Research indicates that one of the biggest fears many individuals have is glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking. Interestingly, this fear is more prevalent than the fear of death, spiders, or darkness.
Fortunately, I have not suffered from a fear of public speaking. I’d like to share my experience on how speaking professionally has helped my career. My goal is to encourage you to determine how professional speaking may help your career as well. Even if you are not comfortable speaking in public, your confidence will improve the more you are able to speak professionally.
One suggestion is to begin by speaking in front of small groups, perhaps at an informal meeting at work, church, or a social gathering. The Mayo Clinic offers suggestions on ways to overcome the fear of public speaking, as does Purdue University Global.
On the other hand, if you are not challenged with a fear of speaking publicly, your confidence and presentation skills will continue to develop the more you speak in public. My challenge has been finding the time to do it. If you are at all like me, meaning that you also work full time, have a family, juggle many roles, and strive to exercise daily, then you are very busy and have to balance the cost and benefits of adding anything new to your plate.
I’d like to share four key ways that speaking professionally has helped my career.
1. Knowledge Sharing
First, let’s look at why I do what I do.
I entered the teaching profession because I wanted to help others by sharing my knowledge; I wanted to provide mentoring, coaching, and professional development to my students and others, including junior faculty. Speaking professionally enables me to do just that—only outside of the classroom.
College professors are required to actively contribute to scholarship requirements, which include activities such as publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals and making conference presentations. Presenting at conferences has allowed me to meet this ongoing faculty requirement.
Speaking professionally affords me an opportunity to share my knowledge. I also open myself to learning best practices from other professionals and mentoring others.
2. Professional Networking
Speaking professionally at conferences and workshops has allowed me to enhance my professional network.
Here is one example: At a recent Chief Learning Officers (CLO) conference presentation, I was able to network with a fellow professor, who asked me to serve on a dissertation committee for a doctoral student whose research was focused in the same area as my topic—cross-generation communication. I accepted the dissertation committee mentor role and was honored to contribute to her research; I witnessed her successfully defend her dissertation in December 2019.
As a result of my conference presentation, I was able to share my experience with my LinkedIn network and make additional meaningful connections.
Professional networking is critical in today’s job market. Data from LinkedIn shows that 88% of professionals consider networking important to career success, and 7 out of 10 of those who were hired had connections at the company.
3. Personal Branding
Speaking at conferences and workshops enhances my personal brand.
Personal branding involves creating a recognizable professional name and reputation and is a combination of how you present yourself and how others perceive you. For example, my primary research focus is on generational related issues such as generational differences in the workplace. I’ve been interested in this area for quite a while now. In fact, the topic of my dissertation was related to generations and organizational change.
Professional speaking in my areas of research has contributed to my personal branding efforts as a subject matter expert in cross-generational issues. As a result, I am asked to speak and share my expertise in an area that I am passionate about.
4. Improve Presentation Skills
I am always looking for ways to hone my craft and improve my skills. Therefore, each time I make a presentation, I am able to learn from the experience and find ways to enhance both my professional and personal development.
When I am presenting at a conference, I try to attend the full conference and attend as many sessions as I can. I enjoy watching and learning from the other presenters. There is always something new to learn.
Speaking professionally has afforded me the opportunity to attend conferences; thereby, I’ve been able to improve my own presentation skills.
Opportunities for Speaking Professionally
There are many opportunities for speaking professionally, including informal and formal presentations at work or places where you volunteer or are a member. There are also many small and large conferences where presentations may take place in traditional face-to-face settings or virtually.
Be sure to reflect on how speaking professionally can help your career. As I have shared, there are many opportunities; I encourage you to consider where and when you may find your next professional speaking opportunity. It may be closer than you think!
I would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or suggestions; feel free to contact me at bbourne@purdueglobal.edu.
