With the right strategies, public speaking doesn't need to be scary.

When asked what their biggest fear is, many people would say public speaking. Let’s discuss five simple strategies for managing your presentation anxiety.  

First, it’s a perfectly normal human feeling. Everyone has some degree of presentation anxiety; it’s caused by reactions to stress and fear. 

Second, presentation anxiety doesn’t have a singular cause. It’s the result of several different factors that vary by person and situation. And you can take specific actions to reduce their impact. Begin by clearly identifying each specific factor you think causes your level of presentation anxiety, like fear of forgetting or fear of audience questions. 

Third, for each of these specific causes, what simple steps can you take to reduce or minimize their impact? To minimize the fear of forgetting, practice enough to remember most of your content and create simple, easy-to-read speaker notes to remind you of the rest. Minimize the fear of audience questions by anticipating the obvious ones and creating short clear answers for them. 

Fourth, no matter what you do, you’ll still have some level of presentation anxiety left, so mask the symptoms that show up in your vocal and physical delivery. Pause more and longer, smile more often, sustain longer eye contact and avoid those movements or gestures that appear nervous. If you look and sound confident to your audience you are, because their perception is your reality. 

And fifth, as hard as it sounds, look like you’re having fun up there. 

So, there you have five simple strategies for managing presentation anxiety. Best wishes for presenting with more confidence and less pain. 

Phil Stella runs Effective Training & Communication, 440 804-4785, empowering business leaders to reduce the pain with workplace communication and sales pitches. A popular trainer and executive coach on writing, communication styles and sales presentations, Stella is also on the Cleveland faculty of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.