Regardless of your department, level or industry, it’s likely that you’ll be faced with the task of giving a presentation or speaking in front of large or small groups at any given point of your career. From pitching your ideas in a meeting, presenting in a new business meeting, or speaking at an industry trade show, elements of public speaking creep into our daily lives, and for some, can trigger feelings of fear or high anxiety.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) published an article titled, “Assessment: What’s Feeding Your Fear of Public Speaking?” As the title alludes, the piece shares an assessment for readers to take measure of where they fall on the public speaking “fear spectrum,” compared to other readers who took the quiz. With “Completely at Ease When Presenting” at one end and “Fear Public Speaking Worse than Death,” at the other, I landed somewhere in the middle with a score of 67 (slightly more comfortable public speaking than the average assessment participant, who received a score of 62.6).
Public speaking and the associated fear comes in all shapes and sizes. I recently attended a pun-off battle where the participants were challenged to tell stories weaving in puns related to specific themes. Watching these contestants triggered a little fear in me, and some of my friends who attended felt awkward themselves because they knew they would have a hard time doing what these individuals were doing and, even more so, coping with the unknown response (or worse, silence) from the audience. The first round found the contestants telling prepared stories on a theme of their choice, but the rounds following and after judge eliminations, were on unknown themes that each contestant drew out of a hat. With no time to prepare, they had to quickly scramble and tell a “punny” story.
This contest, although in a casual brewery environment, is public speaking nonetheless, and I was extremely impressed with a majority of the contestants’ abilities to clearly tell stories in front of such a large audience, especially without preparing materials. I am not sure how they would assess or rank their own fears of public speaking, but I imagine they would receive more than a 62.6 on HBR’s “fear spectrum.”
The HBR assessment provides 24 “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” questions taken from scientifically validated tools used in psych research. Each question aims to measure how individuals manage their emotional responses in six key areas: confidence in expertise, extraversion vs. introversion, ability to empathize, self-esteem, optimism vs. pessimism and response to perceived threats. It is no doubt that the pun-off contestants had confidence in their expertise, puns at the top of that list.
After completing the assessment, the algorithm provides advice around how to manage fears, increase comfortability and manage stage presence. Below is a list of the six areas and the exact advice I received after I finished the quiz. I encourage you to take the assessment and incorporate the findings you receive to help improve your relationship with public speaking. You can find the quiz here and the advice for a score of 67 below.
- Confidence in Expertise: “Your answers indicate self-assurance: You believe that you have something valuable to share with your audience and that your thoughts and ideas are worth hearing. Stay confident, but avoid crossing the line into arrogance. Remind yourself that when you’re presenting, you’re not doing it for yourself — you’re doing it to bring something of value to those in your audience. Keep your focus on them.”
- Extraversion vs. Introversion: “You lean toward extraversion. Because you enjoy people — even those you don’t know well — you may enjoy speaking to groups, viewing it as a chance to connect with others. In the audience, your fellow extraverts will respond in the moment to ideas and concepts. They’ll give you clear visual signals that they like (or don’t like) what’s being said. But don’t assume everyone will react that way. You’ll probably also be speaking to a fair number of introverts, who prefer to carefully consider ideas before responding to them. Know that you may not get much immediate feedback from them — it will come at a later time.”
- Ability to Empathize: “Your ability to identify how others are feeling and thinking makes the prospect of addressing a group less daunting than it would be otherwise. You have a natural tendency to pick up on body language, which can help you interpret how your audience is reacting to what you’re saying. Leverage this empathy by adjusting your content or style of delivery as you present, responding to the cues your audience is giving you. For instance, if people seem disengaged, increase your dynamism to draw them back in.”
- Self-Esteem: “Your self-esteem seems strong, and that can help you take the stage with confidence and ease. Be aware, though, that high self-esteem can lead to a false sense of security and a tendency to underprepare. Frequently, highly confident people feel comfortable winging it when they present. Sometimes this works in their favor, but often it does not. Don’t let your confidence deceive you into thinking you don’t need to work hard on your content and your delivery.”
- Optimism vs. Pessimism: “Your willingness to believe that good things do happen may help you maintain an open, positive attitude toward presenting, increasing the likelihood that you will speak with courage and assurance. Still, things can go wrong when you present, possibly undercutting that positivity. Before your next presentation, spend a few moments thinking about what could go wrong, and then picture yourself overcoming those obstacles with skill and grace.”
- Response to Perceived Threats: “Because of your natural ‘fight’ (rather than ‘flight’) response, you’re likely to step onto the stage with a commitment to succeeding, even if public speaking isn’t your favorite thing to do. Build on this tendency by taking as many speaking engagements as you can. See each experience as an opportunity to continually improve, challenging yourself to become even more comfortable, dynamic, and empathetic.”