Speak Volumes

It is often dubbed the nastiest blood sport in the corporate world. Considering how much the prospect of public speaking is feared and reviled, it is surprising that companies don’t make more of an effort to ensure their key staff can actually do it.

And amazing as it may seem, the ability to shimmy up the greasy pole is in no way linked to one’s ability to engage a large audience.

Aziz Corporation chairman Khalid Aziz notes: “We’ve seen people who have risen to the top of their company by their late-30s or early 40s. They are loved and admired within the company for their ability to inspire and encourage on a one-to-one basis or in a small group, but they find it impossible to communicate to larger groups.”

One of the difficulties of convincing senior management that their public speaking skills need polishing, is that it is often the job of an inevitably more junior supplier, for example, a conference organiser, to break the bad news.

As Maritz Communications business development director Patricia Donovan, says: “More often than not, you are dealing with people in positions of authority who can be difficult to deal with and who are unreceptive to being told that they don’t know how to speak in public.”

However, there are a number of factors that are making public speaking training more of a necessity than a soft skill.Valued employees are demanding – as part of a competitive package – high levels of on-the-job training. Good staff are exploiting companies’ need to retain them and are demanding training that will make them more marketable for their next job.

Public speaking trainers note that, although their services are often called on immediately prior to specific events, more junior staff are being sent on training courses as part of an overall learning package.

The growth of internal marketing and the need to communicate internally to large workforces, is also forcing managers to reassess how they communicate with staff.

Effective responses

Donovan says her experience shows that financial services companies are channelling large sums of money into communicating with their workforces. Also, the growing intrusiveness of the media in the business world is forcing companies to ensure their spokespeople know how to respond to media demands.

However, it is also those sectors that do not usually place much importance on communicating externally that are hiring the services of public speaking trainers.

Senior consultant at Speak First, Claire Willis, says there is an increasing realisation within some sectors that it is simply not enough to be excellent at your job – you need to be able to communicate that brilliance to the general public.

“For example, the pharmaceutical sector has realised that it is simply not enough to be a brilliant chemist. Drugs are developed by teams and information needs to be communicated across those teams and to a wider public. We are also seeing more law firms approaching us which want their practitioners trained in public speaking,” she says.

“If I’m a client looking for a law firm, I assume they know about the law. What I really want is someone who can communicate that to me in terms I can understand. Technical expertise is not enough anymore. It really didn’t matter if your lawyer couldn’t communicate effectively with you 15 years ago. You tended to just accept everything the lawyer said. Now clients are much more demanding” she adds.

The IT sector is another area where the undoubted technical skills of practitioners count for nothing when they are standing in front of a large, often non-technical, audience.

Global exposure

Aziz says he is working with a client in the IT sector that specifically wanted to change how it was viewed, not only by the rest of the sector, but also by the public at large.

“One way to do this,” says Aziz, “was to expose their senior staff on the global conference circuit.”

The company chose to sponsor a number of conferences and ensure they had speakers at those conferences. Aziz says: “While it is easy to throw money at sponsorship, the company soon realised it faced a much trickier situation when they put their senior management in front of an audience.”

Increasingly, says Aziz, big business decisions are being made on the basis of spoken presentations. “In an increasingly technocratic era, the earlier you can hone speaking and communications skills in an individual staff member, the better.”

Apart from having to pay more attention to their own workforces, financial services, according to Aziz, are finding that approaching the City is much more competitive than it used to be.

Refreshing approach

Without good communication skills, financial services companies can be at a disadvantage. Within the City itself, Aziz says there are companies that are realising the extended values of staff that normally burn out in their late-30s and early 40s.

“Rather than get rid of them, companies are beginning to revitalise staff by training them in public speaking and communications in order to make the most of the experience they already have,” he says.

There are advantages and disadvantages to public speaking, which are increasingly coming under the aegis of training and development. One disadvantage may be the compulsive disappearance of any training budget at the first signs of a recession.

Money talks

Despite practitioners saying the next recession will be different, it’s hard to believe that financial directors will be easily persuaded that spending up to &£1,700 to train a handful of people in the art of communication is necessary to the survival of the business.

Suzee Foster, managing director of executive communication at Burson-Marsteller, says that the last recession proved to be a very busy time for her.

However, she admits that if companies treat communication abilities as a soft skill and a box to be ticked on an appraisal form, then that training will disappear in a recession.

“But I’m having people sent to me for public speaker training from chief executives right down to graduate trainees from the London Business School.

“As soon as these people have their MBAs, companies are investing in their communication skills. People are now much more committed to improving their business skills. I really don’t think we will see this attitude change during a recession,” says Foster.

The issue that will probably be key in retaining communication trainers on the payroll is the continuing skills shortage across all sectors. No matter how tempted finance directors are to pare down training budgets, if it results in staff looking elsewhere for better employment deals, they will probably be forced to continuing paying up.

Willis says: “Now more than ever, people have an eye to moving up the corporate ladder and the more skills they have, the better. No one joins a company thinking they will stay for life.

“The only way companies can hang onto their staff, apart from the money, is by offering them good training.”

International Confex 2001 will take place from February 27 to March 1 at Earls Court 1, London SW5.

Now in its 19th year, this year’s show has about 1,300 companies exhibiting across four sectors: UK venues and destinations; overseas venues and destinations; corporate hospitality and events; and exhibitions and conference support services.

Exhibitors include hotels, cruise lines, historical buildings, incentive travel operators and national tourist officers.

The past few years have seen more and more football clubs exhibiting at International Confex. For this year’s show, a dedicated Premier Stadium Venues Pavilion has been established, which will include stands from football clubs including Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

ABC figures shows that more than 9,000 people visited last year’s show. Visitors ranged from marketing directors to secretaries, from professional conference organisers to those organising just one show a year.

For this year’s event, an integrated seminar programme has been organised under the collected title of The Knowledge. A series of 45-minute seminars will run throughout the three days of the event.