How I Survived An Extreme Public Speaking Experience

by Brian Clough
(Auckland, New Zealand)

My story is about learning from a really scary experience.

This was an 'extreme public speaking' scary experience, at least in my mind at the time. It shows you what I learnt, how it helped me and it includes some ideas on how to conquer your fear of public speaking (or any fear for that matter).

I still remember quite clearly what the Navy recruiter said to me way back in 1979 when I went for my first 'interview'. He told me that as a Naval Officer, I could be at sea in charge of the engineering department of a ship one day, and then the next day I could be marching out the front of a platoon of sailors down the main street of a city waving a sword and saluting the Queen in front of a huge crowd of people.

I think he was trying to scare me a bit. He wanted me to realize that I needed to be flexible and that they were looking for people who could adapt quickly to whatever was required. He also wanted me to know that there was an element of performance involved. I think what he really wanted me to know, in no uncertain terms, was that I'd be a Naval Officer first ... and an engineer second.

Anyway, he didn't scare the 17 year old boy that I was then. I just thought it sounded cool.

He was right too by the way. I certainly did those things he described and many, many more in my 21 year career as a Naval Officer.

What I want to talk about here is one particular aspect of that varied career. What I call now "Extreme Public Speaking" - or situations that involve a lot of fear of public speaking. It taught me some valuable lessons and I hope you can take something for yourself. Since leaving the Navy I've built a couple of successful businesses in business coaching and marketing, and these lessons helped me greatly along the way.

The first lesson I learned was that I wouldn't always be given very long to prepare an oral presentation. The Navy has its own summary justice system called The Captain's Table. Basically the guilty sailor is marched in to face the Commanding Officer, the charges are read out, a 'prosecuting' Officer describes the circumstances and then the sailor's Divisional Officer is invited to speak on the sailor's behalf. After the briefest periods of reflection the guilty verdict is announced, along with a few stern words from the Captain, the sailor salutes, left turns and quick marches away to begin the punishment.

This normally takes place on the Bridge of the ship and as you might imagine it can be a very tense scene. For a Junior Officer taking part for the first time it's terrifying. For me it was even worse because I'd had absolutely no training in what to do! These days the training is far better, and a young Divisional Officer will typically have had lots of practice runs and role plays before ever facing a real live Captain. I had zero. I had never even seen one before!

The first thing that saved me was that, luckily, my sailor wasn't the only one to be up on a charge that day. That meant I was at least able to watch what the Officer before me did. That was to be my training!

To this day I have absolutely no recollection of what I said, but somehow I managed to get through my part in the production without fluffing my lines too badly. I wasn't given a bollocking by my superiors afterwards,so that's about the only indication I have that I did ok! My poor sailor was of course found guilty and punished, but I'm consoled by the knowledge that it probably wasn't due to my lack of experience as an advocate... in my 21 years I can't recall more than one or two sailors who were ever found not guilty!

Talk about sink or swim! As I was to discover time and again throughout my time as a Naval Officer, a lot of the time people need to be able to get up and speak with very little preparation. In this day and age of self-help gurus it's sometimes tempting to think that everyone else is operating in accordance with the 21 Essential Principles or the 9 Steps To Brilliance (I love the movie 'Little Miss Sunshine').

Well I learned that it just ain't so. In the real world of human work .. military, business, education, politics - it makes no difference what it is ... people are flying by the seat of their pants all the time.

I recall a US political speech writer, who worked in the White House, saying that the public overestimate how prepared a lot of politicians are when they speak. He said there's never enough talent or resources to go around because of the sheer volume of issues these people have to comment on.

So don't feel bad if you're feeling a bit unprepared, or you're all out of presentation ideas, for your next Toastmasters speech! It's great practice for the real world.

Actually there are some ways to prepare and in my experience the people who do them are the ones that do well in most situations and are seen as leaders.

The key, if there is one, is this.

Be prepared to speak, don't just prepare a speech.

And to be truly prepared to speak you need to do three things:

Understand It. After a while I worked out how the Captain's Table game was played. I saw what was expected of the different roles, and the logic of the process (unjust and pragmatic as it was) became apparent to me. I was able to begin to get technically good at it. How well do you understand the games you're involved in?

Practice It. I did hundreds of Captain's Tables and I got better at it. How often do you practice public speaking? Take a look at these public speaking exercises if you'd really like to speak with no fear.

Love It. After a while I started to enjoy the Captain's Table greatly. There was a good natured, often quite jovial side to proceedings (some of the situations sailors get themselves into are hilarious when described in a formal setting). It brought a sense of order and closure to often chaotic events and it was well understood by the sailors and officers alike. How much do you resist your speaking assignments instead of accepting them and choosing to enjoy them?

I hope my little story helps to remind you that most people are afraid of public speaking, because they don't do enough of these three things. I hope it encourages you to be different from the herd, and live with no fear.

I look forward to hearing you speak about it!