Public Speaking Academy’s Reading List – Our Favourite Books to Boost Your Public Speaking

It’s a new year, and that means another 365 days for us to start our reading habit and improve our skills! Our training team over at the Public Speaking Academy often enjoy relaxing with a copy of a powerful book in hand. Beyond just a relaxing activity, these books may also offer us insights into public speaking techniques. These techniques can range from general speaking confidence to context-specific skills (e.g., negotiation, interview skills).

But why should you read a book? Isn’t public speaking a practice-based skill? Books are gateways to the underlying theory behind the practice of public speaking. Instead of diving headlong (and blindly!) into a communication scenario, understand and learn how the experts before you have done it! These books offer more than just plain theory. They are accompanied by riveting accounts of relevant, in-depth, and valuable experiences.

Today, let us share three of our favourite public speaking/communication books for your 2021 reading list!

To Boost Your Public Speaking Skills

One of the strong favourites in our reading list is the quintessential public speaking guide – Talk Like Ted (Pan Macmillan, 2014) by Carmine Gallo. The author explores the powerful techniques (both in terms of presentation content and delivery) used in successful TED (or associated Tedx conferences) presentations. While the book is styled for delivering a TED-type presentation, it offers implementable, digestible, and valuable insights into crafting and delivering a confident presentation.

What can I use the book for? If you are looking for a quick, but in-depth, guide into public speaking, this may just be the book for you to start with. The techniques covered can be immediately applied to your day-to-day settings without requiring a huge change in your habits. Beyond the techniques, the sharing of various TED talks (from preparation to presentation) offers a unique window into the mind of powerful speakers around the world.

To Energise Your Charisma

Charisma is another important facet of public speaking/communication skills. While often seen as a difficult concept to nail down, The Charisma Myth (Penguin Books Ltd, 2013) by Cabane, Olivia Fox distils the mystical ways of charisma in a structured and readable fashion. The book provides a detailed breakdown of the elements that make one “charismatic” and builds in exercises for the reader to apply in their day-to-day settings.

What can I use the book for? If you are likely to encounter networking or small-communication settings, you are in need of the necessary skills to build a magnetic charisma and draw people towards you. This book offers a powerful scaffold that you can use as a guide – beyond just reading it once through. The Charisma Myth breaks down a difficult topic and will encourage you to take your first step in bringing your charisma to the next level.

To Improve Your Conflict-Resolution Skills

A tough communication scenario that our learners tend to ask about is how we can apply public speaking/communication skills to resolve conflict. This process involves more than just skills-building; a communicator needs to understand the end-goal in a conflict or discussion. In this regard, Getting to Yes (Cornerstone, 2012) by Roger Fisher, William Ury is an incisive, structured, and implementable sharing on win-win negotiation.

What can I use the book for? If you are looking at a way to arrive at an agreement while creating value, this book is bound to be your favourite! Our training team enjoy exploring the concepts within – breaking down a negotiation as a potentially value-creating process. We found the concepts thoroughly researched and backed by the various relevant experiences (including international negotiation experiences as case studies!).

Expand Your Library!

While the books above are just some of our favourites on our personal reading list, we encourage you to continue looking out for books that can fill your 2021 list. Before you start your public speaking class or course, explore some of these techniques for context and prepare questions for your mentor, coach, or trainer to zoom in on. What are your favourite public speaking/communication books? Drop us a message/comment and let us know!

Note: This article was not sponsored (in any form) by the authors/publishers/companies etc. of the respective books above – the sharing above is purely this author’s personal opinion

By The Way…

If you are keen to take your public speaking skills & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation / training for presentation to clients / kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may communicate and deliver speeches with greater flair and charisma, feel free to check out our public speaking course for adults and public speaking course for kids below!

For more about our (weekly group classes) Public Speaking Courses for Adults :

https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/

If you are looking for a 2-day intensive public speaking/ presentation course for adults instead (for our adult learners who can’t do weekends), learn more about our Presentation Skills Training Course here: https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/presentation-skills-training-course-by-world-champion/

If you are looking for Public Speaking Course for Kids / Children:

https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/

If you are a human resources manager/ business owner in your company…

We want to help you bring out the best in your team, organization, and company. Public speaking and communication skills for the workplace, such as persuasion, remain a priority for most corporate training out there. We believe in staying ahead of the curve in sharing the contemporary communication skills to help you and your team remain relevant, competitive and nimble. Through our customized corporate training programmes, your team will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on, and potential-maximising public speaking training programme!

Feel free to reach out to us to curate your own public speaking corporate training programme for your team, company, or organization! Let us help you develop them into highly effective public speakers at work, empowered with effective presentation skills & storytelling skills – them giving speeches with charisma, influence and impact is something you can look forward to!

For effective presentation skills & public speaking skills training for corporates/ employees: https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/corporate-public-speaking-training-workshop/