Using Public Speaking in Your Career
A knack for public speaking is one of the most important assets you can possess in the workplace. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2015 Job Outlook survey, verbal communication skills and ability to work in a team are two of the qualities that employers are most likely to seek in potential job candidates.9 Employees agree that communication skills are important. In the survey “Making the Grade? What American Workers Think Should Be Done to Improve Education,” 87 percent of the 1,014 U.S. adult workers surveyed rated communication skills as very important for performing their jobs.10
The importance of public speaking is not limited to careers that might first come to mind, such as law or politics. In Listen. Write. Present., a book on effective communication in scientific and technical fields, authors Stephanie Roberson Barnard and Deborah St. James emphasize that workers in these careers need to practice public speaking so that they will be comfortable when presenting, and able to tailor their presentations to audience needs.11 No matter which career path you choose, you’ll almost certainly need public speaking skills. Consider the following examples:
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A city engineer addresses an angry crowd of citizens at a city council meeting, following a news report that a heavily traveled local bridge has safety issues. The engineer calmly reassures the public that repairs will be made immediately, using lay terms to describe the repairs in a way that the audience can understand.
An information technology professional creates a podcast for a company’s sales force, explaining how to use a new software app to track prospective customers.
An elementary school teacher encounters a roomful of parents who are skeptical about a new math curriculum, which differs markedly from how they learned math in “the good old days.” The teacher clearly and energetically presents research results defending the curriculum, and the parents happily accept the new method.
Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig was planning to major in engineering at Columbia University before the Yankees came calling, and neither of those career paths made public speaking likely. Nevertheless, he delivered one of the most compelling presentations in American history. After being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he was honored in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. His eloquent remarks, sometimes called the “Gettysburg Address of baseball,”12 are perhaps even more memorable than his four Most Valuable Player awards. This video can be found on YouTube if you’d like to view it (search for “Gehrig’s Farewell Address”).