Public Speaking: Underrated but Infinitely Valuable
by Alejandra Figueroa
I will never forget the day that I decided I wanted to become a Barnard Speaking Fellow. Tabia Santos (Class of 2013) came into my literature seminar as our Speaking Fellow, and I held onto every word she said because of the way she exuded so much confidence as she spoke. Everything from her posture to her hand movements, which carefully emphasized the points she was trying to make, commanded attention from the room. I noticed that she wasn’t using any filler words, yet somehow sounded natural and unscripted. I thought to myself, “Wow, I want to command a room like that in the future.” Later that day, I started looking into the Speaking Fellows Program. Deciding to become a Speaking Fellow and hone my public speaking skills is one of the best decisions I made throughout my journey at Barnard.
As a student at Barnard, I can safely say that the semester long course I took as a fellow, “Rhetorical Choices,” was one of the classes I looked forward to the most. Both Deborah Kempf (Associate Director of the Speaking Program) and Pam Cobrin (Director of the Writing and Speaking Programs) were not only gifted instructors, but they were also invested in helping spark deep conversation about rhetoric and its importance in everyday life. My fellowship was a balance of both extensive practice where we were encouraged to respectfully debate on a range of topics in addition to studying theories directly tied to public speaking. Not only did we examine our own skills through recordings, but we also had the opportunity to hear feedback directly from our peers in training. And, we got to hear directly from talented public speakers as we analyzed TED talks and engaged in discussions regarding body language, such as Amy Cuddy’s points on nonverbal behavior and power posing. One key thing we learned:
There is no perfect formula to be a great public speaker — what differentiates us as public speakers is our mannerisms and different styles.
Some our fellows had background in improv, while others didn’t have any formal training but were passionate about debate and this contributed to a variety of styles in our fellows.
Years later, I still see the value of my fellowship. I get praise at work for the way that I communicate with executives and C-suite level clients. Always, I credit the Barnard Speaking Fellows for equipping me with the experience I needed to be confident speaking in front of large audiences, whether presenting to teams or clients, and even in one-on-one conversations. I truly believe that while public speaking is a valuable skill, it’s still an underrated one, likely a combination of it being a “soft” skill paired with the fear that many people have of it (glossophobia, or fear of public speaking, is believed to affect 75% of the population).
If I could encourage anyone to polish anything when preparing to shift into the professional world, be it through internships or full-time jobs, it would be to polish your public speaking skills. The value of public speaking is priceless. I encourage Barnard students to leverage the Speaking Fellows Program and to seek opportunities for feedback on their communication style. For anyone else, even if providing a team or client with a minor update, practice your messaging to make sure it is as clear as possible. Practicing these skills and ascribing value to all interactions during which we speak in public plays an important role within all walks of life.
Aside from emphasizing the importance of these skills, I also want to highlight the intersection between communication and social justice issues. This is a worthwhile topic to explore and understand as we continue to self-educate. As a Speaking Fellow at Barnard, I had the opportunity to read a powerful piece by June Jordan titled “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You,” and I encourage everyone to read it. What Jordan wrote over a decade ago still applies: that Standard English does not exist in America, but we associate it most with White English. With the commitment to learn daily, this is an important topic to consider as we continue to strive to be better communicators and allies.
At the very least, we should be conscientious of the fact that despite our multi-lingual population, White standards of English persist, supreme and unquestioned.
White standards control our judgments of verbal proficiency. In having to conform to this standard, we lose qualities of expression native to our own languages. These qualities of expression range based on our individual backgrounds and upbringings, but they range from colloquialisms, to our accents, to the tones of our voices (i.e. being considered “too loud”), to the way we structure or deconstruct our sentences. We lose these qualities of expression when we have to code switch depending on our settings and who we are with, for example, the way we might speak to co-workers or supervisors at work, versus the way we would speak within our families. I challenge us to reflect how this notion intersects with our definition of professionalism, our educational system, and even how we perceive others who do not conform to the White Standard. Language plays into so many aspects of our lives even as we work on developing public speaking skills.
When I moved to the US, I dreamed of the day I would speak English fluently, not realizing that achieving fluent English meant emulating was specifically White English. I believe this is the standard that persists today, and ironically the one that we must conform to in professional settings.
For a society that thrives on communication via social media and technology, we must make sure that we do not lose interpersonal skills in the process and remain conscientious of the roots of our learnings. To summarize, I hope that this encourages anyone interested in public speaking to continue to develop their skills while also encouraging awareness of how our communication styles can also be rooted in systemic racism.
My Favorite Tips for Polishing Public Speaking Skills
- Don’t be afraid to self-critique! If you have a discussion coming up at work, practice in front of your mirror and even record yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you notice.
- Be attentive to details beyond your actual message — what fillers are you using (do you notice a lot of “umms” or “likes”?), are your gestures distracting, are you nervously swaying side to side or not making eye contact with your audience?
- Silence is golden. No matter how awkward you feel, forgetting things on the spot happens to all of us regardless of how much we may have practiced. If you lose your train of thought, pause and learn to be comfortable with a little silence. You can take a few seconds to gather your thoughts instead of filling a void with more “umms” which can make us sound less confident
About the author
Alejandra Figueroa is a strategy consultant working in the Enterprise Data & Analytics space, where she helps C-Suite executives drive the enterprise to create and capture value through analytics. Outside of work, Alejandra is both the Co-Founder and Director of a mentorship program, Mintorship, dedicated to uplifting young minority professionals with an entrepreneurial mindset. Alejandra also runs her own travel blog and enjoys travel photography.
