Meetings, presentations, customer appointments: In many jobs, speaking freely and a lot is part of the job. But what can you do when this becomes a huge hurdle? How speech anxiety can be treated and what you should know about it. To boost your self-confidence check out your scores at the Vave login.
Some people can’t sleep for days before a presentation, while others dread presentations in meetings. When it’s their turn, their heart is pounding, their voice is trembling or they feel like they can’t get a word out.
Sure, a little nervousness before a presentation is normal, and not everyone likes giving big speeches. But if you regularly fear speaking to or in front of other people, experts refer to this as speech anxiety. What we actually do as a matter of course then becomes an obstacle.
VICIOUS CIRCLE
“Speech anxiety is a strong feeling of fear in certain speaking situations,” explains Ulla Beushausen, psycholinguist and professor of speech therapy at the HAWK University of Applied Sciences Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen. “Adrenaline and other neurotransmitters are released, which cause you to start trembling, your heartbeat to increase and perhaps your face to flush”. Many people prefer to avoid this. “What then sets in is the fear of fear,” says Beushausen. A vicious circle.
Speech anxiety can affect people in very different situations and contexts. “But recently I’ve been seeing more and more people who have problems in their day-to-day work,“ says the professor, who has written a guidebook on the subject (”Speaking confidently and freely: successfully reducing speech anxiety”).
Feeling of “not being able to say what you would like to say”
It doesn’t necessarily have to be an important presentation in front of customers that leaves people speechless. “It can also happen in a small team meeting, in normal staff meetings,” says Beushausen. “You realize: I just don’t dare say anything because the boss is sitting there – and he could also take a negative view of what I say.”
Even a one-to-one conversation can become a problem for those affected, says Berlin coach and lawyer Ulrike Strohscheer, who advises people with speech anxiety. For example, when the person you are talking to is “one level” above you in the hierarchy. A feedback meeting with a superior can be such a situation. But also the professional exchange with the team leader. People with speech anxiety often have the feeling that they “can’t say what they would actually like to say”, says Strohscheer. “Or not being able to express themselves in the way they actually need to.”
SPEECH ANXIETY AS A CAREER KILLER
It’s not just a burden. Speech anxiety can also put the brakes on your career. Namely, “when our fear of speaking leads to us not doing certain things that would be beneficial for our job,” says Ulrike Strohscheer.
For example, out of fear, people keep their own expertise to themselves instead of sharing it in a team meeting – or shirk every presentation, no matter how small.
“I’ve had clients who have then thought: do I have to change my job?” says psycholinguist Beushausen. “So do I go into a situation where I have to speak less?”
So what can those affected do? According to Strohscheer, one thing is needed first and foremost: research into the causes. “What exactly am I afraid of? Why does this situation trigger certain fears in me? How do I know the physical feeling associated with it – and who or what does it remind me of?”
Often behind fear of speaking is the fear of being judged. And of not having achieved enough, says Beushausen. It often affects very performance-oriented people or perfectionists. They see every little slip of the tongue as a personal failure, and many are afraid that others will notice their excitement when they speak. “Which is usually not the case. Because what you feel inside doesn’t necessarily come across to others.”
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