The familiarity of the audience is more important to me than the size. Like, I’ll feel more comfortable if there is a critical mass of friendly faces in the audience than if I don’t know anyone in the room.
Also, my comfort level is highly dependent on the content of my talk. If I know what I’m talking about very well, my comfort level will be a “10”. But if I’m having to talk about something that I only have superficial understanding of, we are looking at a comfort level of 7 or 8.
I would consider myself a very good presenter based on the number of invited speaker engagements I’ve had through the years. But I take my talks very seriously and put a shitload of work into each one of them. I usually practice a talk at least five or six times so that I have everything memorized. This not only helps to tamp down the nervousness, but it also helps me to avoid “word salad” moments and other dysfluencies. My spontaneous speech is often inarticulate (stuttering and cluttering being my two foes), so I know I can’t trust myself to deliver a good presentation without a lot of preparation.
I voted 6 but that was because it was relative to the common knowledge that public speaking is one of the most frightening things out there. I’d slightly prefer to give a presentation to a crowd that I have rehearsed many times than to speak to one person unexpectedly on the phone. If they were in person it would be less intimidating because I can use their body language to fill in some of the pauses and try to read any subtext and emotions they might be coming to the surprise conversation with, so I’d slightly prefer an unexpected in-person conversation to public speaking.
So the absolute worst for me is call-in shows. I obviously have not rehearsed what I am going to say, and it is over the phone where I can’t see the audience, and the audience is large, so I do horribly the few times I’ve called in to shows and cannot be relaxed and think on my feet at all.
Gonna give another shout-out to Toastmasters here. I used to be pretty anxious about the prospect of public speaking under most circumstances, and had a strong dose of generalized social anxiety to boot. A few years of Toastmasters and I’m fine with it, and even enjoyed it. The tips and training were a part of the transformation, sure, but merely gaining experience (usually in a supportive environment) put a lot of the anxiety to rest.
It’s been years since I was involved in the organization, so if I were suddenly called upon to give an off-the-cuff speech now, I’d be pretty rusty and wouldn’t have a topic in my back pocket, so to speak. But I could do it, with my anxiety being mild and centered around wishing I had had a chance to prepare for the sake of my audience, rather than the usual public speaking fears.
That would describe me as well. I’d rate myself around a 7. Not “chicken” but yes, a certain level of discomfort if the crowd is large. I’ll definitely do it and have on many occasions made presentations in front of larger crowds, but not ‘crazy about it’.
I used to joke that if you told me I had to do a presentation in two minutes, I’d ask, “On what subject?”
This actually happened a few years ago. I was told I would be interviewing Ramsay Campbell and had about a minute to prepare. Worked out well, mostly because Ramsay was very talkative.
I am surprised the poll so far skews towards 10. Polls show that people fear public speaking more than just about anything else.
I have done a lot of presentations and used to teach presentation skills for my company. I used to get stage fright but now as long as I know my material, I enjoy it.
Over the past 30 years I have given more talks than I can possibly remember. Like others have said, its a work thing. The first couple of times was pretty scary, but now it is just routine. Largest group would have been about 1000. Larger groups are actually easier…
I have Asperger’s Syndrome and am uncomfortable meeting new people. :dubious:
However if there are clear guidelines about the social interaction, then I have great confidence.
I’ve been teaching professionally for over 40 years (mainly chess, but also computer programming and bridge.)
I’ve also done live chess commentaries to an audience of around 100. These lasted several hours and of course there was no script, since it depended on what moves the players chose.
I give myself a 10. :eek:
This is partly based on the time at a technical college where the other computer lecturer was off ill (so I had a double class size with half the students new to me) -and the power had failed - so there were no computers. :smack:
I managed 90 minutes smoothly, combining theory, anecdotes and questions.
