How can public speaking skills help you navigate volunteer program crisis situations?

When speakers seem to be well rehearsed, humorous and confident in their field or even those not as skilled, I want to resonate in some way to who they are as a person and their self awareness as it relates to humanity. Many people are affected in some way by either a personal difference or adversity in life. A great speaker for me knows this and their audience and is relatable especially in a crisis. Crisis can trigger past traumas and cause internal conflict making decisions for personal welfare next to impossible and even skilled managers and business owners to freeze up when triggered by trauma. The more awareness on this subject the better able to cope in a crisis.

Public speaking skills enable you to communicate clear and concise messages with critical information during a crisis to large groups of people. During a crisis volunteers may be anxious or confused as a leader, your ability to deliver concise direction with reassurance can help calm the situation in order for them to be productive.

Someone suggested that leading volunteers was somewhat like herding cats. In crisis, the value of our speaking skills becomes evident quickly. Nervousness over speaking may be perceived as a lack of confidence in our message itself. So, practice and study the craft. Your confidence will inspire confidence. However, there is a worse place to be, than the place where the cat has your tongue because of nervousness. It is the person who has learned to speak, yet, lacks the ability to stop. -Guaranteed to rub the cats fur the wrong way. Cats have a fairly short attention span, so with a few precise words we find that cats are pretty good in a crisis. A good speaker gets their attention, presents, and closes. "It's a dog" might suffice.

Early in my ministry I had four churches and would preach at three of them each Sunday morning. You know how the Minister walks to the back during the closing hymn to shake hands at the door? I just kept going. -Out the door and on to the next church to preach the same sermon again. I learned that the same sermon might be excellent in one church while it was mediocre at another because of the audience alone. To assess basic speaking skills you can tape yourself or get feedback from a friend (mean spouse). Such can show you obvious changes that need to be made. But, excellence comes through learning to read an audience and thereby adjust the points and direction of a message in real-time. That comes through real-life practice.

Like all skill, speaking skills must constantly be practiced, assessed, and adapted. Because each audience is different, the delivery of your messages will differ as well. Frequently engaging in speaking opportunities and then conducting a controlled and purposeful assessment is essential to determining if you successfully conveyed the message you intended to convey and if the results of your message had the results you were aiming to have. Follow up discussion, feedback, surveys, exercises, and opportunities for questions are some ideas to assess the effectiveness of your communication skills.

When in times of crisis it is important to speak clearly, concisely, and correctly. Give the information your audience needs and wants. Give a schedule for when updates will be provided. Be honest about what you don’t know. Provide multiple sources containing resource and service provider contact information.

It has been said that the further we get away from September eleventh, the closer we get to September tenth. A quick look at our border and our world situation should expound that truth clearly. Staff and volunteers should spend time looking at contingencies for a variety of crises, and developing plans and options for communication regarding such plans. Poor planning promotes poor performance. And communication is vital to any plan.