Why it is important to follow certain ethical standards in public speaking?

Ethics in public speaking, like most other professions, is essential for the credibility of all who share in this field. Communication and ethics should fit like a hand on a glove.

Ethics Public Speaking

Ethics (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) are a set of moral principles. They especially are principles relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct.

Public speaking and those who attain mastery of public speaking have both mores and ethics they must follow. Failure to follow these could cost their credibility and future ability to speak.

The damage a speaker can do because of not having their ethics in check means that the standards need to be even higher.

If you desire to join the NSA or National Speakers Association, you will have to meet such a high code.

If you want to become a professional, start to apply these principles now.

The National Speakers Association Code of Professional Ethics

Within the NSA code of ethics is a purpose statement are important reasons for the code. Professionalism, dedication, integrity and honesty no-doubt would seem to be obvious ethical standards.

The code also includes stewardship.

When your speaking on the stage, you are in one sense, a steward. The steward is responsible to take care of the audience. This care extends beyond what you say. If there was an emergency, the audience will be listening to your direction. You will be responsible for disruptions.

Another definition of steward is supervising arrangements and keeping order.

Perhaps most the most important aspect of being a public speaker is that on becoming one, you are the steward of the profession and how others view public speakers.

The Most Important Ethics in Public Speaking

Be truthful, honest and accurate in presenting your qualifications and experience.

Be ethical and professional in actions and business practice.

You never would want to do anything that would discredit yourself, the profession of public speaking or or other public speakers. This requires consequential thinking...("if I do this, what will the consequences be").

Try to understand the organization you will represent and the audience needs. You will need to know the approaches, goals and cultures of the those you will be speaking for and using speaker skills and expertise to meet those specific needs.

Be original, both in speech and writing or, if using material from another speaker or writer, have approval (in writing) and give credit. Using the material of another is usually limited to stories, illustrations and anecdotes.

Have and maintain a relationship of shared responsibility and respect, dignity and professional courtesy, and the highest ethical standards with other speakers.

This is a universal standard of most professions from Architect to Zoologists. You should never say anything bad about another in your social or professional conversation unless asked by the speaker to critique their speaking. Even then, treat them respectfully.

Maintain the highest ethical standards and practices and to help protect audiences from fraud or unfair practices from the speaking profession. Additionally, great speakers try to eliminate practices that bring discredit to the speaking profession.

As stewards of the speaking profession, we have a responsibility to maintain high standards and prevent bad ones from entering the profession.

As the saying goes, "The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want." This means taking our desires and thoughts of benefiting ourselves out of the equation and be totally selfless in helping others.

Great public speakers do not take part in any arrangement or pursuits that would prevent or limit other speakers access to the market place, a client or the public.

Public speaking and ethics includes not limiting others by means of economic, race, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or nationality.

This is an overview of the NSA Code of Professional Ethics.

Note:The web does not like duplicate content. So, this is a digested version of the NSA Code. To see the actual code, click on the heading link above.

This chapter, except where otherwise noted, is adapted from Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Now that you’ve learned the foundations of public speaking, you know that creating a speech involves more than just slapping some facts together and hoping your audience listens. In this module, we move on to explore a core element of public speaking: the importance of ethical communication. We’ve all heard advertisers, received a sales pitch, and listened to politicians who try and persuade us to take some action. But how do we know these are ethical communications? Speechmakers may manipulate facts, present one-sided arguments, and even lie to persuade their audience. And the audience may be fooled if they are not listening critically. None of these actions involve ethical communication. When speakers do not speak ethically, they taken advantage of their audience. When an audience does not listen critically, they disrespect the speaker.

In this module, we will explore what it means to be both an ethical speaker and an ethical listener. You can ethically and effectively persuade. And you can take responsibility to be ethically informed. We will show you how.

Ethical Speaking

Angel Chess Demon, by OpenClipart-Vectors, licensed under Pixabay License

Every day, people around the world make ethical decisions regarding public speech, for example, is it ever appropriate to lie if it’s in a group’s best interest? Should you use evidence to support your speech’s core argument when you are not sure if the evidence is correct? Should you refuse to listen to a speaker with whom you fundamentally disagree? These three examples represent ethical choices that speakers and listeners face in the public speaking context. To help you understand the issues involved with thinking about ethics, we begin this module by presenting an ethical communications model, known as the ethics pyramid. We will then show how you can apply the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Credo for Ethical Communication to public speaking. We will conclude with a general free speech discussion.

The Ethics Pyramid

One way to talk about ethics is to use the ethics pyramid. What is the ethics pyramid?

Tilley, E. (2005). The ethics pyramid: Making ethics unavoidable in the public relations process. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 20, 305–320. https://open.lib.umn.edu/publicspeaking/chapter/2-1-the-ethics-pyramid/#wrench_1.0-ch02_s01_f01

Why is it important to follow certain ethical standards?

It is important to adhere to ethical principles in order to protect the dignity, rights and welfare of research participants. As such, all research involving human beings should be reviewed by an ethics committee to ensure that the appropriate ethical standards are being upheld.

Why are ethical manners important in speech situation?

The characteristics of an ethical speaker are creating a sense of trust with the audience by acting and speaking with integrity. Ethical speakers also respect others by removing bias and prejudice from speeches and ensure all information in a speech is true and cited.

Why is it important to communicate ethical and public?

Honest communication not only builds trust, it also helps you and others identify and work on any fissures that may arise in the intersection between authority, power, and teamwork. Without honesty, communication fails at its core purpose. When communicating in your workplace, transparency is key.

What is the basic ethical standard for public speaking?

The two most important aspects in ethical communication include your ability to remain honest while avoiding plagiarism and to set and meet responsible speech goals. Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.