Nearly all of your day-to-day communication inside the plant is verbal, rather than written. Speech is far more efficient at getting your point across or convincing people that your point of view is the right thing to do and, if nothing else, certainly worthy of consideration.
In any case, showing poise and control of the manner and style with which you speak will serve you well in giving guidance to subordinates as well as convincing your supervisor that you know what you’re doing.
The principles of effective speech are well known. Our history is filled with great orators. Some of these proven techniques are listed in “Want to know how to handle all of these?” Although it’s directed at speech writers, the ideas presented should be easy enough to remember during normal daily conversations.
On the other hand, there might be times during which you’ll need to address the entire maintenance team of other equally important group in the plant environment. That’s when it would be valuable to keep in your arsenal at least some of the ideas you’ll find in “Public Speaking Tips,” which lists 30 bullet-points that can help when you’re requesting funding for some maintenance project.
Finally, if it’s a formal speech you’re planning to give, you’ll need to start with some sort of outline to ensure you don’t miss anything that you want to convey. As it turns out, Daniel Kies in the Department of English at the College of DuPage shows you how the professionals do it. The first step is given in “Developing an Outline.” This is a recipe for building a solid foundation for your presentation.
Then, you can see “Sample Outline,” a finished outline that follows the principles given in the previous article.
