CorpComms Magazine

More than half of British executives make excuses to avoid speaking in public, according to a recent survey by communications consultancy The Aziz Corporation.

The survey found that men in the under 35s bracket are less confident than women in the same age bracket, with almost six out of ten men admitting to being nervous speakers, compared with just 46 per cent of women.

More than 70 per cent of men over 35 years old feel that they are confident speakers, compared with just 50 per cent of women in the same age bracket.

Four out of ten executives are persistently short-tempered as a direct result of fretting about speaking engagements, and four in ten lose their appetite as the day of their presentation draws near. More than half admitted that they suffer from insomnia when worrying about public speaking.

The survey found that the most-used excuses include claiming to be unavailable on the day that the person in question has been asked to speak, offering the opportunity to a more junior colleague instead, or claiming not to have enough knowledge on the chosen subject.

Professor Khalid Aziz, chairman of The Aziz Corporation, said: 'It is a tragedy for British businesses that so many highly intelligent executives have a real, deep-seated pathological fear of public speaking...It is encouraging to see a generation of young fearless females emerging.'

The survey found that their preferred method of speaking, if they have to, is to groups of 20 people or less, and with the help of notes.

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