The Ultimate 3-Step Guide to Giving Impactful Speeches at Work for Advanced Speakers
People will never forget how you made them feel
After a couple of years of leading your teams through team meetings, all-hands crisis gatherings, and farewell speeches, you arrive at the level of experience where giving a speech is just another task on your to-do list.
Congratulations, you may call yourself an advanced speaker!
As an advanced speaker, your feelings related to speaking in public do not negatively affect your leadership performance. Instead, you leverage your emotions for impact.
Suppose this is not you yet. You may want to check out parts 1 and 2 of this series.
Start with my Beginner Guide if your feelings of anxiety are disrupting your ability to function:
Continue with my Intermediate Guide to ensure captivated listeners:
The 3 step guide you are currently reading is for the leader with advanced speaking abilities who wants to maximize the impact of every speech she gives.
Let’s get down to business.
STEP 1: Create templates.
At the beginning of my leadership journey, I read Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz.
In his semi-autobiography, Howard Schultz shares how he started Starbucks (actually, he bought it) and built it into the corporation it is now.
I was eager to learn some of his leadership secrets to help me in my journey, and the thing that struck me the most was that he did not prepare his speeches. He would go from a plantation to a factory to a Starbucks store and, without writing down his thoughts, deliver a speech.
I read his book at a time when I would write word-for-word what I would say at a team meeting or farewell speech and practice elaborately beforehand. I could not understand how one could speak to a large audience without any rehearsal.
Fifteen years later, I understand, and I, too, perform speeches without any preparation, and my orations are better for it.
As an advanced speaker, one of your most significant assets is being comfortable standing in front of a group. You have developed the capability to speak to a crowd how you would one-on-one.
To leverage this crucial expertise, you do not want to have your message set in stone, but instead, tailor your message and your delivery to the audience as you go.
You can leverage your impromptu speaking mastery with templates.
I will give an example; this is the template I use whenever one of my direct reports moves on to another job:
- Introduction
- Three aspects of her character
- Three examples of the impact she had on the team that illustrate her character
- Thank you & good luck
I will usually think about the three aspects and examples ahead of time, but even without little notice, I know from experience I can come up with a goodbye speech on the spot as I know my direct report.
I have similar templates for announcing changes (1. Current state, 2. Risks associated with the current state, 3. The consequence of not changing, 4. Benefits of changing) and other recurring speeches I must give as a leader.
These templates give me the confidence to give impromptu speeches, save a ton of preparation time, and focus on impact during the speech as I tailor my message to the audience while I carry out my speech.
STEP 2: Check your ego at the door.
As you get more comfortable with public speaking, your Ego might come to enjoy the attention.
This can lead to prioritizing your feelings of importance over the impact on the audience.
The goal of your speech should never be to impress others with your impeccable public speaking skills. It should always be to influence your audience positively.
Suppose your Christmas party speech is an excellent performance, full of jokes and impersonations. This will undoubtedly entertain most people and leave them impressed with your awesomeness.
But your team will feel empty leaving the gathering, not having heard any appreciation for the pains they endured during the preceding year.
Your audience will never benefit from your speech becoming a standup show or Beyonce performance. Unless you are Beyonce, in that case: keep up the excellent work B!
You need to check your Ego at the door.
It is never about you.
It is always about them.
STEP 3: Regulate your emotions.
My beginner guide is about regulating your anxiety to a level that does not disrupt your peace of mind or speaking abilities.
At the intermediate level, you focus on bringing variety to your voice to keep your audience engaged.
At the advanced level, we come full circle as we start to regulate our emotions during a speech to maximize impact.
I used to deliver every speech with a big smile and cheerful appearance, leaving my direct reports confused when I delivered what they perceived as bad news.
Knowing how you feel about a particular issue is essential before you talk about it. If a necessary corporate change leaves you insecure about the future, you should be aware of this feeling.
Once you are mindful of your emotions, you can mask or share these feelings in your message.
There will be moments in your career when you feel unsure of the road ahead, and your team benefits from a leader emanating conviction.
“One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure” — Howard Schultz
At other times you will have the best impact by being as authentic as possible; share your feelings as you experience them.
“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.” — Brené Brown
A rule of thumb that I use to decide when to share and when not:
If sharing my feelings benefits my team, I will show up with vulnerability; if it only benefits myself, I will not.
It is all about Feelings
There will come a day when you will say goodbye to your team. They will not remember what you said; they will not remember what you did. The only thing they will remember is how you made them feel.
Did they feel heard?
Did they feel safe and included?
These two questions are top of mind during every speech I give. They help me check my ego at the door and regulate my emotions. It ensures I do whatever is best for my team instead of what feels best for me.
Leadership is not about the success you have or the position you hold.
Leadership is about how you make others feel.
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