What is Your Public Speaking Challenge? Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them?
In our experience as a public speaking training organisation, we often encounter learners of various profiles. They may be united in their goal of presenting confidently (whether it is that business presentation or speech), but the challenges they encounter may be different. Nevertheless, it is important to understand what your public speaking challenge is and how you can create an action plan to overcome these challenges.
Of course, before addressing the challenge, you need to first understand the core challenge you face. You are unlikely to succeed in overcoming your speaking challenge if you are distracted by a multitude of other factors. Imagine trying to improve your eye contact, vocal variety, hand gestures, stage positioning, and content – all at the same time! It would be more fruitful to prepare a targeted action plan to address your specific speaking challenge.
If you are still figuring out which action plan should be your priority, here are three common public speaking challenges that you may encounter to help you in deciding!
Challenge #1: “I don’t want to present …”
This is one of the more common fears/challenges we encounter from our learners – from kids to adults. The fear or anxiety of presenting before a group of people may stem from a general fear of scrutiny to even diagnosed anxiety/psychological conditions. While the latter may require professional intervention, the former may be tackled with general stage anxiety techniques/tips, such as visualisation exercises or power poses. Aside from this, you can also prepare a targeted action plan to focus on stage fear/anxiety body language cues.
Before diving into the techniques, you should unpack how you react to the speaking fear/anxiety. For example, this fear or anxiousness may appear in a rigid posture, faster speaking speed, or distracted eye contact. These can be your action plan targets! You can choose to focus on one aspect to address as you build your speaking confidence (e.g., concentrating on building eye contact confidence first before targeting other stage fear symptoms).
Challenge #2: “My ideas are all over the place …”
You may not have a strong fear of presenting on stage, but you may find yourself having trouble arranging your thought process. Learners who share their experiences with us often highlight how their mind travels chaotically even though they have their ideas ready. In short, you may have rehearsed your script or practised that one answer, but when the pressure kicks in, everything is thrown out of the window.
What is your best action plan then? There are three elements you can focus on to tackle this. First, build clarity through your speech structure. Having a ready speech scaffold or template (e.g., Informative/PEEL) can help you reduce the effort needed to arrange your ideas. Second, aim to deliver the main idea/answer first. Challenge yourself to give direct responses without hedging or beating around the bush. Third, try a purposeful pause. A pause can prevent you from getting ahead of yourself and manage your response accordingly. For your action plan, pick one of these elements to focus on for your next presentation!
Challenge #3: “My boss always tells me to repeat myself …”
Another common challenge that our learners face concerns the clarity of their responses. We may find ourselves being asked to repeat our responses or explain (whether to a question or in a presentation). It may be daunting to do so, especially if you have taken the effort to craft and prepare your response. How can I improve the clarity of my responses?
Choosing the right action plan for this may require you to unpack the reason for the lack of clarity. If the concern is in terms of structure, arranging your response to state the direct answer, with adequate signposting may be the key habit to develop. However, if the lack of clarity stems from body language features (e.g., mumbling, low volume), it is time to observe your vocal quality and variety in your communication settings (be it a conversation or a presentation).
Overcome that Challenge!
There are various speaking challenges that you are likely to encounter. However, no matter the context, it remains important to implement a specific action plan that will encourage you to concentrate on a specific technique or trait. This ensures your development as a speaker without unduly overwhelming you. If you are still pondering over your next public speaking challenge to tackle, why not try one of the challenges/action plans above?
By The Way…
If you are keen to take your public speaking skills & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation / kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may communicate and deliver speeches with greater flair and charisma, feel free to check out our public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults and public speaking course for children below!
For more about our (weekly group classes) Public Speaking/ Presentation Skills Course for Adults :
https://www.publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/
If you are looking for a 2-day intensive public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults instead (for our adult learners who can’t do weekends), learn more about our presentation skills training course here: https://www.publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/presentation-skills-training-course-by-world-champion/
If you are looking for Public Speaking/ Presentation Courses for Kids / Children:
https://www.publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/
If you are a human resources manager/ business owner in your company…
We want to help you bring out the best in your team, organization, and company. Public speaking and communication skills for the workplace, such as persuasion, remain a priority for most corporate training out there. We believe in staying ahead of the curve in sharing the contemporary communication skills to help you and your team remain relevant, competitive and nimble. Through our customized corporate training programmes, your team will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on, and potential-maximising public speaking & presentation skills training programme!
Feel free to reach out to us to curate your own public speaking corporate training programme for your team, company, or organization! Let us help you develop them into highly effective public speakers at work, empowered with effective presentation skills & storytelling skills – them giving speeches with charisma, influence and impact is something you can look forward to!
For effective presentation skills training & public speaking training for corporates/ employees: https://www.publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/corporate-public-speaking-training-workshop/
