Public speaking is like riding a bicycle. Sure, your first experience doing it isn’t so great, but the more you practice, the better you get.
This got me to thinking about what it’s like to develop new skill, such as public speaking. The first time you get up to speak it is unnerving and awkward. If you get past the first few, you stop trembling. You are a little less self conscious. As your career moves forward and you have more opportunities to speak, it becomes something you do. You may not love it, but you can survive it. It gets easier.
What happens after that is to me what’s most interesting. If you decide you want to become an outstanding speaker, to connect in a powerful way with your audiences, you have to stretch again. You need to feel a little uncomfortable, before you get comfortable with things like speaking without notes, standing on stage without a podium, telling stories, using gestures, moving around, trying creative exercises, whatever moves you into that next level of speaking. Each time you do it, with a modicum of success, it gets easier.
Knowing that, I think it’s important to have courage…embrace the awkward feeling … and try something new. We recently witnessed how hard this was for a group of executives who were about to make a major presentation to their senior leaders. They were, quite simply, uncomfortable. They were under pressure, so it wasn’t very much fun. And I didn’t blame them for that. It’s better to try something new when you’re not under the gun.
Still, I think every leader would be more energized about public speaking, more engaged in the process, and happier with the results, by getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. As we all know, it does get easier.
