8 Public Speaking Skills for Your Workplace Success

What comes to your mind when you hear the term “Public Speaking?” A large crowd sitting in a conference room and a speaker giving a presentation standing on the podium. Isn’t it?

Well, in reality, public speaking is much more than addressing a mass audience. It’s all about understanding the audience and speaking goals, choosing engaging elements to connect with the audience emotionally, and delivering the key message impressively.

The significance of public speaking gets manifold when we talk in the context of workplace success. Whether you are a junior executive or a senior manager working in a startup or a big enterprise, you must have effective public speaking skills to progress in your career.

You need excellent speaking skills at every step – while sharing your insights or putting forward your ideas/suggestions during a team meeting, discussing a project with a small group, training the staff, responding to an impromptu question, pitching a client/investor, etc.

In this blog post, we have covered different skills that make you a good public speaker. Read on!

#1. Communication

As a public speaker, you must have the ability to interact with your audience with clarity. Further, good diction and clear articulation without verbal crutches (like “ah” and “um”) are crucial to make the listeners understand your words and lend more clarity to your thoughts.

Your communication style also plays an important role in conveying the message in the correct and desired form. Avoid using slang and jargon, and pay heed to the tone and pitch of your voice, ensuring all audience members can hear you.

#2. Confidence

Speaking in front of a large audience in a meaningful and authoritative manner is easier said than done. But with your confidence, you can easily beat the stage fright and nervousness.

Being authentic, mastering your subject matter, improving your body language and gestures, and controlling your voice (tone, volume, pitch) – these are the keys to establishing yourself as a confident speaker. You can also boost your confidence level with constant practice.

#3. Charisma

A charismatic speaker is one who can build a strong rapport with the audience by sensing their conviction, enthusiasm, and emotion. Moreover, charismatic public speakers are organized, cheerful, optimistic in outlook, and capable of leaving people enlivened and uplifted with their eloquence.

The liveliness, energy, and stage presence of such speakers make the audience feel touched somehow. They speak in such a way that the message is being delivered only to and for the audience.

#4. Empathy

In today’s hyper-charged era, when people tend to connect only with people who empathize with them well, speakers must have the ability to find common ground to develop an association with their audience and infuse their presentations with emotional appeal.

Being an empathetic speaker means you better understand your audience’s needs and wants and can precisely echo them in your talk. Further, an empathetic speaker knows how to make the atmosphere exciting and engaging for the listeners and how to adjust the pace, tone, or style to resonate with the audience’s reactions.

#5. Passion

Communicating your thoughts and ideas and inspiring/persuading the listeners becomes extremely easy if you inject passion into your speech. Being passionate implies you have a deep interest in the topic and a strong belief in what you are saying.

Charisma, authenticity, persistence, and credibility are the by-products of passion. Remember, your audience expects a compelling experience worthy of the time they devote to attending your presentation.

So, inspire your audience and make your slideshows memorable and successful with your passion.

#6. Authenticity

Authentic speakers know how to align their inner reality (perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs) with outer expressions. Authenticity helps you build trust and credibility, thereby engaging with the listeners effortlessly without sounding over-rehearsed.

In a nutshell, public speaking is all about performance (where you are yourself), not about acting (where you pretend to be someone else). So, avoid being overly dramatic while delivering your talk. Be real you, sound conversational, and use personal experiences and stories to connect with the audience in a more genuine way.

#7. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking skills enable you to conceptualize, analyze, and apply the gathered information, understand the relevance and context, make logical connections, and draw meaningful conclusions.

Public speakers with the ability to think critically use their conscious and subconscious minds in harmony to recognize the problems that audience members are facing and provide workable solutions to resolve those problems.

Critical thinkers have the most accurate and appropriate evidence to support their points and arguments.

#8. Skills to Use Presentation Tools

Though ready-made presentation templates by SketchBubble with high-definition visuals provide all the pre-defined building blocks for your public speech, you must have basic knowledge of all major presentation tools to customize the predesigned deck.

You must have the skills to utilize the advanced features of these tools to make your presentation outstanding.

Bottom Line

Effective speaking skills are required to engage and communicate with supervisors, team members, clients, customers, vendors, and all other stakeholders of the organization. Employers also prefer to hire candidates with excellent public speaking skills to drive their business growth in today’s cut-throat competition.

To sum up, public speaking skill is no longer a choice; rather, it is necessary to secure higher positions at the workplace and achieve success in your career. The good news is, you can learn and develop this skill with practice! So, make a move and master this skill.

About the Author!

Ashish Arora is the Co-Founder of SketchBubble.com, a leading provider of result-driven, professionally built presentation templates. Travelling the world to gather new creative ideas, he has been working in the digital marketing space since 2007 and has a passion for designing presentations. You can also find him on Twitter or LinkedIn