Reduce Anxiety During Public Speaking by Thinking About How You Are Helping Your Audience
Public speaking is something a lot of people struggle with. Being on stage, especially in front of a large crowd, can be stressful for even the most experienced and confident speakers. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review has an interesting suggestion on how to deal with this anxiety: speak in terms of helping your audience.
We usually get nervous during public speaking because we get a lot of attention and a lot of attention. When you create a situation by helping a crowd, you distract attention from yourself.
Showing kindness and generosity has been shown to calm the body’s fight-or-flight response. When you think about how the information you are presenting to your audience will help them, it can help your body calm down and feel less attacked, which will ultimately help reduce some of that anxiety.
This process begins as you prepare for this speech. Instead of thinking first about what you are going to say, think about who will be in the room and why they are here. By starting by thinking about your audience, you can focus on how to help them with what you plan to say.
When the time really comes for this speech, think again about this audience right before you go on stage and what you are going to do to help them. And as you speak, make eye contact with specific members of the audience, not the room as a whole. Eye contact can make network members feel like they are more of a part of the conversation and can make you feel like you are talking more to individuals in the room than to the crowd.
Together, these should help you calm down before going on stage and make your speech or presentation smoother.