Wisdom from Peanut Butter & Jelly

As I was making lunch, seriously 10 minutes ago, I started thinking about public speaking. I know, this is odd. I'm sure not many people think about public speaking while they're making peanut butter (well in my case almond butter) and jelly sandwiches, but I was.

It actually brought me back to my sophomore year of high school when I took student leadership as an elective. (It was supposed to look good on a college application, however,I'm not sure that it made a difference). One of the assignments for this class was to give a "how to" speech. I'm pretty sure I gave my speech on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, even though at the time I'm sure I refused to eat them. I remember how much I despised giving speeches and still do. I think I was afraid that I wasn't going to say the right thing, be prepared enough or that the grade was subjectively given by the teacher so it wasn't going to matter anyway. In a sense I still feel that way now except the grade isn't given by a teacher per se, but rather by my audience..

Anyway, the deeper issue that this brought to my attention is why do speeches and leadership go hand-in-hand? I do believe it's possible to be a public leader and not give public speeches. Why can't people just lead by example? Nothing will be accomplished if people don't do what they say they will.

I think it's the medias fault. (Isn't everything?) But more specifically, television's fault, or maybe how we view what "public" means in public speeches. FDR gave his famous fireside chats over the radio in 1933. Does that count as a public speech? I would feel much more comfortable in a sound booth than I would being filmed giving a speech or even standing in front of a large group of people. I think people feel like they need to see someone to be able to relate to them in some way. I think it's because we all subconsciously judge people on how they look, how they stand, how they dress. I, for instance, don't like many politicians' speech writers. Not that I could do better, but if they have the money to buy words, they could do better.

In J-school they told us that "public" referred to our audience, so I think that the term "public speaking" is relative. While I continue to conquer my fear of engaging large audiences, I will choose to believe that public speaking refers to any spoken word that is consumed by a public, and look for more ways to find and encourage those who lead by doing rather than saying anything.