There’s a reason why the top-tier employees in most companies seem to have apparently seamless public speaking skills. And the reason is that it’s precisely their well-honed speaking skills that have landed them the top spot in their companies in the first place.
Effective communication skills are vital across all spheres of life–and landing that job you’ve been vying for since seemingly forever is no exception.
However, the fact remains that many, many people across the globe are terrified of public speaking. And yet, a multitude of surveys have found that presentation skills are imperative to success in both, business and life.
The relative importance of public speaking to get a job is rooted in the fact that landing a job, especially if it’s a sought-after position, is not a one-dimensional affair. There are many factors and not just a single one that employers look for, and you need to approach the task from many different perspectives.
However, even if you meet all the prerequisites for a particular position, unless and until you have the skills required to tell and convince your employer that you meet all the points in their employee checklist, you’re not going to land that dream job.
Effective public skills are necessary for job success because of many reasons: they improve your confidence, make you stand out, sharpen your mental abilities, are sought after by employers and much, much more.
Which brings us to my next point:
Why Public Speaking Is Necessary To Seize That Job Opening
There are many, many reasons how public speaking can help you grab your dream job. These include boosting your confidence, making you appear smarter, to name a few. Stick till the end of the article to glean an in-depth understanding of them.
1. Gives You A Confidence Boost
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than delivering the eulogy.”
Jerry Seinfeld
As exacerbated by the joke above, public speaking is one of the most commonly held phobias in the entire world. However, if you’re someone who is afflicted with this particular phobia, don’t worry. The good news is that the fear of public speaking is something that can be overcome with continued practice.
By speaking in front of large (or even smaller) gatherings, you will be able to build your confidence. And a better level of confidence is something that will boost the impression you have on your prospective employees during future interviews.
This is because most employers prefer having a confident employee. This is because a confident employee not only boosts a company’s image in front of its audience but can also juggle tough situations and get things done in a swift manner.
So, having a confident demeanor during your job interview can certainly pay off big time!
2. Makes You More Comfortable In Your Own Skin
This goes hand in hand with the first point of building a better level of confidence. If you wish to be comfortable speaking in front of others and to make others feel comfortable around you, you must not only learn to feel confident in front of them but also feel at home in your own skin.
If you’re not comfortable with yourself, you will most likely hyper-focus on what you sound like to others and as a result, end up messing up what you want to say. You might lose your track of thought, fumble with words, or even end up tongue-tied. This can have a negative impact on what impression you leave on your employee.
To deliver a successful interview and have a lasting impact on your interviewer’s mind, your focus should be on what the interviewer is asking you and not what you sound like when you’re answering it.
The more you practice public speaking, the more comfortable you will feel in your own abilities, and you will be better able to develop your own style. This will help you build your confidence levels even further, and you will finally be able to ace your job interview!
3. Is A Skill Sought After By Most Employers
Did you know?
It is believed 70% of jobs today involve some form of public speaking.
Public speaking abilities are a necessary requirement in most fields of employment today. Be it for a job in a magazine, a school, an NGO, a hospital–it doesn’t matter the profession, effective public speaking skills are must no matter what field of occupation you choose.
This is because whether you’re a journalist or a manager or a sales representatives or a teacher, there will come many opportunties in the course of your career when you will have to speak in front of–sometimes even convince-others. A bad speaker can make an excellent product or propsal seem lackluster, while a well-honed speaker make a seemingly medicore preposition stand out.
Most employers recognize this, and this is why surveys have shown that effective communication skills remain one of the most sought-after skills in prospective employees. Not just employees, but it’s a must for CEO’S too! Don’t believe me? Well, check out our article on Why CEOs Need To Improve Their Public Speaking Skills To Grow Their Company.
So, if you wish to impress that tough interviewer, becoming an excellent speaker is the way to go!
4. Makes You A Better Leader
Another reason why it’s time to polish your public speaking skills is because it makes you a better leader. Leadership skills are sought after by employers just as much as they look out for communication skills. This is because more often than not, both of these skills tend to go hand in hand.
That is, most public speakers tend to be good leaders and most excellent leaders tend to be outstanding public speakers.
If you are a leader or at a higher position at your workplace, then you must know how to effectively lead your staff. You should be able to hand out instructions, communicate efficiently, and help out as well as guide your workforce. You need to keep a lookout to make sure that things run smoothly.
Not only this, but with effective communication, you can foster better connections with your employees as well as your customers, and even inspire them and make them look up to you. All qualities of an outstanding leader!
For this, you must know how to efficiently speak to other people. After all, how can you be an effective leader if you cannot get your message across to other people who look up to you?
On the other hand, if you have a good command of language and are great at public speaking and communicating with others, you can speak to your staff with confidence as well as ease.
5. Makes You Speak Up
How often does it happen that you find that you have a great idea about something but are too afraid to share it out loud?
Two major reasons for not speaking out is a lack of confidence and a fear of speaking out in public.
As mentioned before, bettering your public speaking skills will help boost your confidence, which will in turn help you improve your confidence, and so on…
Whether you’re presenting in front of an audience, leading a virtual meeting, or simply giving a job interview–if you wish to succeed in your venture, it is imperative that you speak out. If you don’t, then not only will you be unable to make a lasting impression on your employer’s mind, but might also lose a great opportunity to seize an opportunity when it presents itself!
To make matters worse, someone else who’s better off with speaking in front of people might grab that opportunity instead!
