When giving a speech of introduction, you should be sure to praise the speaking skills

Published on April 30th, 2021

Published on April 30th, 2021

by FutureLearn

We explore one of the most common human fears: public speaking. What steps can you take to become an effective public speaker and feel confident in the spotlight?

Does the idea of public speaking fill you with dread? If it does, you’re not alone. As much as 77% of the population have some kind of anxiety surrounding public speaking, although this ranges from feeling slightly scared to having full-on Glossophobia (a phobia of public speaking).

In this article, we’ll try to alleviate some of your anxiety around speaking to a large audience. We’ll look at why public speaking is an important skill, what the history of public speaking is, how to build confidence, and the components of a great speech. 

What is public speaking and why does it matter?

Public speaking is the act of presenting an idea to the public, using your voice. The ‘public’ can range from a very small group of people to a huge audience. For most people, a bigger audience equates to more fear, but some people are just as terrified as presenting to a small group.

When we think about public speaking, the first thing that comes to mind is someone giving an inspirational or educational speech, TED-talk style, but the definition isn’t actually as narrow as that. Public speaking can take the form of giving a work presentation, pitching an idea to an investor, leading a school assembly, or even taking part in a job interview.

Now we’ve thought about the wide scope of public speaking, we can start to see why it’s such an important skill. The reality is, everyone will have to speak in front of an audience at multiple points in their lives. Therefore, it’s important to work on these skills so you don’t feel restricted by anxiety, and are able to thrive in different circumstances.

Taking a wider perspective, public speaking is important because we can use our voices as forces for good. Talking about diverse and interesting topics is an educational tool, and a good speech can be very powerful. If you want to learn more about how to use your voice, you can try our Become a Better Presenter: Improve Your Public Speaking Skills course. 

A brief history of public speaking

As you can probably imagine, public speaking is hardly a new thing. It dates back to the ancient Greeks, who used public speaking as a political tool in debates and assemblies. The main purpose of their speeches was to persuade people, known as rhetoric. Famous public speakers included Plato and Aristotle, and we still remember their words today.

This use of rhetoric continued in ancient Rome, where famous orators such as Marcus Tullius Cicero used their voices to persuade people in the law courts and political spheres. Techniques used by the ancient Greeks and Romans can still be found in modern speeches, for example, in Barack Obama’s speeches as president of the United States.

However, the art of public speaking is certainly evolving, even if some things remain the same. Persuading isn’t the only objective of speeches today – instead, they can be used to educate, inspire, express feelings, or just provide a creative outlet for people.

Why do I have a fear of public speaking?

In order to face your fears head-on, it’s important to understand why you feel anxious about public speaking. There could be many reasons why, but the reasons we’re going to talk about below are pretty universal. 

1. You feel self-conscious as the centre of attention

This is definitely one of the most common reasons why people are scared of public speaking. It’s easy to become really awkward and overly self-aware in front of an audience because we’re wondering how we’re being perceived by others. 

If you try to view the talk as a conversation between people, rather than a presentation to an unknown audience, you may be able to rise above your self-consciousness. 

2. You’re having a physiological response

For most people, the fear they experience is a result of a physiological response to a perceived threat. A large audience or intense situation might trigger the arousal of the autonomic nervous system, which could lead to your body having a fight or flight response. 

This can cause rapid breathing, shaking, and an increased heart rate, all of which make it harder to talk confidently. You may even be tempted to run away and exit the scary situation completely. Not to worry though, as later we’ll explore some strategies you can use to slow down this physiological response.

3. You’re worried about appearing nervous

This is related to feeling self-conscious, but often, we get more scared when we’re aware that we’re exhibiting symptoms of anxiety. It can be pretty hard to feel confident if we’re showing signs that we’re not – ‘fake it til you make it’ seems like an impossible feat.

The hard truth is, that the audience will not notice or remember a lot of the things that you’re concerned about. Gary Genard, public speaking expert, suggests that you should place the spotlight on your audience instead, and think about how you can impact them.

4. You’re comparing yourself to others

It’s easy to compare yourself to great speakers, whether that’s professionals or one of your friends who has bucket loads of confidence. However, if all speakers were the same, speeches wouldn’t be interesting at all. Besides, your purpose isn’t to be an amazing speaker, it’s to provide something for your audience, whether that’s inspiration or something else.

