Speaking fear is real and it affects those in life-saving roles just like everyone else. Our leading fire rescue personnel depend on speaking skills to successfully navigate their careers. It seems unlikely that our brave men and women who run towards fire and danger can still struggle with speaking fear. I’m talking about Firefighters and speaking fear, but they can fight it in 3 basic steps .
How Firefighters Fight Speaking Fear in 3 Steps
Firefighters fight speaking fear with practice
Firefighter Nation’s Katherine T. Ridenhour reminds fire professionals that public speaking is Americans’ greatest fear and that most would rather die that speak in public.
She continues with this hilarious and fitting quote from Jerry Seinfeld about how the fear of public speaking rates as high as the fear of dying; “Does that seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy!”
Fire professionals can be exposed to public speaking for job promotions, budget reviews, community meetings, city council presentations, fire safety demonstrations and television news interviews. They are definitely in the public daily and most of their roles at headquarters and the station are public appearances. No doubt, all of these speaking engagements can cause stress and fear unless they learn to fights speaking fear in 3 steps.
Firefighters and Speaking Fear: 3 Steps
- Plan Prepare & Practice
- Produce Boilerplates
- Perfect Nonverbal
1. Plan, Prepare & Practice
Planning will go a long way to make you look good and help you connect with the audience. This is important and I’ll tell you more later.
Media Statement- opening facts, middle details, closing boilerplate statements see below
Speech- Do you have an outline or a beginning, middle and ending for your speech? The best rule of thumb is tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.
Boring speeches happen too often
Nuggets to Remember during the plan, prepare and practice phase:
- We’ve all felt the need to be rescued from a boring speaker. As a listener at a wedding, work conference or school play there’s a chance we will all be stuck at some point. It’s clear that you want to fight being that terrible speaker, that’s why you are reading this, right?
- The best speeches have a few key firebreaks in common. It’s worth it to think about the absolute most touching and riveting speeches you’ve heard to earn your stripes here.
Prepare with a focus 1-2 Key Points
Have you been in a press conference or speech and wondered what the speaker’s main point was? Make sure your point is crystal clear. Make it precise and simple. The time they sit and listen is priceless, so be respectful enough to give them a clear main point. Ask yourself, does my audience know what my main point is? Is it clear enough?
Additionally, if you weave in too many other points it can get confusing and dilute your key point or points. Remember the old KISS saying “keep it simple stupid”.
Practice, Practice, Practice I can’t say enough about the need to practice the overall main points and to memorize your boilerplates.
2. Produce Boilerplates-
Boilerplates are important standard brief statements about your organization or topic. They are generic, basic, simple and can be used as filler or to open or close presentations. You need to produce 3-4 of these that showcase your mission, focus, goals, statistics, etc. You’ll be glad, since you can always use these in a pinch or during impromptu sessions.
3. Perfect Nonverbal
Studies show that nonverbal communication can form 80% of your first impression. Practice your speech and your presentation on video and review it. Notice your body language and ask a friend to watch and give you feedback. Non-verbals like smacking your lips, swaying back and forth and twirling your hair can be detrimental to your message.
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
Jump right in and don’t give yourself a chance to get nervous. Stage fright is a real thing.
Public speaking news never stops in the case of public safety, especially during the holidays. I want to thank our public safety officials and officers who serve our communities proudly. We all depend on our fire, police and emergency personnel everywhere. Our team has worked extensively with fire, police and emergency management PIO public information officers training. Call us to schedule your own you PIO coach.
