How to Give a Great Guest Lecture
My business school students would love to hear your story
I love inviting guest speakers to my marketing lectures. So do my students — they often mention it as a course highlight.
If the idea of giving a guest lecture appeals to you, I encourage you to reach out to college professors in your area. Perhaps you like interacting with young people or have an exciting story to share. Or maybe you are considering part-time teaching in the future.
Don’t hesitate. Most professors are eager to bring in professionals. It engages students, makes their subject come alive, and allows them to sit back and listen for once.
You don’t need 10 years of experience. In fact, students usually are more eager to hear from young professionals who are just a few years ahead of them.
How to Give a Great Lecture
In my 10 years of teaching, I‘ve had about 30 guest lecturers. I’ve never had a bad experience, but some speakers were better than others.
I always send my guest lecturers a message with 5 recommendations.
Recommendation 1: Know Your Audience
First-year bachelor students are very different from MBA students with 5 years of work experience. So make sure you know who’s in front of you.
Also, be aware of the course curriculum and how your guest lecture fits in. If you plan to use a concept of framework, you may want to check if it’s already been covered in previous lectures.
Don’t feel forced to cover an entire 3-hour lecture. If you want to speak for 1 hour or less, that’s fine.
Recommendation 2: Tell a Personal Story
Don’t try to teach marketing theory or your company’s philosophy.
Instead, tell a story based on your personal experience. The best guest lectures I’ve had were about a new product launch, a repositioned brand, or a sustainability campaign.
If you use business frameworks, keep them simple and use them only to illustrate how you made decisions.
Recommendation 3: Make it Interactive
Students will be much more engaged if you have a dialogue with them.
Sometimes, it can be tricky to start the interaction, especially with undergraduate students. Start by asking them what they know about your company, if they use your products, etc. Identify the students who are most engaged and focus on them initially.
Build the interaction gradually. Asking students to raise their hands is low effort. Next, ask a few simple questions, such as to estimate a number.
Recommendation 4: Keep it Short
Over half of my guest lecturers run out of time because they cover too much material.
You need about 2 minutes per slide for a regular PowerPoint presentation, so 30 slides per hour. But an interactive lecture is very different, so you should aim for 15 slides.
Leave enough time for questions during the lecture and at the end.
Recommendation 5: Give Career Advice
End your presentation with some advice on careers in your field.
Students will want to know what your job is like on a daily basis, what to look for in a company, and how they can stand out when they apply.
Be ready to answer the question if you have a job for them — ‘No’ is fine.
None of my guests have ever regretted giving a lecture to my students.
Several of them have become regulars and return every 2 or 3 years. A few even found part-time teaching jobs after I gave them their first experience.
There’s nothing like sharing your insight with an engaged young audience.
I am a university professor and researcher living in Geneva, Switzerland. I have worked for Procter Gamble and BMW. I write about marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and business school teaching.
