Levare Wellbeing Development

I never knew how important public speaking was until I started getting into it.

In today’s world, we are constantly bombarded with messages both good and bad. No matter where you live, where you work or go to school, or what kinds of media you use, you are probably exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of endless advertising messages every day.

We live in a world where we are overwhelmed with content from the mainstream media, social media and gossip from around us. Communicating information in a way that is accessible to others is more important today than ever before. To help us further understand why public speaking is important, we will first examine public speaking in everyday life. We will then discuss how public speaking can benefit you personally.

Informative Speaking

One of the most common types of public speaking is informative speaking. The primary purpose of informative presentations is to share one’s knowledge of a subject with an audience - I'd say my day to day on stage can tick this box pretty frequently. Reasons for making an informative speech vary widely. For example, you might be asked to instruct a group of coworkers on how to use software or to report to a group of directors how your latest project is coming along. A local community group might wish to hear about your volunteer activities with a local football team, or your friends may want you to share your expertise on running. What all these examples have in common is the goal of imparting information to an audience.

Informative speaking is integrated into many different occupations. Physicians often lecture about their areas of expertise to medical students, physicians, and patients. Teachers find themselves presenting to parents as well as to their students. Firefighters give demonstrations about how to effectively control a fire in the house. Or even myself a clinical professional educating professionals in large corporations. Informative speaking is a common part of numerous jobs and other everyday activities. As a result, learning how to speak effectively has become an essential skill in today’s world.

Persuasive Speaking

A second common reason for speaking to an audience is to persuade others. In our everyday lives, we are often called on to convince, motivate, or otherwise persuade others to change their beliefs, take an action, or reconsider a decision. Advocating for education in sleep health, convincing clients to purchase your company’s stock, or inspiring students to attend university all involve influencing other people through public speaking.

For some people, such as elected officials, giving persuasive speeches is a crucial part of attaining and continuing career success. Other people make careers out of speaking to groups of people who pay to listen to them. Motivational authors and speakers, make millions of dollars each year from people who want to be motivated to do better in their lives.

Whether public speaking is something you do every day or just a few times a year, persuading others is a challenging task. If you develop the skill to persuade effectively, it can be personally and professionally rewarding.

Entertaining Speaking

Entertaining speaking involves an array of speaking occasions ranging from introductions to wedding toasts, to presenting and accepting awards, to delivering eulogies at funerals and memorial services in addition to after-dinner speeches and motivational speeches. Entertaining speaking has been important since the time of the ancient Greeks, when Aristotle identified epideictic speaking (speaking in a ceremonial context/ceremonial oratory) as an important type of address. As with persuasive and informative speaking, there are professionals, from religious leaders to comedians, who make a living simply from delivering entertaining speeches. As anyone who has watched an awards show on television or has seen an incoherent best man deliver a wedding toast can attest, speaking to entertain is a task that requires preparation and practice to be effective.

Personal Benefits of Public Speaking

Oral communication skills were the number one skill that University graduates found useful in the business world as found in numerous studies. That fact alone makes learning about public speaking worthwhile. However, there are many other benefits of communicating effectively for the hundreds of thousands of University students every year who take public speaking courses. Let’s take a look at some of the personal benefits you’ll get both from a course in public speaking and from giving public speeches.

From a personal perspective I can tell you first hand the level of confidence once you get off stage is electric and you get a real buzz! Certainly once you're past your first 50 or so in front of a large audience in a pressured situation.

Benefits of Public Speaking Courses

In addition to learning the process of creating and delivering an effective speech, students of public speaking leave the class with a number of other benefits as well. These are all things I hope to instil in you moving forward in your life development.

Some of these benefits include:

• Fine-tuning verbal and nonverbal skills

• Developing critical thinking skills

• Overcoming fear of public speaking

Developing Critical Thinking Skills

One of the very first benefits you will gain from your public speaking course is an increased ability to think critically. Problem solving is one of many critical thinking skills you will engage in during your time with me. For example, when preparing a persuasive speech, you’ll have to think through real problems affecting your workplace, your community, or the world and provide possible solutions to those problems.

You’ll also have to think about the positive and negative consequences of your solutions and then communicate your ideas to others. At first, it may seem easy to come up with solutions for a problem such as a lack of sleep: just sleep earlier. But after thinking and researching further you may find out that lifestyle gets in the way, diet is a major obstacle, exercise is minimal in most Westernised people, or a lack of motivation to implement a healthy lifestyle. Suddenly "Sleep Earlier" doesn't sound so clever.

