Public Speaking: Ten Reasons Why You Should Care

Whenever I hear someone say something to the effect of "I don't need to learn how to give a speech" they may as well be scraping their nails down a blackboard. When most people think of public speaking, they cringe. They associate it with doing something they loathe or relate it to professions they loathe such as politicians, instructors or sales professionals. The bottom line is that you should care about public speaking because out of all the skills out there that you can improve, you'll get the most mileage out of improving your public speaking skills.

Now you may think to yourself "my job doesn't require me to speak to groups" or "I don't see how I can benefit from speaking to groups." The truth is that you can benefit from becoming a better speaker even if your job doesn't require you to speak to groups, you're self-employed, you're unemployed, you work for a charity or you're a stay at home parent. If you're not convinced, perhaps you can relate to one of more of these reasons:

1: The skills necessary for public speaking are transferable to other forms of communication.

People that speak well to groups speak well to individuals. If you can get a crowd of 100 people excited about your topic, imagine what you can do when speak one on one. Everything from researching your topic, crafting your words, ensuring that you speech meets the goals you set for it and your speech delivery itself will all help you in other areas of communication. Some of the other communication skills that you'll automatically improve when you become an effective speaker include: negotiating, networking, interpersonal skills, leadership, motivation, conflict resolution and change management.

So if public speaking doesn't appear to help your career, perhaps one of these other skills will.

2. Public Speaking is the number one social fear so mastering it puts you ahead of your competition.