well, why should they? If nervous speakers do indeed want to overcome their disposition and master the talent of public speaking or presenting, then that is a reasonable choice for which they must take a considered course of action, preferably one that does not involve underpants.

However, this notion that anyone should be prepared to front an audience means that there are people addressing large numbers of people or roundtable meetings who have no business being anywhere near a microphone or whiteboard. So many aspects of our work is predicated on our ability to perform the required task. It should be no different with public speaking.

BRW

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