Presentation phobia. Really? Really, really?

It seems to be more and more common (to me, at least) to turn the normal-but-unwanted-and-perhaps-a-bit-unusual into a clinical condition.  People aren’t short tempered any more, they’re suffering from Temper Restraint Disorder Syndrome; okay, I made that one up, but you get the idea.  (See here and see what you think.) :)

It happens a lot that people bounce around self-help websites etc or email me saying they suffer from Gloss0phobia (the phobia of public speaking) and want to be cured.  Interestingly, they often want to be cured in a half day session.  I have two problems with this.

Firstly, many of these people simple don’t have presentations/public speaking phobia – they have a perfectly normal level of nervousness.  Secondly, if they did have a phobia of presenting and public speaking, a self-help website with half a dozen half-baked and ill-informed responses and a two hour exercise isn’t going to cut the mustard, so to speak.

Don’t get me wrong, I have every sympathy in the world with people who are phobic (been there, done that! :( ) but I’m not sure I have quite so much patience for people who simply use the idea of a phobia as a way of avoiding the hard work and anxiety that’s associated with making a half-way decent presentation.

My real wroth, however, is reserved for those (so called?!) experts and trainers who keep the idea of Glossophobia at the front of people’s minds by using the idea as a marketing tool.  Put the two together (“Are you suffering from Glossophobia? We’ll cure it in 20 minutes using our secret technique (get-out clauses apply!)” combined with ‘Yes, I’d rather have a phobia than a fear in the same way I’d rather claim to have flu than admit it’s just a common cold!”) and you’ve got a kind of self-perpetuating conspiracy.  One of the effects of which is that the standard of presentations and public speaking in the world doesn’t go up, because no one takes the time and trouble to learn and get past their (normal) fear.

Yes, I know, I know, I’m ranting! :)

Joe Public isn’t likely to change, so it’s up to us trainers. Let’s try and be grown ups.  Let’s try and stop using cheap, degrading and belittling marketing ploys. Let’s try and make the average presentation a bit better.  And above all, let’s stop lieing to everyone… fear is normal, fear is good – but a phobia is a phobia and we can’t do much with them as easily.