However, if you’re well-versed with speaking in public, you’ll find it easier to ask questions that need to be asked, offer new insights, and grab opportunities when they manifest before you!
6. Sharpens Your Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking skills are imperative in most spheres of life, but they’re even more important in a workplace setting. Add giving an interview to the mix, and the importance of being quick with your problem-solving abilities becomes even more imperative.
Critical thinking is a skill that’s valued by a majority of employers, and it’s something that most of them actively seek out in their employees.
Not only this but as you progress in your career, critical thinking skills will help you make better and wiser decisions. Critical thinking is useful in almost all spheres of work. Putting together a strong and convincing presentation requires critical thinking. Effectively dealing with stressful or unforeseen situations, your boss, and even customers–all of these require you to be well-versed in problem-solving!
7. Makes You Stand Out
Chances are, your dream spot is not just your dream spot, but also a position that’s sought after by many other people. If you wish to secure the position, then not only must you meet all the requirements of your position, but also stand out from all other prospective employees–many of whom might also meet the requirements themselves.
While not speaking out makes you blend in, speaking out often and well has the opposite effect and makes you stand out in other people’s eyes. Not only this, but strong speakers are often called upon to speak out, thus providing them with even more opportunities to hone their skills.
The better you speak, the more people will notice you and seek you out, and and then the more they will ask you to speak again, and the more you will have the opportunity to refine your skills.
It’s a virtuous cycle!
8. Helps You Build Better Networks
In the fast-paced and competitive world of today, networking is imperative to gain success and retain your footing in the job market. There are many reasons why having a strong business network is important.
Networking provides you with a chance to know about opportunities you might not be aware of on your own. Not only this, but your network provides you with information about a variety of fields, gives you insight into what potential employers look for and advice on how you can improve your perfomance.
All this is imperative if you wish to secure that dream job. After all, if you’re not aware of an opportunity, then how will you sieze it?
And how do you improve your networking skills?
By becoming a better public speaker, of course.
Public Speaking Tips For Professionals
A few tips to hone and sharpen your public speaking skills are:
1. Practice Your Delivery
One of the most important elements of delivering an effective speech is learning how to deliver it. That is, while it’s necessary to pay attention to the content of your talk, it’s also important that you put an equal amount of emphasis on how you plan on delivering.
Even if the content of your speech is perfect, the audience will not be able to comprehend it unless they are able to not just hear but also understand the information. So, practice how you’re going to be delivering the speech. Practice cutting out filler words, effectively employing pauses, maintaining proper voice modulation etc.
2. Think About Probable Questions You’ll Be Asked
This is especially handy if you’re going to be delivering a presentation in front of a group of higher-ups or are being interviewed for a job. Before you go in, anticipate the question that your listeners may ask, and prepare the answers you’ll give to them.
You can jot down the important points that you plan on making, and then practice weaving them together into an answer until you’re comfortable.
This will help you to respond to any answers or questions in a more appropriate, effective, and confident manner.
3. Let Your Personality Show
You don’t want the audience or the interviewer to think that you’re a corporate robot. You want them to remember you for who you are, as an individual and not simply another replacement.
And what makes individuals different from each other?
Their outward appearance, yes. But more importantly, their personality. So, the next time you’re in an interview or speaking in front of a group, don’t talk like you’ve spent hours memorizing something. Let your individuality shine through. If you’re a closeted comedian, crack a joke. If you’re not, please don’t.
This will help you establish better credibility, and also improve the level of trust between yourself and the other person.
4. Encourage & Incorporate Feedback
Paying attention to what kind of feedback you get is one of the best ways of improving your public speaking.
However, a lot of times, people either do not invite feedback. Or, even if they do invite it, then they don’t use the information they gleaned to actually improve themselves. Which, you know, is the entire point of the process.
So, the next time someone gives you a feedback, keep it in mind while delivering your next interview/speech. Gauge the reaction that you get. If it’s good–keep it!
5. Join A Club!
If you’re serious about improving your public speaking, then simply practicing in your room all by yourself might not be enough.
After all, public speaking is about the public i.e other people. And if you truly wish to improve yourself, then you must seek them out and get a real taste of what it takes to speak in front of an audience.
One great way of doing this is by looking up a local public speaking club or a workshop. You could even go for a meet-up or join an online class. With over 16,000 clubs worldwide, Toastmasters is, of course, another outstanding option that you could try! Want to know more about Toastmasters? Read our article on All About Toastmasters for some added help!
6. It’s Okay To Not Answer Everything
No matter how much planning you do, it’s simply impossible to anticipate anything and everything that you might be asked.
If you’re asked a question you don’t know the answer to, don’t worry. Nobody’s going to beat you up with a stick. Let the other person know that you’ll get back to them later–and do so! It’s better than stammering out a wrong answer.
7. Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
It’s also important to not be too hard on yourself.
Everyone gets nervous, everyone messes up sometimes. Even the best speakers in the world. Give yourself a break. Remember that the audience isn’t out to get you. They’re on your side. Whatever happens, keep talking.
To sum up, public speaking imperative not only for success in career but also to lead a successful life. Public speaking is a sought-after skill by employers. It doesn’t matter what industry you work in or what your job is: communication and public speaking skills are necessary for success.
And if you do not communicate effectively, superiors are bound to notice, and this will result in them offering your fellow peers an upper hand during bonuses, promotions, and even job offers. You don’t have to be a natural-born talent to be good at public speaking. All you need to do is put in a little bit of effort!
