"According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy." --Jerry Seinfeld
After a google search for "fear of public speaking" provided 190,104 results--which in itself gives Seinfeld's statement a lot of credibility--I think I pinpointed the source of his basic premise. According to 1972's The Book of Lists, fear of death actually ranked at Phobia Number Five, behind heights, insects, poverty, and yes, public speaking at Number One.
This adds a whole new dimension to the respect I already had for our members in the "Speakers" category, and also to the empathy I already had for fellow "Fans" who feel that they could no more address an audience "than they could sprout wings and fly," as my grandfather used to put it. When he was promoted to management in the mid-1960s, the only thing that worried him was knowing he would be forced to take the reins at weekly department meetings. This scared him enough to seek out help from an organization called Toastmasters (which I just discovered is still going strong with over 1/4 million members in 92 countries). Toastmasters must have helped, because he managed to keep the job until retirement, but one of my earliest memories of him is the terror he felt on Monday mornings because that was the day he had to address as a group the very same people he had no problem speaking with individually every other day of his life.
I would be fascinated to hear from anyone who has faced and conquered this fear.
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This is not entirely on-topic, but it's not entirely off-topic either. Leslie Butterin, author of Secrets to Scheduling the Executive-Level Cold Call and founder of Top Dog Consulting contacted me after reading this post to point me toward her Upcoming Webinars & Thoughts About Conquering Fear.
While Leslie's webinars are actually geared for the sales professional, she is probably correct that a salesman's fear of approaching a potential buyer is not much different than a public speaker's fear of facing an audience. Anyone interested in more information can click the above link.
I've faced the fear but I can't say I've conquered it. ;)
There is a very brief but very good piece here on overcoming a fear of public speaking. Boiled down, the author says that there are eleven hidden causes of public speaking stress, as follows:
1) Thinking that public speaking is inherently stressful (it's not).
2) Thinking you need to be brilliant or perfect to succeed (you don't).
3) Trying to impart too much information or cover too many points in a short presentation.
4) Having the wrong purpose in mind (to get rather than to give/contribute).
5) Trying to please everyone (this is unrealistic).
6) Trying to emulate other speakers (very difficult) rather than simply being yourself (very easy).
7) Failing to be personally revealing and humble.
8) Being fearful of potential negative outcomes (they almost never occur and even when they do, you can use them to your advantage).
9) Trying to control the wrong things (e.g., the behavior of your audience).
10) Spending too much time overpreparing (instead of developing confidence and trust in your natural ability to succeed).
11) Thinking your audience will be as critical of your performance as you might be.