Flying? No problem. death? Ok. Public speaking? No, Never !!
During a survey when people are asked what they prefer between death and public speaking, very surprisingly most of them chose death rather than public speaking.
Public speaking is one of the most common and greatest fears that can make your legs tremble and palms sweat, but it is also one of the greatest skills to have if you want to be successful.
You might be wondering what are the benefits of public speaking? Is it even worth learning?
To answer your questions, we have listed 7 hidden benefits of public speaking that can encourage you to get away from your comfort zone and start to learn public speaking.
Why should you learn public speaking?
Public speaking is a very essential and critical tool in both personal and professional levels. Everyone in their life faces such situations when they need to express themselves where public speaking is necessary.
It helps you to inform, express, and make people take action by connecting with them.
Whether you want to deliver a speech in public, gain confidence in front of an audience, be a motivational speaker, or even put your point across in an office meeting, public speaking can help you to achieve your goals.
Public speaking can enrich your personal and professional life and help you to influence the outside world.
There are many more benefits of public speaking than you could think of.
Let’s explore some of those hidden benefits of public speaking.
Benefits of public speaking
Boost confidence
One of the greatest achievements you can achieve by public speaking is you can boost your confidence. Every time you face the audience, you gain a bit of confidence and lose the stage fright and insecurities by generating and expressing new ideas.
Seeing your ideas are being received by the audience provides you with the insight and opinion to share with the world.
Your confidence level keeps growing as you face a small audience to a large number of people which helps you in your professional and day-to-day life.
Public speaking helps not only to decrease your nervousness but also teaches you how to conquer that fear and deal with that situation.
Public speaking helps the ‘old you’ that was suffering from nervousness, doubt, and anxiety being replaced by the ’empowered new you’re standing tall, communicating and expressing easily.
Personal development
Speaking in front of a large crowd is a huge achievement in itself. It may sound terrifying and maybe nerve-wracking when you speak in front of a large group of people, but overcoming that and becoming a good speaker is a great accomplishment.
As you keep growing and face new challenges, it will provide you with personal satisfaction.
As public speaking improves your communication skills which is an important asset for personal and professional success, you can find great development at your personal level.
When you can speak in front of a great audience, communicate your ideas and the audience receive it properly, it gives a boost to your personality and makes you stand out in the crowd.
It allows you to create connections, influence the decisions of audiences, and motivate them to make changes.
Career advancement
A study of talent acquisition software provider, iCIMS in 2017 shows that over a third of all employers list oral communication as one of the basic skills they value most in a candidate while they apply for a job.
An employer always gives importance to good communication skills and how you present yourself in front of them without getting nervous. So public speaking can help you in career advancement and increase the chances of getting hired.
Effective public speaking skills enhance your critical thinking skills, leadership abilities, creativity, poise, and professionalism, qualities which are very valuable for today’s job market. This ensures a better career option in the future.
Public speaking also helps you to stand out at work. You can speak up freely in meetings, promote your ideas fearlessly, and present yourself as a great working professional. So speaking skill also helps you excel in your profession.
When you make a good reputation as a good public speaker, your public persona will make you stand out of the crowd apart from the sea of faceless resumes and cover letters.
Build leadership skills
There is a good correlation between public speaking, communication skills, and leadership. Speakers use their effective communication skills to motivate others to take collective action to achieve desired goals.
Public speaking is a great way to gain publicity and express your feelings and messages to a large number of audience simultaneously.
When you share the things that matter to people and add value to their lives, you bring about some changes in society and it helps you become a thought leader.
Public speaking acts as a catalyst for politics and non-violence activities. So with the skill of public speaking, you can unite people under a common cause and influence them to take action to benefit society at large.
Public speaking skills are not only reserved to global leaders but also help you to take a lead in your day-to-day life.
Improved communication skills
Many people think that public speaking does not contribute to effective communication, and hence, it is not important.
But the more you speak, the better you communicate. Gradually, you become a good communicator.
You practice and improve both verbal and nonverbal skills by creating the best framework, strategy, and diction to communicate with the audience when you practice public speaking. So public speaking improves your communication skills as well.
As your communication skill develops, it helps you a lot in personal relationships, social interaction, and work premises.
Public speaking helps you to take up other people’s views easily and to present your ideas in an organized manner.
When you express yourself with a good communication skills, people remember you as an authoritative figure in your field of expertise and all sorts of opportunities open up for you.
Critical thinking
Another skill that public speaking boosts is critical thinking. When you write something to speak publicly it needs very careful thought and good writing from the analysis of the audience to the conclusion.
Public speaking is not just about delivering a message to the audience but also includes how your speech will fit into the audience’s needs, solve their problems and be relevant to them so they can understand the views.
Preparing and conducting a speech to meet the audience’s needs increases your critical thinking skills by working through problems and finding solutions by imagining positive and negative consequences.
Before writing a speech, you do research about the topic for effective communication which increases your knowledge and reading skills.
When you think critically about your writing and speaking style, it develops your creativity and communication skills too.
Social connections
There are lots of opportunities for networking with the help of public speaking.
Practicing public speaking helps you to find a tribe of supporters to surround yourself with who are like-minded and relate and share your values and thoughts.
As public speaking decreases the fear within you and teaches you to deal with difficult situations, it helps you to relax in a social and spotlight situation.
Public speaking makes you more comfortable around people and helps to make social connections easily.
It also helps you to develop your professional network as you meet other speakers in your field and audiences who are interested in your speech.
When you deliver a speech around the audience, you share a similar interest with them and help you to mingle with them by answering their doubts and questions.
Conclusion
Public speaking is not a thing of one day. It needs practice. You may be nervous for the first few times you speak. However, each time you speak, you get better and better. You’ll quickly learn to enjoy the experience.
The benefits of public speaking are many. When you practice it often and become good at it, it helps you in many ways.
These benefits of public speaking help you to get out of your comfort zone and give a speech that makes you relevant to the audience.
Becoming a good public speaker is beneficial for your career, personal development, social life, and for making a change in the world.
By public speaking, you can make others aware of your cause and with effective speaking skills helps to motivate others to take action.
So get out of your comfort zone, learn public speaking, and make your voice heard!
Start speaking today!