Honing your presentation and public speaking skills is an investment. If you seek to advance your career, increase your social skills or nail a toast, read on.
Are you constantly asked to speak up? Or have you heard that you would be excellent at delivering speeches?
If you have a job that requires you to deliver presentations, or even if you are serious about advancing in your career, you should consider improving your public speaking skills.
In essence, public speaking is addressing a crowd. From reciting a poem to classmates or delivering a presentation at work, to acting as a master of ceremonies at a wedding, the art of public speaking can be very handy.
But why are public speaking skills important?
For some, presentation and public speaking skills come naturally, for others because of nervousness and stage fright, it can be something that limits progress in their sphere of influence.
Addressing a crowd can have many purposes, but the principals are always the same. Photo credit: governortomwolf on VisualHunt.com / CC BY
If you are wondering why public speaking skills are important, consider these important principles which will be explained in more depth through a public speaking coach.
At whom is the message aimed (students, managers, authorities or colleagues?
What is the essence of the message to convey?
Who is the audience (here, a deeper analysis of the group's age, gender and position on a topic)?
What is the tone of the message (i.e. humorous, factual, motivational)?How should the speech be closed?
In searching for a public speaking skills definition, you will find that it has been around for centuries and is one of the most important skills we can have.
So why are public speaking skills important today and what tips do they offer for the speech writer?
Why are Public Speaking Skills Important?
Below are some of the main reasons why public speaking has many important benefits.
1. Boosting Self Confidence
For many people, addressing a crowd can feel like being thrown to the sharks, however, the more you do it, the more comfortable you will be in voicing views and opinions. Furthermore, honing your public speaking skills will increase your general self-esteem and confidence.
Regular public speaking will enable you to pass on information that you are passionate about and also teach you to receive immediate feedback to your message.
2. It Can Help You to Be Comfortable Around Others
If you are asking why are public speaking skills important and you want to have better relations with others, then you are on the right track. Communicating from a podium can go a long way to helping you in social situations. You are likely to be less nervous and also be more aware of your posture and body language.
3. The Professional Benefits
It goes without saying that people in power should work hard to hone their presentation and public speaking skills. Leaders are expected to be at the forefront of a crowd and public speaking is a big part of this.
In searching for a public speaking skills definition, you may find that it is not always about addressing crowds in a big auditorium, but can also be about getting a message across with the right emotion and facts tied to it. This could be in small groups within a business, customers or with suppliers of a business.
There’s no doubt if you work in a large organisation and aspire to be noticed at the executive level then adding the art of public speaking to your skillset will help you immensely.
Don’t forget that apart from addressing large audiences, your presentation and public speaking skills will go a long way in handling interviews successfully too.
4. Positive Spin-Offs for the Rest of Your Life
In searching for a public speaking skills definition, you might be interested to find that it is something that can also improve personal life quality. Being able to communicate effectively means a greater likelihood of being respected at home and in social situations too.
Working on public speaking can get you respect in your family life as well as at work. Photo on Visualhunt.com
5. Preparation for Life
In life, you have to speak to be heard, and what better way to make sure that your message is getting across in all situations than to invest in honing the art of public speaking?
Therefore, it is not only the corporate worker who needs to work on their public speaking skills but rather, it is everyone who will face situations that require them to communicate with authority and confidence.
Times That Public Speaking Skills will be Handy
By now you may realise that public speaking is not simply reserved for the board room. There are many occasions when you will need to be able to speak confidently in a group setting.
A Wedding Toast
Weddings are part of everyone’s life. Whether you are the father of the bride, maid of honour or best man, it is likely that you will need to conquer your fears and deliver a speech. It can feel like a very pressurised situation especially because it is the most important day of the bride and bridegroom’s life.
Wedding toasts need to be heartfelt, articulate, genuine and even slightly humorous.
Fortunately, even if you have had no public speaking experience, there are many resources to help you prepare. You could find tips on the internet, and practise in front of a smaller group or with your partners.
Start by writing out your speech, then after reading and practising it several times, make cue cards so that you are not tempted to read the whole thing. Try to be as captivating as possible by adding expression to your voice and making as much eye contact with the audience as possible.
Are you preparing for a wedding speech and feeling nervous? Photo credit: Mr Moss on Visualhunt.com / CC BY
Work Presentations
In your job, you may be required to lead weekly meetings. You may also be asked to prepare presentations for the executive board or to pitch for new business.
Regardless, there are ways to prepare for this in a number of ways. Using visual cues like preparing your talk with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation will help to keep you on track and ensure that you don’t forget key information.
Even if you have words on your slides, try to stick to headings and try to refrain from simply reading. Instead, engage with your audience as much as possible.
Class Presentation
Many schoolchildren get nervous about standing up in front of a class, while others get a kick out of clowning around. If you are less of an attention seeker, you may be familiar with that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling before needing to say an oral or present a project in front of your class. Gaining skills that increase confidence in these situations is important because children can be particularly insensitive and even mean.
If your presentation is slick and you are able to ooze self-confidence, your classmates will not even consider mocking you. In addition, with a well-delivered presentation, you could help your classmates to actually learn something.
A Birthday Party
It is common to hear speeches at milestone birthdays. Whether that is at an 18th, 21st, 30th or 40th, the birthday girl or boy is usually expected to address the crowd and say a few words. It’s usually a good idea to start with thanks. It is not necessary to speak at length but rather to deliver a short and heartfelt message.
In conclusion, as you can tell, public speaking is not reserved for politicians and leaders in the workplace. At some point, everyone is faced with the need to address a crowd, however, we are not all natural toastmasters.
Fortunately, there are many available opportunities to hone one’s public speaking skills and add to one’s general life confidence.
And don’t forget to check out online resources to help you become a confident speaker too.
Niki is a content writer from Cape Town, South Africa, who is passionate about words, strategic communication and using words to help create and maintain brand personas. Niki has a PR and marketing background, but her happiest place is when she is bringing a story to life on a page.
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