It is very common to experience stage fright or stage fear. To overcome stage fright anxiety, you can apply structural planning method.
For example, suppose your boss says he wants you to give speech in the new employees dinner. This is a rather vague request, and in many companies, it might be communicated to a person over the phone or in a memo following a meeting by the committee planning the program. Such a vague request often leads to considerable anxiety about what is expected and what to say. We want to do a good job, especially in front of so many people but we really do not know what to say or where to start when standing on a stage looking down at some many people.
Structural Planning Reduces Stage Fright Anxiety
In order to reduce the anxiety we may experience when standing on the stage giving out the speech, we can structure and plan the situation carefully. To structure the situation, we might ask the person making the request that we need a little more information in order to make plans. We would then ask a number of questions such as
- What will have been covered in earlier meetings with the employees?
- What function is the talk to fulfill?
- How long is the speech going to be?
- Should it be light and entertaining or a more hard-hitting ‘pep talk’?
- Are there any points that should definitely be covered, or is the content entirely open?
- Are there any copies of talks given in previous meetings?
Once these questions have been answered, you will feel less stressed and you can start to draft your speech and the task becomes more manageable. The simple technique of structuring the situation keeps us from floundering and gets us started in the right direction.
Preparation For Speech To Reduce Stage Fright Anxiety
Once your speech have been drafted, you can prepare yourself for the speech by doing the following in order to reduce anxiety and stage fright:-
- Do some rehearsal in front of a mirror so that you are familiar with the flow of your speech. If you have a chance, your can practice it in front of your friends or family members.
- Avoid being rushed or distracted before your speech.
- Practice meditation or breathing relaxation exercises which will help your mind to calm down and reduce stress and anxiety.
- Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on stage making the speech. This will help you to have an expectation.
- Use deep breathing to calm your body if you are still feeling anxious.
- When reading out your speech, keep in mind that you slow read slower that your usual pace because when you are standing on stage feeling anxious, you will tend to speak much faster.
- If you are still feeling anxious when your are standing on the stage, do not look into your audience eye. Try to look far to the front of the wall as you read your speech out.