Dr SONAL DEVESH
Associate Professor
Christ University
Bangalore
In the lively corridors of a famous University in Bengaluru, 20-year-old Lekha adjusted her dupatta nervously with her damp palms. As a final year BBA student, she faced her nightmare, the presentation for her annual management fest. Her topic? Sustainable business models. But, all she could imagine was those 150 pairs of eyes in the auditorium waiting to judge her.
Lekha was not alone. A published study in the Journal of Further and Higher Education inferred that in US, 61% – 64% of College students experienced fear of public speaking much above the global average of 15% – 30%. With India indicating 75% of the higher education students experiencing moderate to high levels of anxiety expressing symptoms of stage fright, cognitive and physical symptoms like sweating, shaking and fear of negative evaluation hinders academic participation and performance. This matched with Lekha’s symptoms of racing heart, sweaty hands, shaky voice and mind going blank fearing negative evaluation.
The day arrived. Dressed in her crisp white kurta, Lekha clutched the microphone, her notes trembling slightly in her other hand. She stepped to the podium, heart pounding like a dhol at a festival. With Microphone in hand Lekha froze at “Good Morning”. She could hear the whispers rippling through the audience like a wave “What’s wrong with her? She forgot her lines already”.
A vivid flashback of endless rehearsals alone in her tiny hostel room with mirror as her only audience stumbling over sustainability metrics and SWOT analysis for her topic on ecofriendly business models. She avoided group practice due to lack of confidence. Her professor Dr. Rao quickly noticed the pattern, signalled Ravi, a poised peer of her class to step in and coach her. “Pair Up” the professor urged, “Real growth happens in the arena, not isolation”. Ravi was her classmate and peer coach of her elective public speaking class. In the pretext of adjusting the mic came close to her, with his calm voice cutting through the haze whispered “Breathe You’ve got this—visualize the win.”
Lekha breathed deep, channelling the coping strategies, tapping into the scaffolded training from her curriculum. Then a 20 second visualisation walk with closed eyes picturing herself as a confident panel moderator in the previous entrepreneurship conference. This steadied her pulse. No more freeze. She grabbed the mic and said “Good Morning Let’s start again”. Words began to flow haltingly in the initial stage and then steadily weaving the framework of Sustainable business models. By, the end there was a thundering applause. She nailed it!
Lekha logged her win: “Training works.” The case underscored the public speaking anxiety toll on employability, weak interviews, career shifts. She realised effective interventions like scaffolded curriculum, peer support training programmes and visualisation techniques reduce anxiety among students while enhancing communicating skills for professional success of higher education students like her. Finally, she expressed her gratitude to her professor Dr. Rao and her peer coach Ravi for their timely intervention, guidance and encouragement that led to her successful presentation.
Reference
- Ibrahim, Omer & Devesh, Sonal. (2019). Implication of public speaking anxiety on the employability of Omani graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability. 10. 122-135. 10.21153/jtlge2019vol10no2art861.
- Naz, H., Ali, N., & Aziz, S. (2021). A study to evaluate anxiety of public speaking in young adults. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied Science (IJSEAS), 7(8), 267-272. https://ijseas.com/volume7/v7i8/IJSEAS202108113.pdf
Dr Sonal Davesh
Associate Professor
School of Business and Management
Christ University
