We can all admit that we all have our moments of weakness when we tried to overcome our fears and insecurities. Thinking only if we could muster more confidence, it would have saved us from that moment of embarrassment, and when the time demanded we would have delivered our best i.e. with confidence. Sometimes it feels like confidence is an innate quality that we are not lucky enough to have. If that is the case fret not, self-confidence which is our ability to trust oneself and one’s abilities and qualities to accomplish a task, can also be acquired through a number of activities. Public speaking is one of such way by means of which we cannot only boost our self-confidence but develop our personality on many levels.
Here are 5 Secrets to Build Your Self-Confidence with Public Speaking, which will encourage you to get out of the comfort zone and give self-assurance and self-confidence to step up and handle any situation head-on.
Improve communication skills:
When practicing public speaking we have to go through a certain process. It is to write down the speech meticulously and planning on the best framework, persuasive strategy, and diction to deliver our message to the audience in a clear and articulate manner. When we indulge in such type of thinking it can help us improve our communication skills in almost every sphere of our life. In public speaking, we have to focus on the smooth communication of our ideas. Learning how to take an opposing view or opinion in a calm manner and how to present our ideas and opinions in an organized and coherent manner to others. This exposure helps us control one’s nerves and appear more confident.
Michael Majeed Toronto-based Senior Financial Consultant and Regional Sales Manager for a leading SR&ED tax credit firm, stresses on the importance of effective communication. Even though Michael Majeed is a numbers guy, but according to him, you need to be able to interact continually with all types of people as relationship-building is crucial to success.
Learn to persuade:
It is no secret that throughout history, public speaking has been used time and again to provoke and appeal to common sentiments and feelings of the public. By this powerful tool, many great leaders have mobilized thousands of individuals to unite for a cause and motivate them to take action to make a difference. We rarely get an opportunity or a platform to deliver a speech to a captive audience, expressing views and opinions on what really matters to influence others. This experience can have a profound impact on self-esteem, self-confidence, and how we perceive ourselves.
Build leadership skills:
We all have great ideas brewing up in our minds and also leadership qualities within us. But oftentimes due to lack of confidence, we fail to express ourselves and take the lead. It can be of great utility when we command in a fluent manner not only what we want but also what others want. If we polish this skill of changing hearts and minds and learning how to persuade, we will be developing our leadership skills and eventually end up with exceptional self-confidence.
Learn performance skills:
While engaging in an act of public speaking we inevitably become conscious of the timings and pause we have to take and how to modulate the voice for a better experience of the audience and much more. Once we develop a fair idea of how to incorporate these speech tools in our conservations. It can help us improve our performance drastically making us more confident in our presentations and performance.
Critical thinking:
Public speaking is a great way to build critical thinking skills. It makes us well versed in how to make our speech relevant to our audience and how to understand critical thinking and speaking. This, in turn, will massively improve general communication and will contribute to our self-confidence.
Samuel Johnson, an English writer, poet, biographer, editor, and lexicographer rightly said, “Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”
