Benefits of public speaking

 

Benefits of public speaking

Developing personal development skills can prove helpful on many levels in several aspects of life. Public speaking is one of those personal development skills. Everyone encounters a situation where they have to address the public, whether on a stage for debate competition in school, and more.  

In this article, we shall explore the top benefits of effective public speaking that will encourage you to leave your fear of public speaking behind and sign up for public speaking opportunities at your school or other events.

Top 15 benefits of effective public speaking

Here, we have compiled a list of benefits of learning public speaking in your personal and professional life in the future.

1. Build and improve your confidence: It is one of the most important benefits of effective public speaking. Public speaking can significantly boost your confidence. Once you have finished delivering your speech at an event, you will feel a sense of accomplishment. You also feel empowered by overcoming your fears and insecurities of speaking at a public event. You might also receive positive feedback from your friends, family, teachers, and fellow students further boosting your confidence. Furthermore, you also feel a connection with your audience by sharing your thoughts and ideas on your chosen topic.

As you go from speaking in front of small groups of people to a large audience, your confidence also grows. According to a study conducted by North Carolina Cooperative Extension, people aged between 9 and 18 enrolled in a public speaking program and found that public speaking increased their confidence. The nervousness you feel before you go in front of a crowd to deliver a speech doesn’t entirely go away, but you get more comfortable, eventually.

2. Boosts creative thinking: Public speaking is an excellent way to build critical thinking skills. It happens by way of working through different problems, imagining various possibilities, figuring out different positive or negative consequences, and more. When you prepare for your speech, it requires a tremendous amount of effort on analysing the audience, how to keep the audience hooked, come up with a perfect closing statement, and more. 

As time passes, you can also improve your communication style when you critically evaluate your public speaking skills and style. It’s one of the biggest benefits of effective public speaking.

3. Improve your communication skills: Public speaking improves communication skills. Public speaking is a form of oral communication. The more you speak publically, the better you get at communicating your thoughts, sharing your ideas, leading debate competitions, and more.

When you prepare for delivering a speech to a large audience, you have to prepare a structure or a framework, a persuasive strategy for your audience, and the right words to communicate your message. Eventually, it helps you improve your communication skills in your personal life. Eventually, it will also help you in your professional life in the future.

Social events and personal interactions require you to effectively communicate your thoughts to the listener. Public speaking is centred around communicating your thoughts and sharing your ideas and opinions. Improving both verbal and non-verbal communication adds to the benefits of effective public speaking. Furthermore, public speaking can help you prepare for work-related meetings when you take up a job in the future.

4. Develop leadership skills: Once you develop your public speaking skills and get comfortable with them, you will find yourself not only speaking for yourself but also for others. Furthermore, speaking in front of others can make you feel empowered. You are already on your way to enhancing one of the major aspects of leadership skills if you can persuade your audience and capture their attention with your words. These benefits of learning public speaking for future leaders help them to drive change. 

5. Improve your research and deductive skills: Deductive reasoning requires you to draw conclusions based on the information you have. When you prepare your speech for an event that requires public speaking, you also improve your deductive reasoning skills. Improving your deductive reasoning skills can help you in different aspects of your life, particularly when you grow up and become a business professional.

Furthermore, you also improve your research skills while preparing for a public speaking event. You understand how and where to look for the required information. 

6. Personal development: As mentioned above, the benefits of effective public speaking can be experienced in different aspects of your life. Public speaking is also beneficial for overall personal development. When you prepare for a public speaking event, you practice different aspects of public speaking, including research, writing, deduction, communication, and more. You can fall out of practising communication in everyday life when you get occupied with more important aspects of your life.

7. Make new social connections: Public speaking events are a good opportunity to meet like-minded fellow students and mentors, who share the same interests. Your audience often approaches you once you have delivered a speech. You can engage with them in conversations and make new social connections that can help you grow in the future. You can answer their questions, clear their doubts, or even ask for their perspectives on your topic of speech. You can also share your contact details with them for getting in touch in the future.

You can also reach out to other speakers or presenters at the event. There are ample opportunities in a public speaking event. You can plan ahead and make the most of your public speaking event.

8. Learn persuasive speaking: Public speaking is credited with driving non-violent activism and political change in history. Once you get to public speaking, you shall understand that public speaking allows you to unite people under a common tool. Public speaking is a powerful tool for driving change by persuading the hearts and minds of your audience. Throughout history, individuals and groups have used the art of persuasion to make a significant impact. With public speaking, you have a chance to grab your audiences’ attention, persuade your peers, and more. 

