Effective public speaking is a crucial to your personal, professional and social success. At the same time many developers luck the confidence to communicate clearly, which leads to missing out on career opportunities.

The biggest threat to our confidence is anxiety, in other words - being nervous. Anxiety - is a signal that we are doing something important. So you can not get rid of it completely. But we do not want anxiety to prevent us from being ourselves and let our skills shine.

There are two parts of managing anxiety: reducing symptoms and dealing with sources.

How to reduce anxiety symptoms

  1. Increased hart rate

How to deal -> deep belly breath before speaking

  1. Dry mouse

How to deal -> warm water, chowing a gum before speaking

  1. Blushing and sweating

How to deal -> hold something cold in your palm

How to deal with sources of anxiety

  1. Greet anxiety, so nervousness does not make you even more nervous. It is ok to have it.
  2. Turn the focus into the audience. You are providing a value to people that are listening to you by sharing your ideas.
  3. Communication is not a performance. It is a conversation. It is ok to make mistakes. Use “us”, “we”, people’s names to underline conversational language.

Sources:

  1. Speaking Up without Freaking Out by Matthew Abrahams