This document provides tips for overcoming stage fright and improving executive communication skills. It discusses managing speech anxiety, focusing on engaging with the audience rather than boring them, and using body language and vocal tone confidently. Effective communication is about understanding how listeners interpret meaning based on their own experiences, rather than just transmitting words. The goal is to influence what people see, hear, feel and think by creating ideas that help audiences understand and remember.

1. Executive Communication Essentials
Overcoming Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety
1
Learn how to portray the attitude you want your audience to feel
Learn how to manage your speech anxiety
Our Goal Today
2
Are You Boring or Brilliant?
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Are You Boring or Brilliant?
Boring speakers….
Talk AT people
Talk about things that are of little interest to listeners
Often use notes or read directly from a text
Brilliant speakers…
Are in conversation WITH people
Talk about things that matter to the listeners
Speak from working memory

2. 4
How you look matters
Your attitude is everything:
Comfortable
Competent
Happy to be speaking with you
I belong here
M-B
5
Executive intelligence
Thinking
Feeling
Reptilian
Judgment
Executive Intelligence

3. Fear takes over
Reptilian brain takes over
Executive intelligence is hijacked by fear
“Most dangerous mental disability is fear”
Dr. Hallowell
Thinking
Feeling
Alligator
Judgment
Reptilian Brain
Stimulus-response
How rats act
Stimulus
Response
Dog

4. 8
But people don’t HAVE to respond
Choice
Stimulus
Response
9
Anxiety
A “Bad Feeling” — Uncomfortable
Want to shut it off:
Avoid communication
Build wall around you
anxiety
Fear of something that might happen
10
Create dialogue
Types of Anxiety
Situation Anxiety
Reframe situation to conversation
Practice conversational language
Use questions to get dialogue
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5. Visualization
Types of Anxiety
Audience Anxiety
Visualization of the environment helps desensitize and reduce
fear
Think about who audience is
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Be present
Types of Anxiety
Goal Anxiety (future-focused)
Stay present in the moment
Think about who audience is
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heartbeat
Pulse Rate
Minutes
Start
Resting Pulse
5
10
15
200
160

6. 140
100
60
Communication Anxiety
Communication Anxiety
Theodore Clevenger, Ph. D.
14
Cerebral Cortex
Brain Stem

11. Slim, cylindrical shape

13. Catecholamine
Surge
Locus
Coruleus
1
5
4
2
Amygdala

14. 6
3

15. Biochemistry of anxiety & fear
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bad solutions
Avoid communication
Be loud and aggressive
Understand fear and evolution
Bad solutions
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Anxiety management
If You Are TOO Cool:
keeps the fear high
you look unreal
anxiety
Use your energy
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Anxiety

16. Extra movement/Voice
Bring metabolism down
Meditation
Breathing
Positive visualization
Being cool/Holding back
Use the energy
Say “I’m excited”
Breathing
Positive visualization
Anxiety management
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It’s exciting!
Say “I’m excited”
…Excited to be here
…Excited by these ideas
…Excited to be speaking with you
excitement
You’re excited
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1. Inhale 2 sec.
2. Pause
3. Exhale 2 sec.
Avoid: Backdraft
Give your body time to process oxygen

17. Calm down breathing
Like a lullaby Count = 3
Inhale
Exhale
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Fill your mind with positive thoughts
Have a list of 3 vivid, positive memories
PRACTICE!
solutions
Do it
Your brain is the boss
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solutions
Do it
2
1
Two things I’m going to do
Take control!
Page 6
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18. Your 1st Speaking Experience
Know your story, “My Scariest Moment,” well
Play it back in your head and describe what you see
Talk with your audience, not at them
How to stand
Use an athletic stance (feet shoulder-width apart)
Hold still (don’t sway or shift your weight)
Bare hands (don’t hold anything)
Hands above waist (Kangaroo Paws)
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Executive Communication Essentials
Communication is NOT About You!
1
For you to become a more effective communicator:
Manage your speech anxiety & attitude
Speak up in difficult or unethical situations
Write e-mail and memos people will read
Build skills in working effectively in teams and advancing
relationships
Build message packaging & delivery skills
Our Goal
2

19. This class is NOT about giving speeches
It is about Being Yourself and thinking when speaking and
writing
It is about Creating Ideas and Helping People Understand and
Remember Them
It is about Improving Your Written Communication so that it is
Read and Understood
Not a speech class
3
3
It’s about changing what people
See
Hear
Feel
Think
It’s not about you
Effective oral & written communication
Effective
Communication
4
When you don’t communicate you send a message
Silence is a message, too
Listeners fill the “void” with their own message

20. Communication Reality
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Meanings are in people, not in words
Listeners always create their own meaning, whether it’s what
you meant or not
Meaning is created from memory of their life experiences
Who owns meaning?
Reality
Communication Reality
6
mean•ing
mean•ing n 1 : the thing one intends to convey esp. by language;
also : the thing that is conveyed 2 : AIM 3 :
SIGNIFICANCE 4 : CONNOTATION; also : DENOTATION
Meaning
7
de•no•tat•ive
de•no•tat•ive n 1 : a concrete object and the sign attached to it.;
also : the thing that is conveyed 2 : stand as a name or
symbol for
Meaning

21. 8
Meaning
con•no•tat•ive
con•no•tat•ive n 1 : imply or suggest (an idea or feeling) in
addition to the literal or primary meaning 2. the rich galaxy of
meaning about a construct.
9
mean•ing
Source: Mehrabian, Albert, Silent Messages, Belmont, CA
Wadsworth Publishing Company,1971, p. 56.
Meaning
10
YOU
LISTENER

22. Misunderstanding
Listener
You
11
YOU
LISTENER

23. Understanding
12
YOU
LISTENER

24. How effective communication works
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Listener receives 480 wpm
You speak 120 wpm
Deficit 360 wpm
-
wpm = words per minute
One communication bottleneck: Your mouth!
14
What Makes a Speaker
Look Confident?
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25. 16
Looking confident
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For Next Time
Overcoming Stage Fright and Performance Anxiety
Watch No Freaking Speaking & TED talk on Stage Fright
18
Tone
of
Voice
38%
Words
7%
Visual
55%