(This post received 260 shares on LinkedIn)
Posted by Kari Hulac on Aug 20, 2014 4:00:00 AM
There’s a lot being said these days about the need for finance and accounting professionals to master soft skills such as communication, and it’s for good reason: If you want to get ahead in business you need to conquer your fear of public speaking.
A survey by Protiviti, a subsidiary of Robert Half, found that of all the soft skills that internal auditors need to improve, public speaking was ranked No. 1.
Advancing your career depends on it, says Ryan Sutton, a Boston-based Robert Half senior regional president who regularly speaks to groups and appears on television news programs.
“If you ever really want to be an executive, no executive was really hired one-on-one. You’re interviewed by a board, you’re presenting to a board,” Sutton said. “The difference between being comfortable (with public speaking) and not comfortable is the difference between being the leader versus the contributor.”
Sutton says the key to feeling comfortable speaking in public is preparation. If you’re presenting a deck of slides, don’t try to walk your audience through each slide point by point.
Trying to retain and then deliver all of the information in a slideshow deck is just too overwhelming. And it's not really a speech, Sutton said.
“It gets very dry and becomes a data dump,” he said.
Instead, he advises, create a bullet-point outline of the key things you want to talk about.
“You’re presenting the topic, and the deck is a reference to your presentation versus BEING your presentation,” Sutton said.
The outline should serve as a guide for the stories, analogies and metaphors you’re going to share.
“It’s important to make sure you tie technical data and stories to how it impacts people,” he said.
Of course it's normal to be nervous, Sutton said. But knowing the material and just speaking naturally will help.
Know the material and practice
Dan DeNisco, a senior vice president with Robert Half Management Resources in Florida, said that when he was a CPA, public speaking was not his forte.
He learned that the tough way when he gave a talk about a technical issue that he wasn’t familiar enough with. He ended up feeling embarrassed and even more fearful about speaking in public.
Fortunately, DeNisco said, a Dale Carnegie leadership course set him on a new path. The class emphasized knowing the material and practicing the delivery of it, and now he describes himself as a “ham” who loves being on stage.
“You have to know the audience. If you have friends in the audience, focus on them, make eye contact,” DeNisco said.
And if he doesn’t “know the room,” he tries to get to a speaking engagement early to mingle and make connections with audience members.
“My advice would be if you do have anxiety or you are not very good at it, invest in yourself and take a public speaking course,” he said.
Related Posts
Nontechnical Skills Essential for Accounting and Finance Jobs
Webinar Recap: Soft Skills Accounting and Finance Professionals Need in a Diverse Workplace
The Softer Side of Internal Audit