The fear of judgement is a fear that looms large for some people. The fear of not being good enough is why people are scared to speak in public. They fear being judged for who they are. Is that the case for you? Does the fear of judgement stop you or prevent you from presenting in front of an audience? The majority of  us want to appear to be competent and credible in front of others, especially in front of our family and peer group. We don’t want to lose face. In other words, we don’t want to lose our authority and credibility.

When you speak in front of a group, there is always the risk that things may not go according to your plan. There is always an element of risk and unpredictability. Such is life though. You can never predict or have full control over events or people. The minute you start putting yourself “out there” in the public domain, you’ll be judged.  Now the degree to which people judge others may vary and while it may be a spiritual practice for some people to reduce that tendency, the reality is that judgement is a fact of life. We all have our preferences and expectations. When people don’t conform to our preferences and expectations, we judge. Also realize that when you are in the public domain, you’ll be the recipient of people’s projections on to you, both good and bad ones.

As a public speaker, you’ll be judged for both who you are and your message. Hopefully, the majority of your audience members love your message; however, some may not. Some of your audience members may not like your views or even the way that you look. As a public speaker you must learn to get over this fear of being judged by others. If you are spending an exorbitant amount of your time focusing on what people are thinking about you as you present, this will detract you from delivering the best possible speech that you can.

When you believe in your core message and care about delivering value to your audience, what you will find is that the majority of people will be supportive of your speaking efforts. There will be some people who won’t agree with you and won’t be receptive to your message and  thus will judge you for a variety of reasons. The best way to counteract the fear of judgement when speaking in public is to: prepare in advance as much as possible, have a great speech, believe in your message and deliver as much value as you can to your audience members.

Don’t allow the fear of judgement whether it be in public speaking or anything else prevent you from stepping forward into actualizing your full potential. How have you learned to overcome the fear of judgement?

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