Public Speaking and Communication Skills for Your Career and Leadership

Leadership sets the tone to any organization and coming from my executive coaching days where I worked with a number of different leaders and spoke on a number of different stages about leadership. Leadership really is about communicating. It's about listening. It's about sharing the vision and the pathway. So let's get down to the show. So this is really one of my favorite topics is leadership. And having public speaking skills really does go hand in hand with leaders. And if a leader does not communicate well, they really do set the tone for the organization.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:00:44]:

And the more that you think about that leadership sets the tone for an organization, Whether they are very engaging with their team, whether they are kinda dissing them and just do as you're told because we said so, we're not sharing information with you. You can tell a lot about an organization. You can tell a lot about an organization's leadership by observing the organization. How many times have you ever walked into a store, just a regular retail store, and you start talking with 1 of the employees, with 1 of the clerks, and just the way that they engage with you, You can tell what their manager is like, what their boss is like, what the person who is the general manager is like, because they really do set the tone. So let's talk more about this little mini series that we're doing and how public speaking skills can help you with your career, especially if you wanna move up in the organization. The higher up you go, the more you're gonna have to present. The more you're gonna have to be speaking at meeting. The more you are going to have to be talking in general, sharing your vision, getting really curious with people.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:02:05]:

And what that means is asking good questions. That's a form of communication Asking really good questions and listening. Listening to what people say, both your customers, your internal customers, which are employees and your external customers, the customers that are actually buying your products or services. But if you want to move up in the company, you've gotta learn how to speak. You've gotta feel comfortable networking with others. You have to be comfortable with asking for help, asking for what you need, sharing with people what your dreams are, what your goals are. It's all a part of being able to really articulate yourself as a speaker, as a leader. And I'm asked a lot of times, you know, like how do you get better at speaking? And the best way that you get better at speaking is 1, is by speaking.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:03]:

But a lot of times people are very hesitant on that. Like, I wanna get better at speaking before I actually do the speaking. So it's kind of doesn't work that way. But one way that you can learn to articulate your thoughts much better is by learning to write and practicing writing. A friend of mine shared with me an exercise that she has in her writing class, her content by design class. This is with Vicky Dixon. And she mentioned that for about a decade, she has been writing, journaling in her notebook, 3 pages a day, minimum of 3 pages a day. And so I recently, like, heard her talk about this and why she does it and thought, I'm gonna try this also.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:52]:

And it really is about that act of writing. So I would like to encourage you to get a notebook and just start writing your thoughts, articulating them to yourself. Now, keep in mind, like this notebook is just for you. The next step would be in sharing your articulated thoughts. And that can come in the form of on Facebook, blogging, Instagram, like LinkedIn, somewhere where you are sharing some of your thoughts. And for those of you who feel like, I don't know what I would talk about. I don't know what I would write about. Get one of those motivational quote calendars and just share the quote, and then agree with it.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:04:42]:

And here's why I think that this is great, and here's why I support this particular quote. But every once in a while, I actually want you to disagree with it. Again, so that we are tapping into you learning how to articulate your thoughts and learning persuasive language. Persuasive language is not about like convincing other people, like, you have to believe in what I believe in, but you're helping them see a different way. Here's another point of view, and I wanna share this point of view. So whether or not you ever did the debate club in high school is irrelevant here. I never did. But being able to use your emotions and really articulate, learn to share your thoughts and directions and guidance with others will become an invaluable skill.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:05:36]:

You know, I always say that most people are great leaders when things are going well. But it is when a leader is having challenging times, when a company is having challenging times. This is when leadership is tested. Will you pass the test? Will those difficult times crumble you? Or will you rise to the occasion and do your best? It doesn't mean that you're being the perfect leader, but you are being your personal best. And it really is about, hey, it's about communicating with other people, asking people to do a little bit more. Let's try something different. Tapping into people's creativity, getting curious, asking good coaching questions. This is all a part of public speaking.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:06:27]:

And the more that you can really embody all of these skills, literally, you will see that you will get promoted. You'll get promoted, you'll rise up in the organization, or you're gonna get headhunted. It's gonna be so much easier for you to continue along your career path, whether you're in a company that is stumping your growth or you want to change career path, move to a different company, move to a different part of the country. But that all comes with your ability to also network, interview well. And all of those skills, again, coming back to the foundation, which is public speaking, you know, or just speaking skills. However you would like to word this. So I've already given you one thing to actually try, and that is to practice articulating your thoughts, putting them down on paper, whether you are doing it in your own private notebook or you are graduating and you're going to start putting it out there publicly. Facebook, Instagram, you're, like, creating your own blog.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:07:33]:

