Submitted by pwsaindon on
in
Forums
Hello,
Let's assume one had a direct that wanted to be coached on public speaking because they see others in the organization above them are good at it. It is not a job requirement to get a promotion, but it can certainly help the organization to share information. The direct has taken action to take outside courses on the subject, but consistently has a violent physical reaction when public speaking to the point of consistently vomiting during the presentation. We're not talking the "normal butterflies" here. How would you handle this situation?
The best approach I have tried so far is to explain to the direct that this is not a necessary weakness they need to improve as it is not required to move up in their career. I try to focus the conversation back to the employees strengths and how we can further develop those to add the same value to the organization as the others 1 title above his own. We do focus on developing those strengths in our 1-1s, but the topic comes back up at least 1 every 3 months that he still wants to get better at public speaking.
Any advice?
Thanks
~Phil
Is this too big
Based on their reaction to the situation I am wondering if this is something that coaching is really going to address the issue. I am not a professional but that level of anxiety may need to be discussed with a therapist. It seems like your direct wants to address the situation which is a good thing. I would be supportive and offer to help but that help may be to put them in touch with professional help.
I would also suggest that they look into Toastmasters. There they will find a supportive group that wants to see them succeed. Part of their anxiety about speaking at work may be that they fear they are being judged by the people they work with. An outside group may give them some comfort in that there is less risk.
S
Coach them!
Your direct wants to improve. Presumably you see value in the direct improving (if for no other reason than your direct will stop asking about in your O3s... :-> ). If you have love for your people, helping them to get over such hurdles when they're driven to do so is a gift which I would encourage you to accept. Go forth and coach!
The curveball here is not that your direct needs to get better at something, but rather that they need to learn to control some sort of anxiety reaction they're having. That's still coachable, it just isn't a scenario that the typical examples cover. The coaching goal should be something along the lines of, "deliver a five minute presentation to a group of at least five people without any feelings of nausea or other discomfort". Add a deadline in there and you're golden.
With that goal in mind, the way forward should be more clear. The resources the direct needs aren't about "better public speaking", but instead "confident (???) public speaking". I'm not sure exactly what the right adjective is there, but hopefully you get the idea. You're looking for resources on how other people have conquered their adverse reactions, like books, blog posts, people at Toastmasters who have had similarly extreme reactions, and, like SCM2423 says, possibly professional help.
Now, that's not to say that once this little problem is dealt with, future coaching goals might not revolve around improving public speaking skills in other ways, but for now, I'd say that step one of improving is being able to deliver a speech without throwing up on the audience...
Matt's on the money
Matt's on the money there.
Build up can only be gradual. And he/she needs to get some early wins to build confidence. The situation seems pretty dire. What's the threshold? Is it 5 people in the audience? 10? More? Is it 5 minutes? 10? More? Is he/she fine with peers? Your peers?
what can he/she do? What's slightly more challenging than that? Find ways to give him/her opportunities to do a little bit bigger, longer etc. so he/she can build his/her confidence 1 step at a time.
regards
kevin