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yourself and explain your credentials. If you are asked to characterize your work experience, you want to do so in a clear and persuasive manner. You want to make a good impression. Voila! You have delivered a persuasion speech!
When you are facing your clients There is so much that you have learned
about animal care, and you want your clients to know what they need to do in order to keep their animals healthy. How can you get them to understand? Can you convince them that you know what is best? What do you need to say in order to motivate them to comply with your advice? You may not have realized it, but you have become a sales person. Again, you are engaged in persuasive speech.
Find out what you can about the age, background, interests, and education or knowledge of your listeners.
When you have a new idea to share with your colleagues You are a bright and thoughtful veteri-
narian. You have an idea for a new proce- dure you would like your clinic to adopt, or maybe a more efficient way to manage what the clinic has been doing. Can you present your idea in a coherent manner? To be respected, you will need to be clear, informative and able to sell your idea. Yes, a persuasive speech again.
When you’re moving up in the ranks Suppose you have been hired as the
new manager of a clinic. You are looked on as being a leader. In this role, you are expected to have oral communica- tion competence, including the ability to answer questions extemporaneously, engage in discussion or debate the issues. Whether you are talking to your staff or to a group of owners, those listening will measure your leadership ability by how well you present yourself.
When you move beyond your clinic Given the experience you have had
in the veterinary profession, you may be called on to share your knowledge with others in your profession at regional or national, or even international, con- ventions. Can you make the needed
impression with conviction and profes- sionalism? Your presentation will reflect on you and on your clinic. You do not want to risk not being good at it! Stumbling, fumbling for words, reading in a mono- tone—how annoying, how embarrassing!
Public speaking 101 When you were trying to master his-
tology, pharmacology, microbiology and virology, you probably missed the offerings in the speech communication department. It is not too late, however. If you are not a natural at it, take a look as these 12 factors and see which ones you need to bone up on.
Purpose If you had taken that speech course,
you would have been told that all presen- tations fall into at least one of three cat- egories: to inform, to persuade or to enter- tain. Think about what your primary pur- pose is. It will help you select your words. For example, you may want to teach
your colleague how to conduct a preg- nancy diagnosis on a large animal. Your purpose is to inform, so get the facts straight and prepare to demonstrate. Maybe you want to convince your cli-
ent that in the long run, prevention will be less expensive than avoidance of regu- lar veterinary visits. Now, your purpose is to persuade. Sometimes the purpose is to entertain,
to lighten the conversation, maybe to warm up an audience, or just to bond with a colleague or client. This is the time to tell the hilarious story about the client who brought you a cat that was practically feral, which you learned only after its claws dug into you and you felt a sharp pain shoot up your arm. As you describe the feral feline that spun out of the door, you have your audience in stitches. You have entertained! Look back on your discourses and
ask yourself how well you accomplished your purpose. How well did your purpose match the listener’s purpose? (Were you wanting to explain how you arrived at your diagnosis when your client wanted only the diagnosis?)
Trends magazine, November 2012
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