How would you rate your level of comfort for public speaking, on a scale of 1 to 10? 1 being that you have hate it, you would rather be tortured than get up and speak to a group. And 10, have no qualms about it. You could get up and speak in front of group of several thousand, with no sweat.
Poll to follow
Does the size of the audience have any impact on where you rate your comfortableness?
I have always been comfortable doing presentations, speaking in front of large groups. I’ve lead sessions at large conferences with several thousands of attendees. My advice is to people that have to make presentations, is do not read your presentation. You have to know your presentation material well enough that you can have a conversation with someone about it without looking at any notes, slides, etc. And then treat your presentation as a conversation you are having with the audience.
I require less experienced team members to present regularly at staff meetings, meetings with external counterparts, etc. just to give them practice so they develop a level of comfort in doing presentations. Fear is one of the biggest reasons for failed presentations, IMHO.
I’m very shy. I’ve gotten better but I’m just not comfortable meeting strangers or even making phone calls to unfamiliar people. Put me on stage, however, and I could be a game show host. One person is intimidating, 400 people is liberating.
It depends on how confident I am in, and how comfortable I am with, my material. Am I reading a script? Explaining something I know well? Or trying to BS my way through something I’m ill-prepared for?
But, assuming adequate material and preparation, I’m like garygnu: I’d rather get up and speak to a group than make phone calls or small talk with strangers.
Pretty comfortable. In my last job, I’d regularly give periods of instruction to groups up to around 50, and every once in a while several hundred at conferences. It took a while to get used to, though. I did it for 9 years, so it’s not a big thing at all now.
Actually every quarter or so I do a 4-hour class for the public, and it’s one of the things I look forward to most. I don’t miss my old job, but I do miss standing in front of people and being an SME and informative and entertaining.
I often (weekly to monthly) give business presentations to groups of 5-20 people, but I’ve spoken at conferences and appeared on panels in front 500-1000 people. The smaller groups don’t phase me at all, the bigger crowds make me a bit nervous, that’s why I rated myself a 7.
Yes that’s interesting. There’s like a…spectrum I guess, for me.
I don’t want to talk to 1 person.
I’d rather talk to 20 than 5-10.
I’d rather talk to 50 than 20.
50-200 all the same to me.
I get a little nervous before talking to an entire hotel conference room, but once I get the mic it doesn’t bother me.
I have taught Public Speaking and Debate at the high school and junior college level for 35 years. Comfortable doesn’t begin to cover it. 6000 people at graduation? Whassa matta, you couldn’t get a crowd? I’ve also done lectures/lessons/demos on various PBS stations on a variety of subjects. Different, I know. Probably larger number of viewers, but all I had to deal with was a cameraman, and a host.
I called it a 9. I have never spoken to thousands. The largest audience was probably for a speech I gave that would have been to an audience that came close to a thousand. The introvert in me still tries to raise concerns sometimes about very large audiences of mostly strangers. I thank it for sharing and drive on.
While most people would do well in typical situations with the no reading advice, I disagree about never reading to the audience. There is a time and a place for a prepared and delivered speech. That possibly largest audience was a carefully crafted speech. Simply being a master of information would not have helped because it was not a scenario where sharing information was the major purpose of me speaking. I could have memorized every word. In fact I was not that far off from that due to my rehearsals. It was all right there in front of me, though. Craft your speaking to the audience and the intent of speaking. Every rule of thumb is made to be broken if the rule does not serve the goal.
Super comfortable, doesn’t bother me at all and I’ll do it extemporaneously if need be. I’ve been in situations where the people in charge of wrangling the audience have fallen down catastrophically and I’ve stepped in to keep it all together. Crowds of people are in general already predisposed to be a proper audience, the only trick is not to let them become individuals again. Public speaking is being the intellectual herding dog.
I’ve done plenty of talks before big crowds. I’ve even gotten big laughs for jokes I wrote myself during some. Hint - don’t tell a joke you’ve seen on the net, half your audience will have seen it also. Write jokes that make your point.
I’m on the committee for my conference, so I get to see feedback from the comment cards we collect. I got perfect scores for one talk.
There is a lot more to writing and giving a good talk than just not reading it. You need a story. I structured one talk as a kind of mystery story - I laid out the impossible scenario in the first few slides, and then stepped through how we figured it out, including set backs, and ending with the solution.
Alas some people have charisma, some don’t. I coached and coached one guy and he always wound up near the bottom of the speaker ratings. Some people just have it, some need a shot of Toastmasters, and some will never have it.
Every once in a while when I wanted to amuse myself, I’d go through the first couple slides reading off them verbatim, as I pointed to each word with a laser pointer with my back to the room. Always good for a few yuks.
I went with 9, but I’m probably more of a 9.5. I think part of it is the medication I take for hypertension. One is a beta blocker, and with my beta blocked I just don’t give a damn, so I’m comfortable just talking. One trick is to really, really know your topic. I usually look at my notes for a few seconds, then fold them and stuff them into a pocket.
Back in college I dreaded my first required speech class. By the end of the quarter the class was on my “must attend” list. In my first career job my employer asked for volunteer training leaders. Jumped on that one. Toastmasters followed for a few years.
I responded with 7. I thoroughly enjoy getting up and speaking, but I do have to know my material first. I agree with Omar Little: being conversant with your material is important.
I hesitated between 9 and 10. I taught for 40 years, sometimes for classes of 150. Once you get past 20, the size doesn’t really matter. Once I gave a talk to about 300. When teaching I just wing it. For a more formal talk, I write some notes, then a one page abstract and then virtually never look at it. Now that I use slides, all the prep goes into preparing them and I do nothing else than post the slides and discuss them. I don’t see how the size of the audience matters at all.
It doesn’t bother me much, if at all, so I said 8. It’s actually easier in front of strangers than people I know.
I’ve taught, I’ve done presentations, including in front of pretty high-level folks, and I’ve preached and led worship.
I find things go better if I am a little nervous - it adds to my energy level so I don’t sound bored. So often I need a minute or two to psych up. But, as long as I know my material, I’m OK.
Big group, small group, folks I know, complete strangers, university classes - no probs.
Largest group in person was probably ~ 250 but have also appeared several times on national broadcasts, and local news, and talking to media on the courthouse steps - no biggie.
I went with 9. I’ve worked as an actor, and done a lot of improv, so it’s not just rehearsed material. That has given me comfort in front of any size audience in business presentations, facilitation, teaching classes, running meetings, etc.
However, I dialed back from rating myself a 10 because in my mind a 10 would be more than comfortable, it would be a desire or drive to be in front of an audience, which I do not really feel.
