subject: Take the Pressure Off Yourself as a Speaker [print this page] Do you want to take pressure off yourself as a speaker?
Easy, no matter how good you are, no matter how good you think you are, then simply do not consider yourself to be a public speaker!
It is very difficult to self evaluate. I have lots of students and clients who tell me that they're no good at speaking and they don't enjoy performing or the process of preparing speeches and presentations.
I am a great believer that even these most negative of thoughts can be turned to a positive advantage. The key thing is to remain sensible, don't beat yourself up over how good or bad you are or how good or bad you think you are. Most importantly, please remember to take the pressure off yourself by saying to yourself that you do not consider yourself to be a public speaker.
From my own perspective, I have never rated myself as a speaker. My real passion is that of a skills trainer which (although involves a lot of speaking time) is quite different. Training is about skills transfer and ensuring that the class is involved in productive, engaging and relevant activities. Making a speech for 6-8 minutes just doesn't happen in training. Training is more interactive, you show, you explain, demonstrate and then you hand it over to the learners. A 6-8 minute speech is an eternity in the training environment and just never happens.
It is inevitable that when we become involved in speaking, we are often heavily influenced by those closest to us. Those that show us the speaking ropes. For those with excessive imagination, we may try to emulate JF Kennedy, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. The major issue here is that we're heading for a major hiccup in terms of authenticity and personal integrity. People are not stupid. They can spot a phoney a mile away. Always remember that you and your personality are just as good, if not better than anybody else. People buy into the person before the message, so be yourself above all else.
When you take the pressure off yourself and focus on your audience and your authentic message to them, you will soon become aware of the warmth you receive from the audience and their response to the value that you're adding to their lives.
How do we take the pressure off ourselves? Tell yourself that you do not consider yourself to be a public speaker.
But there's no harm is enjoying speaking, is there?
