- Public speaking can be like an express elevator
for your career and your leadership influence.
I've been saying for years
that when people see you excel at public speaking,
they'll say to themselves, "That's a leader."
And when I've explained this to my clients, people say,
"Oh yeah, I never thought about it like that.
It makes sense."
The question is, why do we connect these two?
Well, I'm going to explain five key ways
public speaking demonstrates your leadership.
And by the end, I hope this video motivates you
to do as much public speaking as you can.
This one video may completely redefine
how you see your career development.
Be sure to download my free PDF
that'll give you seven instant tips
to become a more confident speaker.
There are links to that and other resources
in the description below the video.
The first reason is that public speaking
physically positions you as a leader in the room.
Public speaking makes you look and sound like a leader
because very simply you are the one up there talking
and other people are listening carefully to you.
You're the spokesperson.
You were selected to speak
on behalf of the organization
or whatever interests you represent.
That's leadership in action.
When you're teaching, training others,
explaining how things work in a presentation,
this is a moment of visible leadership.
Even if you're not the actual supervisor,
other people will make that leadership association
almost automatically.
Let's pretend, for example, you're on vacation
and you're staying at a big, fancy conference hotel.
You decide to go to the hotel pool,
you throw a towel over your shoulder,
and you walk down the hall.
On your way to the pool, you pass a packed conference room
and you notice one person up on the stage
looking well-dressed giving a presentation.
You see about 200 people listening and taking notes.
That's 200 listeners and one speaker.
Which person in that room looks and sounds like a leader?
The only individual you'd even notice would be the speaker.
They're the only ones with leadership visibility.
In movies and TV shows
when they want to quickly establish
that somebody is a leader,
they often show that character doing some public speaking.
Public speaking literally positions you
as the leader in the room.
Second, public speaking displays
a rare leadership competence.
A leadership position puts you in front of people.
Leaders are expected to stand up and speak all of the time.
If you count group meetings, trainings,
saying some opening words at an event,
a question and answer session,
this could be a daily activity where you stand up and speak.
That's why it's a sought after skill
that leaders are expected to have.
But most people actively avoid public speaking,
so when you do it well, you're demonstrating to everybody
that you already possess that leadership competence.
And there are a lot of parts to that.
You're showing people you know how to research, prepare,
organize your thoughts, make good visual aids perhaps,
choose the right words,
and animate your message in a way that engages listeners.
Not everybody has that skillset.
And even if you don't have
an official leadership position yet,
public speaking allows you to show off those skills.
There's an old joke.
How many good public speakers are there
in most marketing departments?
And the answer is none
because all of the good public speakers have been promoted.
Now, it's not a funny joke, but there's some truth to that.
I've seen people get promoted
because of public speaking on multiple occasions.
I used to work at a dotcom internet type company
a long time ago,
and one day I attended a training session
about how to use Microsoft Word more efficiently.
The in house presenter was awesome.
Her presentation skills were smooth, confident, comfortable.
I just assumed that she was a trainer, supervisor,
or even director from some other department.
As it turns out,
she was one of the company's newest employees.
She had no supervisory responsibilities yet.
I got to know her
and she told me that she always volunteers
to do in house trainings.
She enjoys presenting,
but she realized it also was a great way to get promoted.
About six months later,
she was already promoted to a supervisory role,
and she skipped over lots of people
who had been there longer than her.
In a similar situation,
I worked one on one with a client on a big presentation.
She said to me, "Look, I'm stuck in my current role.
I really want to get this presentation right
because it's an opportunity for me to gain some visibility."
So we spent some extra time
making sure she was really ready.
About a week later she told me
that immediately after the presentation,
a high level leader approached her,
encouraged her to apply
for a management position opening in his department.
He said directly,
"We have a leadership opening
that I think you'd be a great fit for."
Public speaking demonstrates
a rare and sought after leadership competence.
The trick is to do it before you're even an official leader
so you get noticed sooner.
Third, public speaking demonstrates courage and initiative.
These are also important leadership qualities.
Most people have public speaking anxiety.
They don't like the spotlight.