I know some people have created some wonderful businesses only because they wanted to share their thoughts in a blog. You can do it over on LinkedIn. Be very professional. Whatever avenue is going to fulfill you, whatever avenue feels like, this is a great place where I'm going to share my thoughts and I'm gonna welcome those feedback, the feedback being comments from other people. But all you're doing is you're engaging in a conversation in a written form. You can take it a step further if you'd like and like and do video next. So those are just a couple of different exercises that you can do to stretch yourself because if you want to get promoted, if you want to excel in your career, these are some of the things that you're gonna have to learn. You know, this reminds me of when I did leadership development at Johnson and Johnson.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:08:24]:

And I was brought in to do the public speaking, to help people present at meetings, their ideas, working with their teams better, just to be able to give updates to upper management. And it was really so for me as the instructor, it was great to see the before and then the after because they would present, they would then get some feedback from myself. Sometimes I did feedback 1 on 1. Sometimes I gave feedback to the group as a whole. But then to see them apply that feedback. Because most of the feedback that I like to give people is the feedback that is going to give people the biggest bang for their buck. Like one of them is pause after you ask a question because the human brain wants to answer the question. But if you're continuing to talk and going moving on to the next slide, the human brain, the audience, didn't have a chance to actually answer that question.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:09:25]:

So pausing is so powerful, but that would be just like one of the biggest bang for your buck type speaking tips that I would give. But then to be able to see, like here's the pre, but then here's the post. Here's what happened after they applied. And they would be, you know, like a younger group and they were just so excited. Like, let me try this new thing. Let me try this advice. And speaking in front of their upper management, upper leadership can be very stressful, but that's okay. We've all had those stressful moments, but it's in those stressful moments that we actually grow.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:05]:

You know, a palm tree only gets stronger. Its root system only gets stronger when it has storms, when it has to weather the storm. Otherwise, it's not practicing. And that's why these palm trees actually sway that they're designed for tropical storms, but the root system only gets stronger when it is challenged. So think about it that way. When you are in challenging situations, you're not sure what to say. You feel like you say the wrong thing. Well, you only learned that that was the wrong thing in that situation because you made the mistake.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:46]:

And that's okay. Let's go back to what one of my core beliefs is move forward by looking in the rear view mirror. We have to learn from the past in order to make better choices into the future. So here's a couple of other homework assignments that you can take on besides the journaling and the social media posting or blogging. This is going to be especially good if you are the sort of person who is quiet during meetings. I want you to raise your hand, make a comment, ask a thought provoking question, ask a question because you want more detail. Don't ask a question just for the sake of asking a question. Make sure you're also listening very carefully to the other people that are asking questions because you don't want to repeat a question that's already been asked.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:35]:

Ask me how I know that because I've made that mistake. But also just to get into the habit of asking a question that's basically like in public. Like, here we are, like, at a meeting. I'm used to being quiet and the wallflower, and I want to be seen more. So I just want you just to, like, raise your hand, ask the question. If you're in a bigger room, in a bigger meeting, I still want you to do the same thing. Raise your hand, ask a thought provoking question. And if you wanna take that a step further, I'll tell you to record yourself.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:12:14]:

You will learn a lot about yourself and your speaking abilities if you record yourself. Now most of my clients resist recording themselves. They don't wanna listen to themselves. They don't wanna watch themselves speak. And I always tell them, and it's sort of joke in the National Speakers Association, that if your audience had to listen and watch you speak, well, then you should also. But there's so much gold and feedback that you will get yourself by just watching yourself speak, by listening to yourself speak. So consider if you are recording yourself on video, watch it with no audio, then don't watch it, but just listen. And then watch it with the audio and video together.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:13:01]:

You're gonna get so much feedback, things that you're gonna notice about yourself. I mean, at times, like, I will listen to my own podcast. I listen because it helps me become a better speaker. And I'm doing this on video. What if you love to watch your content, you can be watching this over on YouTube, but it makes me a better speaker engaging with my audience. And this is actually really good practice because I'm speaking this afternoon. So those are the things that you can start doing to build your public speaking skills. Start small.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:13:40]:

Start somewhere. I have worked with clients who got passed over for promotions all because they didn't wanna speak. They didn't wanna speak up in meetings. They didn't wanna present at meetings. They didn't wanna talk at sales presentations, talk to the customers. As you have learned, like, from part 1, that there are so many different situations where we are constantly engaging with not just our fellow employees, but also external customers. So you have got to learn how to embrace public speaking. It's a form of communication, and this world is communicating.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:20]:

It is not all AI. AI is not going to save you and help you get promoted. I want you to be authentic. People fall in love with you, and that's who they're networking with. That's who they're working with. That's who they're working for. You've gotta learn how to communicate. So I've given you lots of different ideas here today on how to really start to, like, kick up your public speaking, you know, and learn how to articulate your thoughts.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:51]:

That's really what this is about, giving you that confidence to articulate your thoughts, sharing them with others, and just enjoying the process. And remember, it's a learning process. Like, we're constantly growing and evolving. So till next time, part 3 is gonna be about the sales department and how they really need to embrace more public speaking skills and get some more training. And till next time, I want you to be in demand.