The BIUST Student Representative Council (SRC) held a successful public speaking session themed “Ignite the Mic-Public Speaking Empowerment Session”, at the University auditorium on 15 March 2025.
The empowerment session featured Ms. Kealeboga Kaelo, the Managing Director at Precision Vehicle and Assert Tracking company who focused on ‘Effective Communication and Personal Growth’, a topic which resonates well with students as it targets development on an individual level to ensure that one does not remain stuck in one space in their life.
She also spoke about the importance of effective verbal communication. She focused her speech on communication as a leader, “when you are communicating as a leader, you need to understand your audience”. She emphasized the need to use simple language when addressing a crowd to make sure that the message is received and interpreted well.
She continued by saying that how a speaker presents their body determines whether their message is well received or not. Ms Kaelo said that when one is fidgety, it could be somewhat destructive as the audience would be drawn to their non-verbal cues, totally disregarding what is being verbally communicated in due process. When speaking on the personal growth part of her sub-topic, she said that one ought to never stop learning be it from other people or academics. There is a Setswana saying, “thuto ga e golelwe”, loosely meaning that learning never stops and Ms. Kaelo came into alignment with the expression to say that personal development is important as it augments one’s skills, setting them apart from the rest.
For her part, Dr. Kebaneilwe Lebani, a lecturer in BIUST, said as a leader who is trusted with authority, it is not wise to bulldoze subordinates. She said that it is important to let everyone have a say on matters discussed to solicit various ideas and have them have a sense of accountability on decisions taken concerning different topics.
She said that it is imperative to use one’s voice positively to instill the change one would like to see. She implored the audience that as they may be aspiring to become leaders, they must decide on what they are going to use their voices for and how they intend to go about it. Communication is a diverse tool and various people use different methods like poetry, music and song, drawing just to name but a few and as a leader, it is important to acknowledge all these methods and embrace everyone with their uniqueness. “To be a good communicator, make sure that you listen, that you learn the values that make up the discipline that you wish to pursue and have your message simple and easy to understand”, said Dr. Lebani.
Both speakers shared the sentiment that when given the opportunity to lead, one must make the environment safe for everyone to thrive in their individual spheres to produce results which will benefit the organization if it is in a workplace.