They don't like taking that risk.
But if you think about it,
if you can't handle doing a presentation in front of people,
will the high level decision makers
really believe that you're ready
to handle other pressures of leadership?
In contrast, if you are volunteering to stand up and speak,
that alone says something about your self-confidence,
your initiative, your can-do spirit.
People notice that type of courage.
Public speaking shows that you're not held back
by insecurities or fears.
You can handle pressure.
You can face challenges.
It's like a leadership test in a way.
If you can do public speaking,
then other people will believe you have what it takes
to tackle other aspects of leadership.
Fourth, public speaking demonstrates
and shares your expertise.
This works equally well
whether you're giving an in house presentation
or one to an outside audience.
You're sharing your specific
subject matter expertise and knowledge.
If you're doing a presentation on website development,
you're demonstrating that you have website expertise.
If you're talking about how to fix a diesel engine,
you're demonstrating that expertise.
When you stand up and speak,
you're establishing yourself
as an authority on your subject.
Now, here's a question.
Do other people know what you know?
Probably.
Do some people maybe know even more?
Sure.
But if they don't share what they know in a presentation
or in some other way,
their knowledge only stays in their head.
So by giving a presentation,
you're sharing what you know for all to see.
Now your knowledge doesn't just benefit you.
Your expertise is benefiting everybody.
You're making yourself more valuable
by communicating what you know.
The impact is almost immediate.
I did an in house presentation a while back
at the college where I teach.
I spoke to the entire leadership team
of about a hundred of the top full-time leaders
working on campus.
I shared my expertise.
And in the weeks that followed that presentation,
I was approached by numerous leaders across campus
asking if I could meet with them
to help them through an important issue.
I shared my expertise in a presentation
and it instantly gave me more influence
and leadership on campus.
And that long after that,
I was asked if I'd be interested
in a higher level leadership role.
I know professionals in software, insurance, even plumbing,
and the main reason they do presentations
is to establish themselves as the expert.
They know it almost automatically
leads to more influence and generates more business.
People want to listen to experts,
and sharing your expertise will establish you as a leader.
Fifth, public speaking demonstrates your persuasiveness.
When you stand up and speak,
your voice is leading the discussion
and bringing people along.
As a leader,
you will constantly need to persuade other people
to pursue the vision that you're casting,
work toward a goal, and stay motivated.
A persuasive speaker will often have to convince people
and change minds or change their actions.
These skills are one and the same as leadership.
Think of all those halftime locker room
movie scenes and in TV shows
where the coach is talking to his discouraged players,
but he convinces them to dig deep.
He shows them that they can win this thing,
and they charge outta that locker room like a brand new team
to face the second half of the game.
Motivating people to take action
is inseparable from leadership.
Your persuasiveness also puts
your point of view out there, generally.
I don't like the term thought leadership,
I have to admit that,
but that's sort of how this works.
When you state your position,
support your argument with persuasive evidence,
and get people thinking in a new way,
you can change things in your organization or community.
When you change people's minds,
they're following your point of view.
When you're doing a presentation,
you are leading them through that process.
And when you are a leader,
bringing people along persuasively is a daily activity.
A friend of mine used to have an office
right outside of this CEO's office at his company.
My friend overheard that CEO explain the company's vision
about a hundred times as the CEO met with potential clients
or was looking to recruit other high level executives.
The leader was constantly persuading and motivating people.
And when you show people
that you have this persuasive skill in a presentation,
other people will recognize your persuasiveness
as a key leadership quality
because it's part of every leader's job description
and daily life.
Let's look at all five of these.
Which of these ring true for you?
If these five connections
between public speaking and leadership
don't motivate you to get serious
about your public speaking,
then I don't know what will.
Public speaking can be like an express elevator
for your career and your leadership development.
As mentioned, feel free to download that free PDF
with the seven instant tips
to become a more confident speaker.
So I've given you five reasons or connections
between public speaking and leadership.
What did I miss?
What other aspects of public speaking
demonstrate leadership to you?
I look forward to reading your comments below.
Until next time, thanks, God bless, and I'll see you.