Introduction

Hello everyone! Welcome to the first blog post on my Skill Hacking blog! My name is Lauren Rivera and I am a sophomore accounting student at the University at Buffalo. For my Communication Literacy for Business class, I must research and focus on a soft skill of my choice and report it on my blog. The soft skill that I have chosen is Public Speaking.

I chose to study the soft skill public speaking because it is used in the workplace and the University at Buffalo extremely often. It is a skill that various types of people must be familiar with to be successful. For example, many classes at school require students to present in front of the class. Also, corporations and facilities hold meetings that you might have to speak at. In my blog posts, I will be focusing on public speaking in the workplace. Either way, it is in our best interest to be the best public speakers that we can be!

Through my research, I would like to find some tips and suggestions to improve one’s public speaking skills. In contrast, I would also like to research what NOT to do while public speaking. Lastly, I would like to see how public speaking skills affect one’s impression of the speaker (i.e. how a good or bad public speaker is perceived).

My overall goal for the end of the Skill Hacking Project is to become a better public speaker. Since public speaking is a crucial soft skill to have in the corporate world, I want to become as good of a public speaker as I can. However, to achieve this goal, I must practice. For example, last semester I took a huge step out of my comfort zone and participated in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Case Competition Challenge. I was very anxious about the presentation and questioned my public speaking skills, but with the experience and practice I received through the competition, I became a better public speaker.

I am excited to discover other ways to become a better public speaker!