Frightened of Public Speaking

Most people have some level of anxiety when speaking in public. According to our book, there are three ways to explain how we create the build up our level of anxiety.

1. Skills Deficit: When we are not equipped to give a speech, we will become anxious. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Personally, the more I know about the topic of discussion and the more I have prepared for my time in the spotlight, the less scared I am to get up and speak. I have never really been much of a public speaker, however, when I am prepared and build up my skills to perform, I have often felt excited to provide the information I have learned, in hopes of exciting others.

2. Conditioned Anxiety: There are individuals who have been conditioned to be anxious anytime they attempt to communicate. We have all experienced someone hushing us. The more it happens early in life, the more we are conditioned to think of communication as a bad thing. If we are punished for trying to communicate, we'll feel anxiety build up when we become the focal point of public speaking and have to communicate to a large group or audience. We can reduce conditioned anxiety by the process of systematic desensitization. This is the use of muscle relaxation techniques to help calm your body.

3. Negative Cognitive Appraisal: This is the best explanation for why I have difficulty with public speaking. We create negative statements about ourselves and convince ourselves that we'll fail or mess up. Statements like "once I step up to the microphone, I'll forget everything I was going to say." To reduce these negative statements, we can work through cognitive restructuring process. The basic idea is to replace the negative with positive thoughts. You want to have positive statements in place to kick out the negative words when they fill your mind.

It is important to be aware of where your anxiety comes from and it is equally important to have a plan in place to build yourself up. Through practice, relaxing your mind and body, and replacing negative thoughts, you can create a path to successful public speaking.

Managing Participation Styles

Within groups, it's important to manage different problem styles. One style that I often see as a problem is verbose. The textbook defines verbose as "excessive talkativeness, anxious to show off; very wordy" (O'Hair, Friedrich and Dixon, 2011). I love that the facilitation advice is to ask them difficult questions. By doing that, it slows them down. They have to think about a response before they speak. It is also important to have other people in the group interpret what was said. These second and third level questions are great because it slows down the process for everyone. If someone is just getting fancy in an obsessive way, it's important to find out if they really know what they are talking about or not. This is also a great way to have everyone in the group contribute and also understand the material or information that is being discussed.


Resources:
O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L.D. (2011). Strategic Communication: in business
     and the professions. Boston: Pearson.

Interviewing Skills

I have been on both sides of the interviewing process. I have talked a lot about being the interviewee, but, I'd like to share my perspective of being an interviewer. I like how our textbook discussed on page 214, the importance of barriers. To effectively communicate in interviews, the textbook tells us to minimize these things:

• competing demands
• ego threats
• lack of courtesy
• trauma
• forgetfulness
• confusion
• jumping to conclusions
• distracting subconscious behaviors

As an interviewer, it is imperative to be a good listener. The barrier I want to focus on is jumping to conclusions. If you are quick to speak you don't allow the person being interviewed to complete their thought on a question or you've already decided if they are or are not right for the job, based on a single answer. If you get ahead of yourself, you become closed off and can miss out on a great candidate because you did not like the way they answered or their decision on a question being asked. The interviewer must listen more than speak. Allow the individual being interview the opportunity to express themselves throughout the entire interview process. I have been pleasantly surprised and changed my mind several times about someone I was interviewing, just because I decided to stay neutral until the end. I have also had the complete opposite happen and found an individual to be completely wrong for the job, but at the initial exchange I thought otherwise. Don't jump to a conclusion and it gives you the best chance to really see if the candidate is right for the position they are competing to get. 

Goal Setting (Ch 7)

Goal setting is a very important component to the work environment. It is key because there is an expectation that is set for the employee, by the leader or manager. It creates the idea that something must be accomplished and a date or timeline is provided to get the individual to work toward completing that task. For the last few years, I've had to create goals for myself. It was a way to keep me motivated. However, this is not ideal and it can be very difficult to stay motivated. This last month, I was finally asked to create a goal. The owner and myself sat together to agree upon a goal for the year. It is something attainable, with the right amount and focus, I believe I will get there. Prior to this goal being set, there was a lot of confusion about my purpose and role within the company. I have two major roles, one of which is a managerial position. In this case, I don't only need to have a goal for myself, but, I need to create goals for those I am leading. Having actual goals being set this month has made all the difference. It is motivating and exciting to think about creative ideas to get myself and my team to reach the goal that has been set for us.