9. Improve your vocabulary and fluency: One of the most direct benefits of public speaking is that it improves your vocabulary and fluency. Developing a good vocabulary early on in your life can help you tremendously to prepare for future career opportunities. When you prepare your speech for a public speaking event, you will understand which words will have a greater impact on your audience and which words will help you better communicate your message to your audience. 

You will also be able to let go of common filler words with a flexible vocabulary and a command over the language. It reduces the chances of errors of your audience misinterpreting your messages. 

10. Improve performance skills: Before you go for the final public speaking event, you prepare for it endlessly. When you practice more, you get better at public speaking, eventually. You not only get better at public speaking but also communicating your message and how to time your speech. You also understand the change in your tone, facial expressions, vocal variety, shifts in volume changes, speech rate, and more. As you get more comfortable and confident at public speaking, you can also use different props and storytelling to your advantage. 

11. Overcome your fear of public speaking: Fear of public speaking is extremely common. You might be even more scared if you rarely get a chance to speak at public speaking events. Eventually, the more you speak at public speaking events, the more you overcome your fear of public speaking. You will not feel your heart pounding when called to deliver a speech at a moment’s notice or present it to your class. 

However, you’ll find yourself accepting the invitation to deliver the speech and addressing your fellow students and mentors. You might also feel grateful for the opportunity of public speaking. One of the biggest benefits of effective public speaking is that it not only gets you out of your comfort zone early on in your life but it also gets you out of the state of constant worry. Your confidence is reflected in your speech and can even be perceived by your audience.

12. Makes you more self-aware: Public speaking makes you more self-aware and how others perceive you. When you know how others perceive you, you can work on improving yourself. Another one of the most important benefits of public speaking is that it requires you to pay close attention to your physical senses and surroundings. As you get better at public speaking, you also learn to control your posture, tone of voice, interjections, hand gestures, overall body language, and more. 

13. Learn to argue but be a better listener: You often put out a well-thought-out idea, opinion, or argument when preparing for public speaking. You learn to make an argument while engaging with your answers in a public speaking event. Presenting an argument can help you in person as well as professional settings. Furthermore, you can improve your listening skills by attending events, listening to your fellow student speakers, and even listening to other professional speakers and presenters.

14. Prepare for better career opportunities: One of the most significant benefits of effective public speaking is that it can help you in advancing your career in the future. It helps you by building personal development skills. Public speaking skills require creativity, critical thinking and reasoning skills, leadership qualities, and more. These qualities and skills are in demand in the job market and are here to stay even in the future.

Even when you begin your professional life, you can also build credibility by speaking at different public events and conferences. You can also add your effective public speaking skills and achievements to your resume for better job opportunities. Effective public speaking skills shall also help you stand out at your workplace. You develop skills and build confidence to share your ideas, present at meetings, excel in future job interviews, and more. 

Eventually, people will start remembering you and your public speaking capabilities once you have taken the stage at a few big events and conferences. Effective public speaking skills will also allow you to explore new business opportunities and establish professional relationships.  

15. Expand your professional network and opportunities: Public speaking is one of the easiest ways for letting a large network of people know about you. When you take the beginning steps towards your professional life, public speaking will open opportunities for making professional connections, marketing your business, gaining new clients, getting a better job, and more. You will also have an excellent opportunity to connect with other speakers at an event. Public speaking makes you more marketable as a business professional. 

Once you start delivering speeches in a particular niche, people will start recognizing your expertise, further increasing your marketability and growing your professional reputation. 

Another one of the most significant benefits of public speaking is that it will also increase your chances of getting hired. Effective communication and public speaking skills are in high demand by employers, including both written and oral communication skills. 

Conclusion 

The above-mentioned points emphasise the benefits of effective public speaking, from improving communication skills to overall personal development. However, here are some ways for improving your public speaking skills. These include watching a TED talk regularly, practising in front of your family and friends, recording yourself while practising, and more. 

Getting better at public speaking and overcoming your fear and anxiety can help you in several ways. You can feel the benefits of effective public speaking in your personal and academic life. Furthermore, public speaking can help you prepare for a successful career and professional life.

With its set of benefits, public speaking also comes with its share of hardships. It requires great effort on your part to overcome the nervousness of facing your audience and the fear of taking the stage.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The more you practice, the better you will get at public speaking and the more benefits you can reap. 

Public speaking classes are a great way to improve your public speaking skills. At PlanetSpark, we understand the benefits of effective public speaking. Thus, we bring you lessons, curriculum, and actionable items to improve your public speaking skills.

Click here to find out how you can get better at public speaking.