The Consequences of Avoiding Public Speaking

There are a lot of positives that come from public speaking.

If you do not enjoy or have an outright fear of public speaking, avoiding it altogether may seem not only harmless but desirable. The consequences of such avoidance may not be immediate, but you will inevitably find yourself in a situation where those consequences will be felt, and it could directly impact your future.

Print this article

Job Interviews
- Public speaking gives you excellent skills to use in job interviews.
  
  The job interview is an obvious scenario where you will feel the consequences of avoiding public speaking. Before you counter with an argument that job interviews are one-on-one and you do not mind more intimate and personal conversations, do not take such a scenario for granted. Many companies have job search committees that screen applicants either early or later in the selection process, and these committees can be quite large. You may be asked to give a presentation to an entire department or, for a high-level position, to a governing board, such as a board of directors.
Career Selection and Success
- Your career could get a boost if you are a comfortable speaker.
  
  Many careers require presentation and speaking skills. Even engineers who sit in a cubicle all day may need to present papers at conferences or to professional organizations. Eventually, as you are promoted to management, you may be asked to present budgets or even speak to the media. You will be glad you have the confidence and leadership skills that public speaking helps cultivate when you ask for a raise or promotion. The basics of good public speaking and presenting yourself as an articulate, educated and confident leader are qualities that employers value. Even lower level jobs, such as grocery store clerks or restaurant workers, have to deal with the public on a daily basis, and establishing eye contact with someone and using deliberate speech with inviting tones may mean the difference between a large tip or a small one.
Daily Negotiations
- Public speaking helps you approach negotiations and meetings with confidence.
  
  Perhaps you are not joining the outside workforce and are working as a stay-at-home parent or in a home office. You still have interactions and negotiations. Working from home may require videoconferencing or telephone conversations. Particularly without one-on-one feedback in your phone conversations, you need to organize your thoughts and express them with clarity, summing up your basic points that you want your listener to remember. These are all things that public speaking helps you to do. Parents have parent-teacher conferences or speak before school boards or parent-teacher associations.
Personal Relationships
- Public speaking improves your listening skills, which helps personal relationships.
  
  An important consequence of public speaking avoidance is a lack of confidence in yourself. Honing your communications and persuasive skills, as well as being a better listener, are important qualities cultivated by public speaking experiences. This carries over into other facets of your life. Other people are drawn to confident people who present themselves as leaders. You can communicate more effectively in your marriage or be elected to the board of directors of a nonprofit agency or your place of worship.