Death or Speaking in Public: Which Scares YOU More?

Posted by: Richard McKeown Posted on: January 11, 2011

Surveys routinely report that speaking in public is among people’s top fears. Depending on the survey, this fear usually alternates between the number one and two fears, trading places with the fear of death! Now that’s fear! The reason cited for the fear of death usually has to do with fear of the unknown.

Fear of the unknown is also at the root of many people’s fear of public speaking. While people may prepare comprehensive notes and talking points and read them over and over again, they really don’t know what’s going to come out of their mouth in the actual presentation until the presentation itself. Like the audience, they are hearing for it the first time, too.

Reading over presentation notes should not be confused with rehearsing the presentation. True rehearsal involves not only going through the presentation orally, but taping and reviewing the delivery. Only when we do this do we know what is actually going to happen, and only then can we begin to overcome the fear of public speaking.