More people in the world are afraid of public speaking than they are of dying in a plane crash. Though I still don't really know why, I have always been one of these people. Coming into this class, I knew it was about public speaking, but I didn't really have any high hopes or expectations because I have taken tons of classes focused on presentations and communication skills, but never really felt that they taught me anything that actually made a difference. However, this class has helped with my fear more than I could have ever thought, and showed me how important it is to get over this fear. Public speaking and business communication skills are used every single day, especially in the job force between work presentations, job interviews, and dealing with clients and customers. There were many powerful aspects of this class that spoke to me and actually showed me how to develop my skills, instead of just telling me how to.
Elevator Speech
The first part of this class that made an impact on me was the elevator speech at the very beginning of the semester. When Dr. Wellman assigned this to our class right off the bat, all of us were in shock and realized that we had an interesting semester ahead of us. I didn't expect the bandaid of public speaking to be ripped off so quickly, but I'm glad it was. Developing and giving an elevator speech showed me that I actually need to be able to sell myself to someone face-to-face, because just a resume isn't going to do it for me. After giving my elevator speech, which wasn't great but was decent for my first time, I started to be much more self-aware about what skills I actually do have to bring to the table and use as selling points to someone else. I started to constantly notice what I was good and bad at. For example, I know I am very good at organization, which is a very important skill to have in a busy workplace. I constantly make to-do lists for myself and carry them with me everywhere, to make sure I don't forget about anything important.I also realized that I am an effective worker in a team setting, and am proactive when it comes to solving problems. In my other communications class this semester, COMM107, I was assigned in a group with 3 other people who just so happened to be some of the most quiet and introverted people in the class. Because of this, I ended up being the unofficial leader of the group. Our assignment was to create an outline about a communication issue and how to solve it. This outline would eventually turn into a speech in front of the class. Since all of us were very busy people, it was difficult to meet up as often as we wanted to. This made it difficult to touch base and stay updated with the extent of everyone's research and progression with the assignment. To solve this problem, I came up with the idea of creating a Google Doc for all of us to compile our research information into one accessible source, instead of doing research separately. We could refer to this source if we had any questions or if we wanted to see what information other people were finding and make sure not to repeat anything. Using this Google Doc, we were able to create the outline over the Internet, allowing us to do the work at whatever time was best for us and not having to deal with the stresses of trying to find a time to meet face-to-face that worked for everybody.
Something I realized from becoming self-aware that I need to work on is accepting constructive criticism. Since I have always lacked confidence, when someone criticizes my work I tend to get defensive and put a wall up. I either get really emotional and sad about what was said, or I get angry and offended and completely disregard what was said. If I stay in my own little bubble, I will never see things from another persons' point of view. Getting feedback from others is one of the best ways to realize what you need to work on to better yourself, so I need to be more open-minded to this.
360Reach
Being told to create an account with the 360Reach website was one of my favorite activities of the whole class of CPBE225. The website consists of a self-survey that you complete about your feelings on your strengths, weaknesses, and the qualities you feel you have. Then, you are asked to type in a list of emails you want to be sent the same survey, which they filled out about me. When looking at the responses, I realized that I don't actually know myself as well as I thought I did, and it takes the opinions of others to actually notice things beneath the surface and build a desire to improve.
Out of the 15 email addresses I typed in, I received 9 anonymous responses that showed me what others thought of me. First of all, I noticed that other people saw me as a leader, which is a characteristic I would have never called myself. Four out of 9 people said that in a group setting, my role would be the leader. Having this kind of praise was new for me and it made me feel good and gain much more confidence. After gaining this new piece of information that some people see me as a leader, I decided to put myself out there and try to assume a leadership role on my own. This year, my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, participated in the first annual Phield Day philanthropy event with Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. This event involved local elementary school students coming to our chapter houses to play games and learn about fun things they can study in college. We needed someone to be philanthropy chair for this event, so I stepped up to the plate and took the responsibility. I didn't know if I could actually do it and the thought of failing and letting everybody down was scary, but in the back of my mind I knew that I have the skills to handle this challenge. As philanthropy chair, I organized the time table for the event and bought all the supplies and decorations we needed to make the event fun for the students. This experience gave me a great sense of determination and pride when the event ended up going smoothly, teaching me that I can do anything I set my mind to.TED Talk
Even though I haven't presented it in class yet, one of our CPBE225 assignments was to develop our own TED talk and give it in front of the class. This semester I have watched more TED talks than I can count, and I learned a lot from them. Watching these talks and preparing my own gave me a new appreciation for all that goes into giving a good speech.
I learned the importance of charisma in a presentation. Much like creativity which we learned about last year, charisma is not a quality that someone is inherently born with. It can be taught and strengthened by everyone using techniques like powerful body language, eye contact, and voice control. Additionally, charisma is built by having good relations with other people. Like Dale Carnegie says in his bestselling book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, we need to become genuinely interested in other people. If you truly care about what someone else has to say, they will feel special and then care what you have to say in return.
I also learned about how important it is to understand your audience and tailor your presentation to their personal needs and interests. Giving a speech about how to balance a checkbook would not resonate with an audience of middle schoolers, much like a speech about Twitter would not resonate with an audience of senior citizens at a nursing home. You need to have a message that your audience actually cares about, and that you care about too. I learned that your audience won't care unless you genuinely care, too. I decided I would give my CPBE225 class TED talk on why we need to make College Park beautiful. This is a topic I feel strongly about, because as a proud UMD student, I want to be able to be proud in the town I live in as well. However, this city is riddled with crime and unappealing sights, so I feel that we should support city improvement projects, and my audience will agree.
My overall opinion on this course is that it helped me better myself in ways I never thought I could do. Admittedly, the beginning of the course felt somewhat slow and didn't have as much hands on experience. But once things got moving and I began working on this IOCSR, I saw how much this class would help me out in the future. Enterprise Communications forced me to start thinking about the future NOW instead of later. Like Ira Koretsky said, it's much better to start developing skills early-on instead of right when you need them, because you will have much more time to prepare and once it comes time to actually use theses skills, you are already a pro. I feel that as long as I use this newfound knowledge about elevator speeches, personal branding, and marketing myself, I will be well prepared for finding an internship this upcoming summer and beyond.
I feel like a much better student sophomore year as opposed to last year. Because of this class, I am always thinking about what skills and experiences I should develop to make myself the best job candidate I can be. I think about the future all the time now, and I have even done research on good interview techniques and looked for internships in my free time, which I never ever would have done a year ago. I even created a "Job Search" tab on my computer's web browser which has all kinds of websites that can help me develop my personal brand and improve my resume. This class made the future a reality for me, which I will always be thankful for.
Coming into this class, I had very little confidence in my abilities as a student and future employee. I didn't get the best grades last year, and felt like I wasn't doing as much as the students around me were. I also was still incredibly nervous to speak in front of groups of people before this class. Now that I am almost finished this course, I have noticed a tremendous change in my confidence and the way that I think about connecting with other people. I'm not saying that I've done a complete 360 change into the most hardcore go-getter person out there, but I have definitely been given the tools and advice to make things a lot easier for me. I now have a starting point or a base of public speaking skills that I can bounce off of in the future. Instead of not having a clue on how to market myself to get a job, I now have lots of experience doing things like giving an elevator speech, marketing myself on LinkedIn, and having a successful job interview. Paying attention to qualities I lack and skills I struggle with isn't easy, but absolutely necessary to improve myself, which I plan on doing. All of these things gave me much more self confidence and awareness than I could have ever imagined to gain in just one semester, and I know I will continue to improve over time.
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