Unit 5 Discussion Forum Question A.

Managing Anxiety Identify and describe types of anxiety that you might experience when you deliver oral presentations. Try to be as honest as possible. Using three or four ideas from the text that you find to be most helpful for you, develop a strategy to help you manage your anxieties. Be very specific. Explain exactly how you'll apply your strategy in this class and in future speaking opportunities. Essay Answer: No matter the oral presenters public speaking qualifications or knowledge of the subject at hand, all professionals experience some degree of apprehension before delivering a presentation. As our text indicates, a certain amount of communication apprehension just before a presentation produces normal physiological anxiety which, when controlled, can be viewed by an audience as enthusiasm and positive energy (Adler, Elmohorst & Lucas pp. 330-331). This is far more effective than appearing too comfortable or even bored. My experience with public speaking has been done during oral board interviews and formal presentations. Over the years, my degree of nervousness and physical discomfort just before speaking has not decreased but my ability to manage these communication apprehensions while presenting has increased. For me, the two most important concepts to overcoming speech anxiety are rehearsal and rational thinking (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas pp. 332-333). In my experience the most common organizational speaking formats are formal interviews for promotion within the company, presentations likely to result in aggressive questions from those who will decide the viability of your work plan and speaking engagements where the content is completely controlled by the speaker. All three require the speaker to conduct an informative presentation while anticipating and responding to audience questions. Rehearsing the content and probable questions will pay big dividends. Our text suggests we rehearse in front of a test audience and also rehearse in a real setting (Adler, Elmohorst & Lucas p. 332). Although not always logistically possible I have and will continue to rehearse in front of a test audience whenever possible. There is no substitute for making your scenario as realistic as possible. This is the time to get constructive feedback and make changes such as more eye contact, stop mumbling and dont look like you would rather be anywhere but there. Additionally, rehearsing in the actual room you will be presenting is invaluable. Walking into a room new to your audience but one you have spent hours and hours in while rehearsing the presentation you are about to give is a huge advantage for any speaker. I found the text segment on thinking rationally very informative as well (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas p. 333). A speaker cannot control communication apprehension if they believe the myths that a good presentation must be flawless and if you do not convince the entire audience you are right your speech has failed (Adler, Elmohorst & Lucas p. 333). Believing these myths will actually have the opposite effect resulting in a poor delivery and a great deal of stress for the speaker before, during and after the event. If one accepts that you will make mistakes and likely will never create a consensus during a presentation, one can focus on more effective preparation. This is particularly true during an oral interview process involving multiple interviews on varying subjects. Although you should always do your best to prepare for interviews, you should remember that if you do not do well in one interview, accept that you may be weak in that area and understand that you have strengths in other areas which will be reflected during the rest of the process. Ultimately the key to a good presentation, no matter the format or audience type is to understand that all speakers experience communication apprehension to one degree or another. A good speaker should

not try to completely eliminate these fears; instead one should learn to control them through effective preparation and rational thinking (Adler, Elmhorst & Lucas pp. 330-333).