Lisa Wentz - Grace Under Pressure: A Masterclass in Public Speaking

Anxiety, Automatic Responses
and Coping Mechanisms

A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best
to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you
must get wet To plunge is the only way.

Dale Carnegie and Berg J. Esenwein,

The Art of Public Speaking

Speaking in public can be a powerful personal experience. Its also a common, often necessary and integral part of being a member of a community. However, it comes with the risk of vulnerability. Essentially, when you stand up to speak, whether on stage in front of hundreds or at a meeting of a dozen people, you have suddenly increased your exposure. You are being seen.

Early humans experience of being watched closely was intimately interwoven with the very real possibility of a life-threatening event, such as being stalked by an enemy or animal. When speakers say to me, I hate the feeling of having eyes on me, they are reacting to this feeling of exposure steeped in 500,000 years or more of evolution. Its part of the fight-or-flight response mechanism that we inherited from our ancestors.

This feeling provides the ability to perform the necessary action take flight, prepare to fight, or freeze. Evolutionarily speaking, we have benefited from this alertness. In modern times, this instinct is naturally triggered when we are in front of an audience but it is not always so helpful as it was in the past.

In both situations, under an external threat or in front of an audience, we need to work with our physiology. The person in the primal situation needs to gauge their threat and appropriately take action. Doing so increases their chances of survival. The speaker, on the other hand, needs to acknowledge, ground or soothe their feelings, or direct those feelings into their purpose for speaking and their delivery.

Most of us, at least once in our lives, have experienced what happens to our bodies when we have stage fright. Your first experience can be surprising. It often appears as soon as you agree to do a speech or when you are first informed that you will be speaking in front of an audience. The simple thought of being in front of others can be that powerful.

On a physiological level, to one degree or another, the fightor-flight response causes the muscles surrounding the joint connecting your head to your neck to tighten, pulling your head back. When your head is pulled back, your throat muscles tighten and your larynx becomes less flexible. Next, your chest tightens, and you are unable to breathe with the freedom that you are used to. Therefore, less air enters your lungs, your adrenaline level increases and your voice is restricted.

Although there are some speakers who are energized by mild stage fright, most find this experience of mild to severe panic debilitating. Rather than breathing through it and relating to the experience, most follow their primal biology and try to escape it. They look for a way to hide (to get away from the instinctually perceived threat) or they simply try not to feel it (by numbing or suppressing their physiology). When a speaker lacks understanding of why this is happening, they may blame themselves or consider themselves deficient. This kind of negative thinking only increases the challenge.

Essentially, you shouldnt add more fear and self-doubt to compound stage fright. However, this sage advice isnt easy to follow in the moment. Vulnerable situations can trigger all sorts of reactions, defence mechanisms and inner messaging that add to stage fright. To grow and work through this problem, you will need to address what is triggering you.

This is particularly important for a public speaker. An actor builds a character and relies on a script. A dancer has rigorous rehearsals. A singer or musician is typically with others on stage. As a public speaker, you are left to your own devices. You have no one there to catch you if you stumble.

You may want to look to the audience for reassurance. If that reassurance doesnt come, the threat may increase and cause panic. Commonly, the performer cant control the reaction of the audience in any one of these activities. Its similar to a fear of flying. You have no control over whether the plane will crash or not. Yet, if you want to get to your destination, you cant get off the plane. And it is the same with public speaking you cant walk off the stage.

The key to moving through your primal physiological response is awareness, and the recognition that it is natural. There is no use fighting it it is better to prepare, accept and work with it. Gradually, rather than perceiving unidentifiable threats that deter you, you can develop a confidence in your ability to be present.

For those suffering from chronic stage fright, the underlying, compounding causes (the second horse) are often an unrealistic expectation of perfection and a fear of judgment. These mental states make it nearly impossible for speakers to deal directly with their physiology. Instead, they may completely avoid any acknowledgement or preparation in order to keep themselves calm, or start overthinking the event to the point of obsession. Neither of these coping mechanisms works.

Not being prepared only increases anxiety in the long run. By not having done the work ahead of time, you will lack confidence and a clear path to executing your message. There will be a void where the aims and objectives of your talk should be clearly defined and practiced.

After giving a speech you are not fully prepared for, you may say to yourself, That didnt go as well as it could have, but I wasnt really prepared. So, although there can be a subconscious pay-off, the implication is that its not your fault that the speech didnt go well rather, the circumstances were to blame. It would be more emotionally risky to prepare a great speech and have it fail. Then the ownership would be completely yours, and its likely that your inner dialogue would then become very harsh. You tried something new, did your best and failed. You might begin to criticize yourself with thoughts such as I have no talent and I cant do this and I never will be able to. As a result, you might avoid speaking in front of audiences all together. Procrastinating and not preparing give you an escape hatch from a potential downward spiral. However, your presentation inevitably suffers.