The Importance of Public Speaking for Business Leaders: 5 Reasons Why It's Essential to Master the Skill

Public speaking is not just an essential skill; it’s required for business leaders. Even if you don’t like it, you can’t avoid it. To influence change and progress, you must inspire others and share your ideas with potential investors, key stakeholders, customers, and employees.

Here are five top reasons why leaders need strong public speaking skills.

1. It Inspires and Motivates Others

A leader isn’t just someone who states what they want and waits for people to do it. A leader motivates positive action, inspires innovation and growth, sets goals for a group of people, and helps them find the path to mutual success.

To be a leader, you need to move people with your words. Public speaking allows you, as a leader, to show your thoughts, vision, and direction you want the organization to take.

You can appear as the spokesperson for your staff and community, who will view you as a leader. You can challenge your team members’ ideas, their abilities, and about the direction of the company.

2. It Creates Opportunities and Revenue Generation

Public speaking opens new doors of opportunities.

Public speaking allows you to showcase your organization, ideas, and skills, especially through invitations to talk shows, news channels, social media channels, Ted Talks, and magazine interviews. This increases your chances of being noticed by potential customers, investors, and influential people who can positively impact you and your business.

People will remember you and begin to see you with authority.

Public speaking done well builds brand awareness and sparks interest, which can generate revenue. A skilled orator can impress and hook audiences with a single presentation, generating interest and action.

3. It Unites and Guides People to a Common Vision

Public speaking is essential for a leader to motivate team members and the audience. Influential leaders use impactful words and ignite the fire in people to work toward a common vision.

Leaders who share their thoughts and vision can positively impact the audience. Leaders can inspire and motivate others, helping them to push beyond their abilities, think creatively and “outside of the box,” bringing out the best in themselves.

A confident and outspoken leader who can aptly articulate thoughts is likelier to command the audience’s respect and trust.

4. It Builds Connections and Makes You More Authentic

Authenticity is an important factor for the long-term success of any organization.

If you want people to stick with your company for the long term, they must be able to connect with you and know that you are real and true to what you claim.

When just starting, many public speakers try to be perfect instead of authentic. They appear stiff and robotic, and their seemingly well-rehearsed speech ends flat, boring, and disconnected**.**

New leaders may try too hard to be “leaders,” forgetting the most important thing, to be authentic people whose goal is to help the people around them be their best selves.

Effective public speakers and leaders focus on connecting with their audience. Speaking to others by being transparent and authentic will bring about change and innovation.

And here’s a bonus: if you get nervous when public speaking, focusing your attention on the audience instead of yourself and being perfect takes the pressure off you. You will appear relaxed and authentic, and your audience will feel respected and relaxed.

5. It Makes You and Your Business Attractive

Most successful CEOs and leaders are excellent public speakers–if not outstanding.

As a leader, you are the face of your business, and most people will consider your business synonymous with you. People will transmute their attraction to you towards your business.

For example, think of your favorite subject in school or college and ask yourself why you liked it. How you viewed your teacher likely reflected how well you liked the subject. Over time, your admiration for the teacher transformed into admiration for the subject.

Similarly, if people find the way you speak attractive, they associate your positive qualities with your business.