As the emcee of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia Annual Conference, I get to introduce speakers and listen to their presentations. One of the highlights of this year’s conference was a talk by the newly minted ICBA CEO Rebecca Romero Rainey.
Rebecca comes from a line of community bankers and was previously CEO of her hometown bank located in Taos, New Mexico. Rebecca did not have any slides for her presentation. As far as I could tell, she did not have any notes from which she referred during her talk either. What she did was offer a vision of how community banks can strengthen their communities by offering great products and solutions with superior service. What struck me the most was just how competent and confident she was as a speaker.
I am a professional speaker. As such, I take great pains to try and eliminate erroneous words and other wasted utterances; the “umms” and “ughs” that frequently dot our everyday speech. It is one of the tenants of Toastmasters; to assist its members in identifying these “filler” words and eliminating them from presentations. Rebecca was a great speaker. Using very few filler words, she smoothly moved from topic to topic in a commanding, but pleasant to hear voice. She exuded confidence and professionalism.
Following her talk, I asked her if she had done any formal training in public speaking. She had not, but had taken the opportunity to speak at local events and worked hard to be in a position to make a presentation for the bank at any opportunity. She knew that it would be important for her to show great speaking mechanics in her role as CEO. She didn’t mention it, but I imagine as a woman in a male dominated field, that articulating well is a distinct advantage that mattered to her.
How well do you speak when called on to do so? Does the thought of that scare you to death? Studies show that dying is the only thing more feared by the average person than having to get up in front of a group of strangers (or worse, people you know!) and give a talk. Yet, regardless of your profession or position, it is the one thing that is totally in your control that could make the difference in how well you achieve success, given your innate capabilities and talents.
Want to be a better speaker? Then you need to practice speaking. Remember, practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. You should get involved in a group that encourages good speaking. And that takes us back to Toastmasters. Most cities of even a reasonable size have a club, if not multiple clubs. Go to www.toastmasters.org and use their lookup feature to find a club near you. Then go check it out. You can audit meetings until you are ready to join. Don’t let your fear of speaking stop you from acquiring a skill that will better you for any position, any job, any task.
You can do this. Take the first step.