Public Speaking Fears and Illiteracy
Do you struggle with a crippling fear of public speaking? Most do. As Jerry Seinfeld famously pointed out that it’s people’s #1 fear.
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two? Does that sound right!? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy!” – Jerry Seinfeld
Of course, it’s no surprise that people would be fearful of something they have little exposure to. The majority of us spend our time as audience members, not the main attraction. In addition, a serious lack of training leaves most of us effectively illiterate when it comes to public speaking.
Unreasonable Expectations, Illiterate Speakers.
Can you think of the first time you were asked to read in front of a group, maybe a class? I’m sure it was unnerving. But at the very least I hope that you knew how to read. I remember the first time I had to read in front of around 75 people in a classroom environment. Even though I was a strong reader, the words almost seemed to bounce around the page as I felt my heart trying to beat out of my chest.
In a few moments though, I managed to get into a flow and follow the words and the meaning of the story. And although the reading was quite long – 2 whole pages – surprisingly, the time went by quickly. I certainly appreciated knowing in advance how to read.
What does this have to do with public speaking? Again, most of us are more often audience members, not speakers. Unless we’re on the debate team at an early age, most of us are not trained or accustomed to communicating in front of a crowd. Even worse, unreasonable expectations often sneak into classroom and business settings.
For people with minimal to no public speaking training, they’re essentially illiterate speakers. They need to learn the alphabet first. Think about it. Most people learn to read in private, with coaching or practice, learning the rules of pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and techniques like reading multiple words at once to convey an idea.
But many school and business environments push people to the front of the class to give presentations- implying that knowing how to speak in conversation is the same as public speaking. It’s especially bad if you’re generally good with people as it’s automatically assumed that you’re a ‘literate’ public speaker.
When a person is subsequently unable to give the speech, they’re potentially shamed, or at least considered unqualified – which is the same result you would get from asking an illiterate person to read in front of a classroom.
More Than Just Intros and Conclusions
In this way, I believe that the main cause of public speaking anxiety is speaking illiteracy. Professional public speakers are rarely born. Most have to learn and apply the rules of presenting, style, and teaching techniques before they get on stage. This training creates a speech that is a separate entity, like reading a book that is presented with only minimal attention on the speaker himself. And in my experience, intelligent people prefer a more thorough understanding of the mechanics to truly enjoy the process.
This changes the mindset of the speaker and relieves a lot of the anxiety and self-consciousness.
This essential training is more than just knowing the existence of an introduction, body and a conclusion. But many educators and business people (often terrible speakers themselves) think that’s all that’s necessary.
Without that training, people sometimes need drugs just to be able to stand in front of work and schoolmates they talk to everyday! (Sometimes that is appropriate as some people do have conditions that might require medication and/or therapy.)
Ultimately, looking at speaking as an exercise in literacy motivates a different approach that could put people ahead of 99% of the competition in their life and career.
For that reason, I recommend in-depth public speaking coaching to increase presentation literacy. Of course, I’m a little partial to the Speaking Guild’s Courses and Professional Coaching, but pursuing any extra education on this subject is better than none at all.
People shouldn’t beat themselves up because they feel like they can’t stand up in front of people. Really, without practice and training, it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to do well at any endeavor, never mind the thing that rates at people’s number one fear – public speaking.
Just like you wouldn’t stand up to read a text in a language you don’t understand, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed about declining an invitation to give a public speech if you haven’t had sufficient training. It’s an entirely different form of communication that takes education, practice, and experience to be literate.
