• Understand why public speaking is important and its main features
• Understand what different audiences might need from a speech
• Understand the five steps to create an effective speech

Public Speaking

Public speaking is speech delivered to a live audience of two or more people. While it can be a planned event, impromptu, or unplanned, speeches are also a common occurrence. Both forms of public spelling can be a defining career moment. For example:

• You are asked to prepare for a client meeting where you will explain a complex technical process crucial to a project.
• While observing a meeting, you are suddenly called to provide insights into supporting research and analysis for a company-wide change. 
• You are tasked with creating and delivering a training session for new employees.
• During a staff meeting, you need to inspire your team with a story of success.

Executive presentation coach Peter Khoury has reverse-engineered the characteristics of great speakers for over fifteen years. Combining his findings with scientific research on leadership, he’s distilled this research into the following 9 characteristics of effective public speakers:^[1]

1. Confidence
2. Passion
3. Practice, don’t memorize
4. Speak in a natural voice
5. Authenticity
6. Keep it Short and Sweet
7. Connect with your Audience
8. Paint a Picture through Storytelling
9. Repetition

Like computer failure and natural disasters, finding yourself in a situation requiring public speaking skills is not a matter of whether it will happen but when it will happen. Given the potential career impact, you should prepare for it.

Public Speaking in the Workplace

If you want the sale, contract, funding, job, project, or promotion, you have to be willing and able to ask for it in a clear and compelling manner. Often, you’ll have to do so in front of a group of deciders—those who will determine the response to your request. Welcome to public speaking!

Toastmasters International's Guide to Successful Speaking notes, “There is perhaps no greater skill [to] help you build your career or business than effective public speaking.” As a testament to the tradition and enduring power of oral speech, the primary motivations for speaking are the same as they were in ancient Greece:

1. to inform,
2. to persuade, and
3. to inspire.

What has changed is your potential to connect, create or co-create, and, given technology and social media/sharing, your potential reach and impact.

Practically speaking, public speeches often include more than one element. For example:

• TED Talks: TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences epitomize the blend of informing, persuading, and inspiring within a single speech. Speakers from various fields share groundbreaking ideas and stories. For instance, a technology innovator may present a new digital tool (inform), argue for its potential to solve critical global challenges (persuade), and share a vision of the future that inspires listeners to engage with technology in meaningful ways.

• Corporate Keynote Speeches: Executives and industry leaders often use keynote speeches at conferences or company events to outline the current state of their industry or company (inform), argue for a particular strategy or innovation (persuade), and rally employees or stakeholders around a shared vision or goal (inspire).

• Commencement Speeches: Graduation ceremonies often feature speeches designed to recount the achievements of the graduating class (inform), encourage graduates to pursue their dreams and make a difference in the world (inspire), and often persuade them to uphold certain values, such as lifelong learning or social responsibility.

Public speaking is also an exceptional, and cost-effective, way to build your brand and network within your organization, profession, or industry and/or to build goodwill for your company in the community. Whether you’re pitching a product, service, idea, company, or person (including yourself), public speaking differentiates you and your message from the promotional noise and general chatter.

As professional speakers and authors Jeff Slutsky & Michael Aun note, public speaking “literally puts you on a pedestal.” Indeed, the average audience member assumes that since you’re speaking on the topic, you must be an expert. Of course, the impression you leave with the audience depends on the quality of your speech, but being a speaker gives you a level of credibility that would take a significant amount of time to cultivate otherwise. Speaking allows you to develop a reputation as a thought leader or community leader, raising your visibility and perceived market value. That’s not something a cover letter and resume or pitch is likely to do—if it even makes it through the filters.

Audience Needs

One of the finest, and rarest, gifts a person can give is their attention. When it comes to audience attention, that gift comes with an expectation. Audience expectations are simply an extension of the three speaker motivations. Specifically, audience members expect to learn from an informational speech, to be moved by a persuasive speech, or to be inspired by an inspirational speech. Singer Bruce Springsteen shared the challenge of the audience when he said, “Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action.”

Perhaps your first and most important test as a prospective speaker is to make sure you clearly communicate the purpose and benefits of attending your speech. A disconnect between what audience members expect and what they’re hearing can trigger a range of undesirable audience behaviors from zoning out to walking out. All audiences want:

• Attention and Engagement: The act of giving attention is considered a precious gift. Audience members expect speakers to reciprocate by delivering content that captures and sustains their interest throughout the speech.
• Clear Communication of Purpose: To meet audience expectations, speakers must effectively communicate the purpose, benefits, and meaningfulness of their topic to the audience, ensuring alignment between audience anticipation and the content delivered to prevent disengagement.
• A Live Event: Recognizing the unique nature of public speeches as live events, attendees anticipate an immersive experience that goes beyond a mere transfer of information. The audience seeks a level of energy and multi-dimensional impact of a live experience that is different from other media formats.

As a speaker, you also have an obligation to factor your audience into the design and development of your speech, from relevant examples to appropriate language and subject matter depth. Whatever your stated intent (benefit), the minimum audience expectation is that you fulfill it in a clear and coherent manner.

---