Going weak at the knees….

Fear dominated my early life. As a child, I was terrified. Terrified of lots of things.  Some silly.  Some not so stupid.  One very real fear was of being asked to say a prayer at a seder supper as I  unlike my cousins, I didn’t speak hebrew. In school, I knew I wasn’t the brightest and avoided any possibility of being picked out for anything at all and so the habit of being fearful continued through most of my adult life of choosing to play second fiddle, never wanting to be in the spotlight.  I felt I wasn’t intelligent enough, certainly not funny enough and I believed that no-one would find what I had to say of interest anyway.  The very notion of  exposing myself to possible ridicule filled me with horror on a regular basis. Fear you’ll have gathered is something I really understand.

If the thought of speaking in public terrifies you and your knees turn jelly, it is in your power to change how you feel. There are some easily learnt techniques that can help you speak in public, with confidence and take the stress out of those business situations where you know you’ve simply got to deliver.  Developing your own style is one of the most important steps to presenting well and to think of your style as a type of conversation can help.  Once you’ve done so, then it’s a case of modifying your CONVERSATIONAL STYLE to suit the situation.  Easier said than done, right?  Take the first step and think of how you talk to different members of your family.  Talking with a brother or sister, for example, will probably be more informal than perhaps talking to an Aunt or Uncle.  In business, it’s much the same.  There will be people with whom you adopt a less familiar or formal tone.  We’re all human and the more you can learn to relax and communicate with ease, the greater, more varied and most important of all, the more personalised your ‘conversational style’ will become. Wobbly knees will be a distant memory and all you’ll feel is the excitement and pleasure of speaking with confidence.

Confident Communicators have the ability to Inspire and Motivate