6 great staff training course ideas for improving public speaking skills

In a professional environment, honing public speaking skills for your employees benefits everyone. Meetings are smoother, and presentations are more enjoyable. 

You can even train senior management to lose some of their less desirable public speaking habits. You know which ones we’re talking about.

So offering training courses that improve public speaking at your organisation is a win-win for your team members and your company.

Below, we’ve prepared a list of courses you could offer to improve learners’ public speaking skills.

And no, “imagining everyone in their underwear” isn’t one of them. 

Staff training for interpersonal skills

Encouraging solid interpersonal skills builds communication confidence. It helps your staff adopt the right communication style no matter what the situation, including public speaking. 

When your employees feel confident that they know how to communicate in any professional situation, they’ll be better prepared to tackle public speaking.

A training course on interpersonal skills will focus on nurturing professional relationships, decision-making, and conflict management. Your employees will be better prepared to lead their peers with effective communication, including a strong public speaking presence.

Staff training for assertive communication

Assertive communication may sound like a recipe for creating conflict, but in fact, it works to de-escalate tense situations by ensuring everyone’s needs are met.

A staff training course on assertive communication encourages healthy professional relationships and promotes honest communication. When work relationships are based on a collective respect for each employee’s needs, your staff feel respected and ready for public speaking.

An assertive communication training course would include modules on the differences between passive, assertive, and aggressive behaviours in a work environment and how to practise assertiveness in a job role.

Staff training for public presentation planning

When a speaker understands their subject thoroughly, they’re more likely to present it well. By training employees to plan an interesting and valuable presentation, you’ll help them feel confident that they’re speaking on a subject with authority and sufficient preparation.

Staff training on presentation planning would include modules on the components of a good speech based on the subject and the audience. Employees would learn about image-to-text ratios for PowerPoint presentations, using humour in speeches, and how to use action words effectively in a speech.

Staff training on persuasion and inspiration

Help your employees learn to lead and motivate via a staff training course. Though you could adopt a public speaking angle for this course, leadership skills will benefit your employees in every facet of their business relationships and communication.

Modules for a staff training course on persuasion and inspiration would include how to compose a speech that elicits an emotional response from the audience and how to deliver that speech effectively.

Staff training for speech writing

Delivering a speech in public is a skill that can be coached, practised, and achieved. But writing a compelling speech is a different skill altogether, and one which shouldn’t be ignored when working to develop public speaking confidence in your employees.

No matter how confident the speaker, a poorly-written speech will sink them. Teach your employees the art of crafting a speech that resonates with the ear rather than the eye.

Modules in this training course could include:

• Identifying the audience and writing for them.
• Injecting colour and drama into a speech.
• Establishing and building a rapport with the audience.

Staff training confidence workshop

You may have noticed a theme throughout all of these course suggestions: confidence! 

A staff training course on confidence would include modules that explain the difference between confidence and conceit and show how a genuinely confident leader isn’t threatened by questions or criticism. You would also want to include information on how acting confidently can help leaders feel confident, and how discovering and developing each employee’s strengths and skills can help them build confidence.

Building confidence in your employees gives them more than solid public speaking skills; it touches every part of their job role. Confidence helps them perform their jobs better, interact more effectively with customers, and react with poise when conflicts arise.

The benefits of confidence beyond public speaking

Fostering confidence in your employees is a powerful way of making them more productive and effective in their job roles.

Staff training helps build that confidence by supplying employees with the tools they need to do their jobs well.

A learning management system (LMS) like LearnRight helps you build the training courses that nurture the confidence your staff need to succeed.

It’s intuitive and people-centred, so course creators will feel confident using it, too. And with LearnRight, you can track and report on learners’ outcomes, so you’ll know (with confidence!) that they’ve met the goals you’ve set for each course.
Talk to our team today to schedule a tour of LearnRight – the right LMS to develop a confident, competent staff.