For me, it largely depends on context. There have been times when I was a little nervous but said my piece, if a little stiffly. Another time in bar school, I got volunteered to do a mock consultation with a client in front of a class of 12 in a domain I hadn’t taken the class for so I had no idea what I was doing. I felt little to no nervousness and played it up for laughs which the rest of the class seemed quite amused by. I enjoyed improvising in front of people who, if I’d messed up, I would have had to see every weekday for the next 2 months. Another time, I was supposed to give a presentation to a Rotary club about a trip they’d sponsored for me. I froze when put on the spot to go on about my trip, in part because the money would have been better spent sending someone else and also because it confirmed for me that I didn’t fit in that group. I left shortly thereafter. I’ve never had difficulty speaking up in class, I’m usually the guy who raised his hand often and didn’t mind all that much being wrong in front of the class.
So, in front of people I have some comfort with, I enjoy it. In front of strangers when I’m not sure what to say, I’m liable to get a freeze response.
Is it really that common a fear though? I’ve heard that before too, or the old saw “people are more afraid of public speaking than of death,” which makes you wonder why more people don’t kill themselves just before they were going to give a speech. Is it really true that many people are scared of it, or is that just one of those things people say that isn’t actually grounded in reality? To be honest, though, I haven’t know that many people who were REALLY frightened of public speaking. In business, having to give a speech is just something most people will have to do from time to time, and while not everyone loves doing it, most people seem fine with it. You’d think if fear of public speaking was a common thing that you would encounter it more often.
Maybe it’s sampling bias? We might seldom encounter it because people who are afraid of public speaking avoid situations where they’ll speak publicly.
Saying that people are more afraid of it than death is either hyperbole or trivial in the sense that, before giving a speech, people might indeed be more anxious than giving a speech (which is in the near future) than death (which is expected to be way off in the future).
I was able to lecture to a crowded hall of medical students on the subject of The Penis*, so I’m confident I could survive pretty much any public speaking engagement.
*Penile pathology, actually. The topic was handed to me by the department chairman and I had no choice in the matter. :smack:
Looking at the poll results, I’m surprised at the number of responders who rate themselves as “very comfortable” with public speaking, since it’s said to be one of the most basic of modern human fears. I’m basically pretty shy and typically had a hard time of it, but I got promoted into a job where I had to give frequent presentations all over the country, sometimes to big audiences. You get used to it, and I got better and better at it. Once you lose the nervousness, you can play around and have fun with it, even if it’s a technology presentation. I’d occasionally insert Dilbert or Far Side cartoons in mine to make some salient point. Some of it is a function of personality, but a lot if it is just acclimatization. I was soon at the point that I was able to handle the odd few organizations with an inherently hostile culture, used to accosting speakers with “gotcha” hostile questions. I think the idea was that they could earn peer brownie points by asking difficult technical questions, but I was in constant touch with the engineering teams and on top of things, so I could not only answer their questions, but sometimes add a bit of humor, subtly pointing to the idiocy of the question.
I think maybe there are some differing interpretation of scores. For example, GuanoLad said above: “Given the option, I’d rather not do it. But if I do have to do it I can handle the nerves and do it okay. I chose 8.”
“Nerves” and “I’d rather not do it” doesn’t sound like an 8 to me; that sounds like a 4, maybe. A few others also seem to be putting higher scores than their descriptions seem to warrant. But that’s just my interpretation of the OP.
In the church I grew up with, we gave talks from when we were little kids. I found I could get people to laugh, not because I’m particularly funny, but because captive audiences are looking for anything to relieve the boredom. Then I was an amateur magician with crowds up to several hundred.
Some of it is a function of personality, but a lot if it is just acclimatization. I was soon at the point that I was able to handle the odd few organizations with an inherently hostile culture, used to accosting speakers with “gotcha” hostile questions. I think the idea was that they could earn peer brownie points by asking difficult technical questions, but I was in constant touch with the engineering teams and on top of things, so I could not only answer their questions, but sometimes add a bit of humor, subtly pointing to the idiocy of the question. 