Being able to think through problems and analyze the potential costs and benefits of solutions is an essential part of critical thinking and of public speaking aimed at persuading others. These skills will help you not only in public speaking contexts but throughout your life as well. As we stated earlier, University graduates in rated oral communication skills as the most useful for success in the business world. The second most valuable skill they reported was problem-solving ability, so your public speaking course is doubly valuable!

Another benefit to public speaking is that it will enhance your ability to conduct and analyze research. Public speakers must provide credible evidence within their speeches if they are going to persuade various audiences. So learning the art of public speaking and joining my course will help refine your ability to find and utilize a range of sources. I can tell you now you WILL have hecklers or people that try to stump you in the Question and Answers section of your talk. Sometimes there is no reason they are just a bit of a dick or feel threatened by you.

Fine-Tuning Verbal and Nonverbal Skills

A second benefit of taking joining in the more detailed analysis with me is that I will help you fine-tune your verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Whether you competed in public speaking in school or this is your first time you're looking to speak in front of an audience (even online), having the opportunity to actively practice communication skills and receive professional feedback will help you become a better overall communicator.

Often, people don’t even realize that they click a pen uncontrollably or repeatedly mispronounce words while speaking in public settings until they receive feedback from a teacher during a public speaking course. People around the world will often pay speech coaches over one hundred dollars per hour to help them enhance their speaking skills. I hope I can act as a built in coach here even with these free access posts for you to use as an opportunity to improve your verbal and nonverbal communication skills.

Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking

An additional benefit of taking part in learning public speaking is that it will help reduce your fear of public speaking. Whether you've spoken in public a lot or are just getting started, most people experience some anxiety when engaging in public speaking. One explanation is that people often have little exposure to public speaking. By taking a course in public speaking, you become better acquainted with the public speaking process, making them more confident and less apprehensive. An example on my course is that I will have you constantly recording yourself and every week be on a zoom call with you. Familiarity certainly makes it a lot easier.

Benefits of Engaging in Public Speaking

Once you’ve learned the basic skills associated with public speaking, you’ll find that being able to effectively speak in public has profound benefits, including:

• Becoming a thought leader

• Influencing the world around you

• Developing leadership skills

Beyond the basics I can get into the dark arts... but we will save that.

Influencing the World around You

If you don’t like something about your local government, then speak out about your issue! One of the best ways to get our society to change is through the power of speech. Common citizens around the world, like you, are influencing the world in real ways through the power of speech. Just type the words “citizens speak out” in google and you’ll find numerous examples of how common citizens use the power of speech to make real changes in the world. For good or for bad they are able to influence their point. Forcing the "other side" to speak up and counter point. It is wholly productive in a free society. One of the amazing parts of being a citizen in a democracy is the right to stand up and speak out, which is a luxury many people in the world do not have. So if you don’t like something, be the force of change you’re looking for through the power of speech.

Developing Leadership Skills

Have you ever thought about climbing the corporate ladder and eventually finding yourself in a management or other leadership position? If so, then public speaking skills are very important. Effective public speaking skills are a necessity for all leaders. If you want people to follow you, you have to communicate effectively and clearly what followers should do - this goes for having a social media presence in this day and age. One of the most important skills for leaders to develop is their public speaking skills, which is why executives spend millions of dollars every year going to public speaking workshops; hiring public speaking coaches; and buying public speaking books, DVD's, lecture series and more.

Becoming a Thought Leader

Even if you are not in an official leadership position, effective public speaking can help you become a “thought leader.” This term is to call attention to individuals who contribute new ideas to the world of business. Typically, thought leaders engage in a range of behaviours, including enacting and conducting research on business practices. To achieve thought leader status, individuals must communicate their ideas to others through both writing and public speaking. Becoming a thought leader can be personally and financially rewarding at the same time; when others look to you as a thought leader, you will be more desired and make more money as a result as it's a supply and demand issue. Whether standing before a group of executives discussing the next great trend in business or delivering a webinar thought leaders use public speaking every day to create the future that the rest of us live in.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Effective public speaking skills have many direct benefits for the individual speaker, including influencing the world around you, developing leadership skills, and becoming a go-to person for ideas and solutions.

• People have many reasons for engaging in public speaking, but the skills necessary for public speaking are applicable whether someone is speaking for informative, persuasive, or entertainment reasons.

• Taking a public speaking course will improve your speaking skills, help you be a more critical thinker, fine-tune your verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and help you overcome public speaking anxiety.

EXERCISES:

1. Talk to people who are currently working in the career you hope to pursue. Of the types of public speaking discussed in the text, which do they use most commonly use in their work?

2. Which personal benefit are you most interested in receiving from a public speaking course? Why?

3. Watch free speeches available on YouTube. What do you think the speaker was trying to accomplish? What was her or his reason for speaking?