How to Make a Good Public Speaking
Public speaking fills most people with dread.
Humiliation is the greatest fear;
self-exposure and failing to appeal to the audience
come a close second.
Women hate it most,
since girls are pressurized from an early age
to be concerned with appearances of all kinds.
Most people have plenty of insecurities,
and this seems like a situation that will bring them out.
If you were under pressure to be perfect,
you are terrified of failing in the most public of ways.
While extroverts will feel less fear before the ordeal,
it does not mean they will necessarily do it better.
Some very shy people manage to shine.
When I met the British comedian Julian Clary,
he was shy and cautious, yet his TV performances are perfect.
In fact, personality is not the best predictor
of who does it well.
Regardless of what you are like in real life,
the key seems to be to act yourself.
Actual acting, as in performing the scripted lines of a character
other than yourself,
does not do the job.
While politicians may limit damage
by having carefully rehearsed, written scripts to speak from,
there is always a hidden awareness among the audience
that the words might not be true.
Likewise, the incredibly perfect speeches
of many American academics are far from natural.
You may end up buying their book on the way out,
but soon afterwards,
it is much like fast food,
and you get a nameless sense that you've been cheated.
Although, as Earl Spencer proved
at his sister Princess Diana's funeral,
it is possible both to prepare every word and to act naturally.
A script rarely works and it is used to help most speakers.
But, being yourself doesn't work either.
If you spoke as if you were in your own kitchen,
it would be too authentic, too unaware of the need
to communicate with an audience.
I remember going to see British psychiatrist
R. D. Laing speak in public.
He behaved like a seriously odd person,
talking off the top of his head.
Although he was talking about madness
and he wrote on mental illness,
he seemed to be exhibiting rather than explaining it.
The best psychological place from which to speak
is an unselfconscious self-consciousness,
providing the illusion of being natural.
Studies suggest that this state of "flow", as psychologists call it,
is very satisfying.