5. You’ve failed or experienced difficulties in the past

Gary Genard explains that public speaking anxiety is often a learned behaviour. If you’ve ever experienced an issue with public speaking before, where you felt like you failed, you’ll carry this feeling with you next time.

However, if fear of failure can impede your ability to speak well, then anticipating success can have an equally positive impact. It’s all about changing your mindset, which we’ll discuss more later.

6. You don’t have the skills to pull it off

Maybe you’re not at all used to public speaking and haven’t learned the appropriate skills. In this case, your anxiety is legitimate, but also easily fixable. All you need to do is prepare well and learn some of the skills. 

We have some great communication skills courses that you could try if you want to become a better communicator in your personal and professional life. If you want something more specific to public speaking, you could try our What Makes an Effective Presentation? course.

How to deal with public speaking anxiety

We’ve already provided some tips and tricks on how to deal with public speaking anxiety, but there are certain things you can work on which will have a lasting impact. With help from experts in our open steps, we’ve put together some information about how to improve your confidence, change your mindset and implement relaxation techniques.

Learning about these things can not only help you with your public speaking anxiety, but might benefit you with other forms of anxiety too, like more general social anxiety. Even if you don’t explicitly suffer with anxiety, learning these things will help you become more self-assured.

How to improve your confidence

In our open step about understanding self-confidence, Helen Kempster from Goldsmiths University discusses how self-confidence is made up of two elements: self-efficacy and locus of control. This comes from psychological research done by Judge, Locke and Durham in 1997, and is referred to as ‘Core Self Evaluation’.

1. Develop self-efficacy

The first part, self-efficacy, is about the belief you have in your ability to succeed in different situations. Three factors affect your self-efficacy, and these are direct experience, observed experience and social persuasion.

Direct experience is about being successful or unsuccessful when you try something new, observed experience is about watching a role model succeed or fail in something, and social persuasion refers to praise or criticisms from other people. 

All of these things can affect your self-efficacy, and therefore your self-confidence. So, if you want to be more confident, you should take these things into account. You should be open to trying new activities and taking on responsibilities, you should find positive role models (in friends and family, or online), and you should ask for feedback and constructive criticisms from others. 

2. Establish your locus of control

The second part, locus of control, is about your belief that you are able to influence situations in your life, internally and externally. If you have an internal locus of control, you will have more self-confidence, because you believe your own decision-making and personal attributes determine how successful you are. People with an external locus of control believe external factors are more influential, such as luck or circumstance.

Therefore, in order to cultivate an internal locus of control, you should focus on the things in life that you have total control over, and create goals that relate to those things. You should seek support from different places, whether that’s a therapist, online community or club. Ultimately, you need to be aware that your choices matter, and that you have responsibility over your life.

This isn’t to say, however, that external factors don’t matter. Discrimination in all forms can impact the way a person views themselves, and it’s not your fault if you’re treated unfairly. This approach merely encourages you to think about what you do have control over, and focus on that.

How to change your mindset

In our open step about changing your mindset by Deakin University, experts provide tips on how to rewire your thoughts into more positive ones. This approach can help you get over public speaking anxiety by challenging your negative thought process, and is also a valuable lesson for all areas of life.

When you’re about to give a presentation or talk and you’re feeling terrified, your inner critic might start saying things like ‘I can’t do it’ and ‘I’m not good enough’. However, rather than listening to your inner critic as unquestionable truth, you should stop and think about the thought you’re having. If you acknowledge that it’s just a thought rather than a fact, you’ll become more self-aware and less anxious.

Rather than completely shutting a thought like this down, it might be beneficial to replace this thought with a more considered statement, like ‘This is difficult right now but it will get easier’. This kind of reframed thought still acknowledges how you’re feeling, but isn’t prepping for failure. 

Learning breathing techniques

When you’re about to deliver a speech or begin an interview and you feel nervous, your breathing is one of the first things that can be affected. This, in turn, can prevent you from being able to talk confidently. If you haven’t got experience or training in proper breathing techniques for speech, it can actually be difficult to breathe properly while you’re talking.

Rather than breathing normally, you need to breathe in enough air to sustain your speech through long sentences. This requires you to breathe using your diaphragm, which also helps relax you. Some techniques to try include lengthening your exhale, breathing through your belly, and meditation exercises. To learn more about how to practise meditation, you can check out our blog.

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