Learn to Speak Confidently

Regardless of how well a speech is researched or written, the audience must believe in the speaker in order to engage. One’s ability to speak confidently is the foundation to establishing that credibility and gaining initial trust from the audience.  And the ability to speak confidently is just the thing that many students in a public speaking course are worried about.  So it’s important to confront the ideas of communication apprehension and confidence directly.

What Is Communication Apprehension?

At one time or another, we’ve all felt nervous about a communication event. Nerves can show up as a knot in your stomach when you are about to meet someone new, sweaty palms and a dry mouth when asked to share your opinion during a meeting, or most recognizably, a shaking voice and pounding heart when giving a presentation.

Communication apprehension is a broad term used to describe the anxiety or fear related to real or anticipated communication with others.^[1] While some people experience communication apprehension to a greater extent than others, research shows that almost everyone is affected by it to some degree. So common is the fear associated with public speaking that Jerry Seinfeld famously quipped that the average funeral attendee would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy!

Some people may have a high level of anxiety across most communication scenarios, while others may only experience communication apprehension during certain situations. Trait anxiety refers to apprehension rooted in personality characteristics, meaning that a person is generally anxious engaging in most communication scenarios. Situational anxiety, however, occurs when a person who feels comfortable in most communication scenarios only feels anxiety in a particular situation at a particular time.

Causes of Communication Apprehension

When someone is afraid of riding a bike, it is not necessarily the riding itself, but instead the fear of falling or veering into traffic that causes anxiety. Similarly, communication apprehension does not stem from giving an actual speech, but rather the associations one makes with giving a speech.  Although public speaking is one of the most commonly feared situations by the general population, not everyone fears it for the same reason. ^[2] The main causes of apprehension can be fear of failure, fear of the audience, high stakes, and being the center of attention.

Fear of Failure

Speakers with a fear of failure often imagine themselves forgetting a part of their speech or performing poorly. This fear manifests in the following ways:

1. They may feel as though they haven’t prepared enough.
2. They use self-fulfilling prophecies predicting that they will fail. Such as:
   “I can never get that right.”
   “I’m a terrible speaker.”
   “This is going to go badly.”
3. They’ve had a negative prior experience giving a speech and believe that it will be repeated.

Fear of the Audience

Speakers may feel intimidated by their audience because they see themselves as less qualified, less knowledgeable, or less accomplished than the audience members.

• As Naveen begins his presentation at work in front of high-level executives, he experiences an overwhelming fear of being unable to answer their questions or that their knowledge may contradict his own.

Even without feeling inferior, simply feeling different from your audience can lead to anxiety.

• Alejandra has been unable to find much common ground with her audience, and she is worried that they will turn against her, become uninterested, or judge her poorly.

High Stakes

Some speakers who feel fine when practicing their speech become very nervous in anticipation of the actual event. For some, the high stakes are situational, such as knowing that a promotion, a big opportunity, or passing a class needed to graduate is on the line. For others, suffering from perfectionism can create overwhelming pressure to perform.

Uncertainty

In many cases, both real-time and virtual, there is a degree of unpredictability. A speaker with very little experience may not know what to expect or how to respond to the situation. Experienced speakers, though, can also fear uncertainty. Regardless of how much one prepares and practices, there is no way to guarantee that everything will go exactly as planned. Between the audience, technology, environment, and even one’s own performance, there are always elements of uncertainty in any speaking situation.

Being the Center of Attention

Excessive self-focus can make the thought of others staring at us or waiting to hear what we have to say intimidating. For example, rather than focusing on the message, a speaker may believe that the audience is more concerned about how they sound, what they look like, or any mistake they might make, which leads to obsessing about those things.

A speaker may also suffer from low self-esteem, in which they only believe negative things about themselves and feel unworthy of the attention from the audience.

The following video provides information on the science of stage fright.

You can view the transcript for “The science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) – Mikael Cho” here (opens in new window).

Reducing Communication Apprehension

You may never be completely rid of communication apprehension, but it is possible to reduce it. The truth is that a method that works for one person may not work for the next. In order for you to reduce your own apprehension, you must address it at its cause. Therefore, a variety of techniques exist to reduce communication apprehension based on preparation, mindset, and systematic desensitization.

Preparation

If the source of your anxiety is related to feeling unprepared, feeling different or inferior to your audience, or being the center of attention, there are several steps you can take as you begin to prepare your speech:

• Learn more about your audience by conducting audience analysis.
• Visit and get comfortable with the performance space to learn about the technology setup, acoustics, and room layout.
• Ask questions about expectations, logistics, or anything else you are unsure of.
• Research your speech topic thoroughly to ensure you haven’t missed important information and to prepare for questions.
• Prepare physically and mentally by giving yourself plenty of time beforehand so you are not rushed or frantic the day of your speech.
• Prepare and practice with your speaking notes before your speech so they are familiar and easy to read.

Positivity

If the source of your anxiety stems from negative self-talk, a fear of failure, or excessive focus on yourself, then refocusing your thoughts and creating a positive routine can help you to relax.

• Focus on your message, not yourself.
• Perform vocal warm-ups and practice physical relaxers such as power poses, stretches, and breathing exercises both before you practice and before you deliver your speech.
• Think about your audience and remember that they want you to do well.
• Remember that the audience doesn’t know your speech. They will not know if you make a mistake.
• Use positive self-talk such as “that went really well” or “I know this speech well and will always be able to recover and improvise if I need to.”
• Visualize your speech going exactly as you’d like it to and the audience responding positively.
• DON’T imagine your audience naked. This often-repeated piece of advice is a myth.

Practice

The most effective way to decrease your communication apprehension is to practice.  Feeling unprepared or nervous about speaking in front of your audience can easily be addressed by practicing often and in a variety of ways.  Remember, you perform the way you practice.  Use the following tips:

• Avoid simply reading your speech to get familiar with it.
• Stand up, use full volume, practice using your visual aids and speaking notes.
• Practice in chunks before you do full run-throughs to become more familiar with your speech.
• Practice in front of many different types of audiences: single, classmates, family, etc.
• Always time your full run-throughs for consistency and to ensure that you have room to speak quicker or slower the day of your speech.
• Practice without any speaking notes to get as familiar as possible with the structure and content of your speech.
• Identify your own strengths and weaknesses so that you know what to flex, what to expect, and what to build upon. Recording yourself practicing may be useful for some speakers.

Above all else, know that a small amount of communication apprehension will always remain, and that’s not such a bad thing.

Working with your adrenaline

Know how your own body responds to adrenaline. Simply being able to identify and expect it can reduce anxiety from the unknown. You can also make positive associations with the onset of symptoms. Remember, there’s a reason the fight-or-flight response exists! Adrenaline provides many beneficial side effects to a speaker: it can help you to focus and increase your energy.

One of the best ways to reduce anxiety and calm the fight-or-flight response is to focus on your breathing:

1. Relax your shoulders and inhale deeply and slowly (six seconds or so) through your nose.
2. Relax your jaw and exhale slowly (six seconds of so) through your mouth.
3. Repeat 3–10 times.

In the following video, author and voice coach Caroline Goyder shares her advice on speaking with confidence.

You can view the transcript for “The surprising secret to speaking with confidence | Caroline Goyder | TEDxBrixton” here (opens in new window).

The video below shows that, with practice, you can develop stronger speeches and learn to deliver them more confidently.