Mastering Important Public Speaking Skills for Workplace Success | Career Series

Candidates with good public speaking abilities are in demand for the various vocations that need the ability to speak to a group. Dynamic and well-prepared presenters are highly sought by companies, and possessing this skill set may even help gain you leadership positions and significant tasks.

Learn more about public speaking, why it's essential, and how to enhance your public speaking talents.

What Is Public Speaking?

Public speaking is a soft skill that involves strong communication skills, energy, and the ability to interact with an audience. Soft skills are interpersonal abilities that are less technical and more about how you connect with people.

Public speakers deliver speeches to a gathering. Presentations might vary from speaking to a small group of workers to presenting to a big audience at a national conference or event. The same skill set and ability to be comfortable speaking in public are essential regardless of the size of the gathering.

Why Employers Value Public Speaking Skills

The skill of public speaking comes into play in various settings. It's crucial not just in the delivery of speeches and public discussions, but also in professional presentations, training events, and motivational speaking. Consultants, trainers, managers, clergy, sales representatives, and instructors, for example, all have a cause at times to talk in front of others.

A subpar speaker may make a strong product or proposal look less than intriguing, while a professional speaker can lend charm to an otherwise unimpressive idea.

Most professional-level occupations involve some bit of public speaking. It's typically important to carry out responsibilities including presenting results, selling projects, training workers, and conducting meetings.

Top Public Speaking Skills

When you want to highlight your public speaking skills in your cover letter or resume, or during an interview, be sure to go beyond stating that you have "public speaking skills." Go into detail about which aspects of public speaking you are good at, and provide specific examples of your skills and expertise.

Some of the most critical abilities for good public speaking include the following.

Clear Articulation

Of course, public speakers must be able to talk fluently. That involves enunciating, speaking loudly enough, and using good language without a lot of verbal crutches such as "uh." It helps to be able to communicate effectively in everyday conversation, but public speaking is a sort of performance and, as such, takes practise and preparation.

Memorization is not normally essential, since many individuals are able to communicate in an unstructured style to some degree. However, you must be comfortable enough with your content so you don't hesitate unnecessarily, repeat yourself, or fumble over your remarks.

You also need to be able to pace yourself so that you finish on time rather than early or late.

Engaging Presentation Style

Presentation style comprises verbal tone, body language, face emotion, and timing. The appropriate approach may turn a discussion that might have been uninteresting into intriguing and engaging.

Assessing the Needs of the Audience

Some viewers desire a lot of technical information; others don't. Some will love comedy; others won't. There are jokes that work in certain audiences but not others. To prepare a successful lecture and to adopt the proper presenting style, you need to be able to identify the demands of your audience.

Tip

Before you begin speaking, consider about your audience and what they want to learn from your presentation. That may help you analyse their requirements, which can assist guarantee that your presentation is the greatest possible use of your time and theirs.

PowerPoint Skills

PowerPoint is a popular programme used for making presentations. Not all public presenters use them, but slides are so popular that performing without them is frequently dubbed "speaking nude."

It's not only vital to grasp the technical parts of utilizing the programme, it also helps if you have the creative skill to design presentations that are visually beautiful and simple to comprehend—or, you should work with a partner who can do so. Either way, you must know how to incorporate your slides neatly into the other components of your presentations.

Composition Skills

Whether you prepare your lecture ahead of time or simply go with the flow, you must be able to produce speeches that are sensible, cohesive, and simple to comprehend, and that cover all the themes you want to discuss.

Storytelling and comedy assist, and you must know how to employ them. Public speaking is not simply a type of performance art; it also involves writing abilities.

Other Public Speaking Skills

The abilities stated above aren't the only ones that are vital to public speaking. The following skills and techniques may make you an even more successful public speaker:

• Controlling performance anxiety
• Drafting an evaluation form that participants are likely to fill
• Grabbing the attention of the audience with a stunning opening
• Handing out copies of slides in advance to decrease note-taking expectations on the audience
• Maintaining eye contact with the audience and creating an active, lively physical presence
• Memorizing enough material so that the speech does not come out as a reading of notes
• Modulating speech tone to accentuate crucial ideas and prevent boring presentation
• Organizing a logical flow to a speech
• Preparing examples that are relevant to the experience of the target audience
• Providing persuasive evidence to support topics
• Rehearsing the presentation and correcting rough places
• Researching information on the newest developments in a sector before speaking at a professional seminar
• Restating crucial points at the conclusion of a speech to solidify key notions
• Reviewing comments and changing the method for presentations in the future
• Summarizing the subjects to be presented at the beginning of a presentation to offer context for attendance

How to Showcase Your Skills

Public speaking is a talent in itself, but it is also a combination of abilities. Lists like these might help you name some of these capabilities so you can determine which occupations demand the abilities you have.

Tip

Be cautious to read job descriptions attentively. Even very identical occupations might have varied criteria, depending on what the recruiting manager is looking for

Mention Skills in Your Resume and Cover Letter

When you apply, you may utilise these talents as keywords on your résumé or other application materials. Hiring managers may skim through applications searching for these keywords to make an early cut, so it's crucial to make it apparent from the outset that you have the sought-after qualities.

Then, utilise your cover letter to showcase some of your most relevant abilities.

Share Your Skills During a Job Interview

Be prepared to offer instances of particular moments when you embodied these talents, since the interviewer is sure to ask. If you've given public speeches or internal corporate presentations, discuss the information with the interviewer.

How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

Whether you feel like a public-speaking master or you're new to it, there are always ways you can improve. You may brush up on your public speaking abilities with these tips:

• Take a public speaking lesson or workshop.
• Practice in front of the mirror.
• Practice in front of friends, family, or coworkers; then, ask for comments.
• Record yourself presenting a presentation, view the video, and take notes.
• Watch videos of outstanding public speakers you admire.

Happy Advancing! 😉