This month, we are exploring something that can transform your career, your relationships, and your ability to make a difference in the world: From Silence to Significance – a series on how to improve your public speaking skills.
You might be thinking and saying to yourself, “But I am not a speaker! I do not get on stages or give big presentations.” Let me share something important with you, public speaking is not just about standing on a stage with a microphone. Public speaking simply means speaking in public rather than in private. Essentially, any time you have a one-to-many speaking opportunity, whether that is leading a team meeting, presenting to customers, explaining your ideas to colleagues, or sharing your expertise with a group, you are engaging in public speaking.
These moments happen far more often than you might realize, and how well you handle them can make an enormous difference in your success and influence.
Today, we begin with Part 1 of the series: The Two Types of Leaders.
Let me share an important insight about leadership that will help you understand why public speaking matters so much. Throughout my years of working with leaders across different industries and cultures, I have observed that there are two main types of leaders:
The first type consists of leaders who are highly skilled at what they do but cannot speak effectively about their work. They have deep expertise, valuable experience, and important insights, but they struggle to communicate these things clearly and confidently to others. They may be brilliant in their field, but their brilliance remains hidden because they cannot express it in ways that inspire, persuade, or teach others.
The second type consists of leaders who are skilled at what they do AND can speak effectively about their work. They combine competence with communication, expertise with expression, knowledge with the ability to share that knowledge powerfully with others.
Here is the crucial point I want you to understand: being able to speak effectively significantly amplifies your impact as a leader. It takes whatever skills and knowledge you already possess and multiplies their influence many times over.
Think about these everyday examples. Imagine two candidates interviewing for the same job. Both have similar qualifications and experience on paper. But one candidate can articulate their ideas clearly, tell compelling stories about their achievements, and communicate with confidence and warmth. The other candidate stumbles over their words, struggles to explain their experience, and cannot effectively express why they would be valuable to the company. Which candidate are you more likely to hire? Which one gives you more confidence in their abilities?
Or consider two salespeople selling the same product. One can explain the benefits clearly, answer questions confidently, and paint a vivid picture of how the product will improve the customer’s life. The other has the same product knowledge but cannot communicate it effectively. Which salesperson will close more deals?
In every case, the ability to speak effectively makes the critical difference. Your communication skills become the lens through which others perceive your competence, trustworthiness, and value.
Let me show you three specific ways that public speaking amplifies your leadership impact:
Impact on Your Team: When you speak effectively to your team, you inspire commitment to shared goals, explain strategies clearly, and motivate people toward excellence.
Impact on Your Customers: When you speak effectively to customers, you articulate value clearly, build trust, and turn one-time buyers into loyal advocates.
Impact on Your Suppliers and Partners: When you speak effectively to suppliers and partners, you negotiate better terms, build stronger relationships, and create true collaborations.
Personal Story
I had been providing consulting services to a particular client for two full years. During that time, I delivered good work, met their expectations, and maintained a professional relationship.
My work with them did involve some presentations and facilitation, both examples of public speaking, but these were typically shorter sessions lasting an hour or two at most. I would present findings, lead discussions, or facilitate decision-making processes, but I never had the opportunity to speak and work with them for an extended period where they could really see the full range of my capabilities.
Then a significant opportunity arose. The client asked me to facilitate their three-day strategy retreat. This was a major responsibility, three full days of leading their leadership team through critical strategic planning processes. I would need to design the sessions, facilitate complex conversations, manage group dynamics, handle conflicts and disagreements constructively, and guide them toward actionable decisions that would shape their company’s direction for years to come.
During those three intensive days, I intentionally deployed effective public speaking tactics that I had developed over years of practice and learning. I will share many of these specific tactics with you throughout this series, but for now, let me just say that I focused on clarity, engagement, storytelling, managing energy levels, reading the room, asking powerful questions, and creating space for everyone’s voice to be heard.
The experience was demanding but exhilarating. I could feel the group’s trust growing as we worked through each session. I noticed how they leaned in during key moments, how they actively participated rather than passively listening, and how they began to reference and build on ideas we had explored earlier in the retreat.
At the end of those three days, something remarkable happened that had never occurred in my consulting career before. The client approached me and said they wanted to engage me on a retainer basis for an entire year. This was a dramatic shift from the project-by-project work we had been doing for the previous two years.
When I asked what had prompted this decision, they explained that the extended opportunity to work with me during the retreat had allowed them to see my full capabilities in action. They had observed how I facilitated difficult conversations, how I helped them think more strategically, how I managed their diverse personalities and opinions, and how I guided them to outcomes that felt both challenging and achievable.
In other words, the opportunity to speak and work with them for a longer period gave me the platform to demonstrate my competence more fully and gave the client the chance to build deeper trust in my abilities.
The main lesson I learned from this transformative experience is simple but powerful, speak more to win more! When you create or seize opportunities to speak effectively to important audiences, whether that is your team, your customers, your partners, or any group you want to influence, you open doors that would otherwise remain closed.
Why This Matters for You
Every time you have a chance to speak to a group, no matter how small or informal, you have an opportunity to build your reputation, demonstrate your value, and expand your impact. The question is whether you will seize these opportunities with confidence and skill, or let them pass by because you have not developed your speaking abilities.
Action Point
- Identify one upcoming opportunity where you will speak to a group, a team meeting, a client presentation, a training session, or any gathering where you will address multiple people. Prepare more intentionally than you usually would, focusing on clarity and engagement.
Share This Learning
If you found value in this exploration of public speaking and leadership, please forward this newsletter to someone who might benefit from developing these skills.
Want to continue this journey? to receive the complete “From Silence to Significance” series