As a senior student in Suffolk University, I had many courses where I had been able to demonstrate my leadership skills, sometimes it was hard and I failed and other times I did great as a leader. In many classes, my professor has chosen me to be the leader of the group project, it put too many pressure on me because I’m not the person who loves to speak in public, which this will be the leadership skill that I need to work on and to develop this semester in this course. But other than that, I did good as a leader in managing things and making sure things are done in the frame time, I was able to divide the job between our team members and made sure that everyone was comfortable and agree to the assigned part. But when it comes to speaking in front of the class, I always got the lowest scores because I just don’t like speaking in public so I let the other team mates speak the most and I would speak the least, this is my leadership experience in a formal way which is in the school.
When it comes to my informal leadership practices, I see myself as the greatest leaders around me, since I’m a wife and a mother of two young children, three years old daughter and a 20 months baby boy, I demonstrate my leadership skills in a daily basis at home with my family, I see myself as a multitasking person because I am able to balance between my school and my family and home, I take control of my home and my kids and make sure that they both eat their meals and make sure that they both sleep early in the night. Also, since I am a mother my job is to motivate and influence my kids and be a good example and leader for them because they will imitate me in many, if not all, different things they see me do, so I try my best the whole time in front of them to act correctly, sometimes it’s hard because I lose my temper very easily which is a bad thing that I need to work on, but I manage myself very quickly for them.
So, my strengths could be good communicator, multitasking, able to direct others, influencer, and able to make the right decision. And my weaknesses are that I sometimes look like I’m controlling people because I’m used to take control of people in my home, and another weakness is that I’m afraid of speaking in public and in front of strange people. And another big weakness is managing my temper, I lose my temper very easily but I’m trying to change it.
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The leadership skill that I’m planning to work on and change this semester is Public Speaking. It’s a big thing that I need to work on not only because I’m afraid to speak in front of people, or because I need to have good grades and graduate with high GPA, but because I want to get my masters and my Ph.D. degree and the journey will not be easy and I will have to speak and make a lot of presentations and projects which will make me speak in front of strange people.
And my goal at the end is to be a professor and to teach at the University in my home town, in order to make this happen and to be able to teach and talk in front of the students, I need to have the courage to speak in front of people and be a good public speaker. And being a teacher is one of the biggest jobs that people demonstrate and show their leadership skills among many other skills of course, but being a good professor means that you are a good leader.
Also, since I’m a mother, I will be going to many parents meeting at my children’s school and I don’t want to be that kind of parents who sit in the side and don’t speak, I want to be a mother that every parents and teachers know about, that’s why I need to work on my public speaking.
When it comes to public speaking, there are hundreds of ways to practice public speaking, but not all of the ways are helpful and make significant change. Some of the beneficial ways to success in public speaking is to overcome the fear of speaking in public, recording to Linehan in his article “6 steps to successful public speaking”, he made it clear that one of the biggest reasons why people don’t speak in public is because their fear and their anxiety. People don’t think about their audience as much as they think about themselves, which is wrong, people should always think about their audience and the message they want to deliver to their audience. Another way Linehan mentioned to help with public speaking is by choosing the subject you love, subject you are very interested in, which will make you more confident as you speak even if you practiced a million times. And he didn’t forget to mention also practice, practicing the speech over and over and recording yourself while speaking will allow you to correct the mistakes you are making when speaking, and will make you feel more confident about your speech. Last step Linehan mentioned in the article is to practice in the place you will give the speech in to get familiar with the place.
In other hands, there are many steps that could help with public speaking when it’s time to give the speech, breathing exercises will help you to calm down before speaking in public and prepare your body to be relaxed and not nervous before the speech. Also, doing good in the very first part of the speech or the talk will give you confidence to continue hesitating. Another way to help with public speaking is to drink enough water, that will help with moisturize your mouth which will help with speaking. A last trick I found it helpful in the article is by moving around while speaking and using the hands, this way will trick the body and make you think that you are not nervous. (Mekky 2018)
By taking these steps into consideration, there are many ways to help with public speaking before, during and after speaking. Each step is important to be successful public speaker. Public speaking is a skill all of us can develop if we want by following these steps, but the most important thing I need to include in my action steps is practicing, by practicing a lot and practicing in front of friends and family, it will help me get over the fear I have for speaking in public and will give me confidence.
In order to help me with public speaking, I came up with an action plan that has steps to make me work on this skill. The first step is to select a specific topic I want to speak about in public by the end of February, it can be any topic I am comfortable with and have knowledge about. The second step in standing in front of the mirror and practice speaking and see my body language and make notes about things I need to stop doing or things I need to start doing while speaking. The third step is to research the audience I will speak in front by the end of March, they can students from Suffolk University. The fourth step is to practice speaking in front of close friends and family after I chose the topic and the audience, and make them give me comments on my performance and try to fix it. The last step will be to speak in front of the audience I chose earlier in the topic I chose. I have to do this last step before the end of the semester.
In order to execute my plan and to develop the public speaking skill, I need to stick with the time frame for each step and be strict about it. Hopefully by the end of the semester, I will have developed this skill and overcame my fear and anxiety of speaking in front of strangers.
Reference
- Linehan, Dave. “6 Steps to Successful Public Speaking.” Davelinehan, davelinehan.com/steps-to-successful-public-speaking/.
- Mekky, Michelle. “Conquer Your Fear Of Public Speaking: A Step-By-Step Guide.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Sept. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/09/12/conquer-your-fear-of-public-speaking-a-step-by-step-guide/#7e869edc5161.
