Quiz: How Severe is Your Public Speaking Fear?
Imagine this: you’ve spent the last month heads down on a significant project at work. Finally, you take it past the finish line and step back to admire the fruits of your labor. This is the biggest project you’ve taken on to date; everything you’ve worked for has led up to this very moment. Congratulatory emails from your colleagues and manager fill your inbox. You give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back.
Nothing can bring you down — until your boss asks you to present your work to the entire company. In an instant, the world around you starts to close in. Your stomach drops, your heart races, and time stops. What should normally be a moment of elation and pride turns to total darkness.
For many of you, this may sound exaggerated or even made up. As someone who once suffered from severe glossophobia (public speaking fear and anxiety), I can tell you that this scenario is all too familiar. In fact, glossophobia is said to affect approximately 75% of people.
My experience
My friends and colleagues would describe me as outgoing, extroverted, and often times ‘the life of the party.’
But when it came to work, for many years I made sure I stayed behind the scenes. The imagined risk of screwing up and being ridiculed far outweighed the benefits that would come with gaining more visibility at the office. As a result, I took on the role of ‘supporter,’ setting my colleagues and bosses up for success (even going as far to let other present my work), as long as it meant I never had to take the spotlight myself.
There were of course times when presenting was unavoidable, and desperation led me to try it all: listening to positive affirmation recordings, rehearsing speaking notes until blue in the face, power posing in bathroom stalls before meetings, taking overly drawn out deep breaths. However, it wasn’t until I realized that public speaking wasn’t the problem — that my fear was a symptom of something much deeper — I began to grow into my own skin.
I began to get curious about my beliefs in myself (e.g. my shame of being imperfect, my insecurities about being judged, and my assumption that I wasn’t as capable as others). My perspective of public speaking started to completely shift.
Do you experience glossophobia?
Let’s take a little quiz. Grab a pen and paper, and answer A, B, or C to the following questions.
Your boss asks you to do a 10-minute presentation for your entire company one week from now. You…
A) Feel energized and proud. Presenting to colleagues on all of your hard work is an exciting opportunity.
B) Have no significant feelings. Sure, you’ll present, but you’ll really start to think about it a day or two in advance of the meeting.
C) Find that your mind jumps between shock, excitement, fear, and panic. For the next week until the presentation, you are nearly one hundred percent occupied with the fact that you have to speak in front of an audience.
In preparing for your presentation, you…
A) Don’t waste any time. You pull together your slides and notes right away. You look at the presentation a few times to ensure you know your main talking points. Overall, you're excited and confident about sharing your work.
B) Acknowledge that you’re a little nervous, but know you’ll be able to pull it off. Part of your job is to share your work after all. When it comes to presentation day, you’re ready to go.
C) Obsess over the presentation for the next week and rehearse your speaking notes word for word. Out of 24 hours in a day, you think about it for about 15 of those hours. You’re overcome with nervousness, fear of being judged, and pray that the presentation is canceled.
It’s game time. In just minutes, you’ll take center stage. Which best describes your current state?
A) Total adrenaline. You’re ready to showcase all of your hard work.
B) Fairly neutral. Having to present isn’t good or bad. It is what it is.
C) Your mind is racing, your mouth is going dry, and all you want to do is run away.
If you answered C to most or all of these questions, you likely experience some level of glossophobia. I encourage you to reach out to me for a one-on-one, private Zoom chat. I’ll mentor you in a 100% judgement-free zone. In the meantime, here are a few tips you can implement right away.
Three tips to overcome fear of public speaking — and getting to the root of the problem
Acknowledge that public speaking is not the main issue. Your fear may be a symptom of deeper insecurities.
Ask yourself: Are there reasons you’re not entirely confident in yourself? Why do you think others are more capable? Are your expectations of yourself grounded in reality?
It wasn’t until I sought coaching on my judgements about myself (yes — we’re our own worst critics) that I was truly able to move past my fears.
Check out my: Use This Tool to Manage Fear of Public Speaking & More and contact me with your results.
Record yourself and watch the video.
Nearly all of the women I’ve mentored have told me that they absolutely hate the sound of their own voice. Believe it or not, it’s possible to learn to love hearing yourself speak.
My favorite exercise to achieve this: record yourself on video giving a presentation and watch it back. Do this a few times. I promise it not only gets easier to watch yourself, but you’ll even start to like what you see. As the old saying goes, you must love yourself before you can expect others to love you.
Accept that you have a human brain.
Your brain is awesome. It is wired to protect you in dangerous situations, including those moments at work that feel unfamiliar or threatening.
Whether it’s starting a new job, starting a new business, or getting up in front of an audience, the thought of potential failure often rears its ugly head. I encourage my mentees to take a step back and be ‘watchers of their minds,’ meaning that they should step outside of themselves and recognize when they are submitting to negative thoughts that limit their success.