A speech is a gift, not a performance!

So far we know that great communicators have a provocative and useful idea and tell great stories. The third of the six things every great communicator does is develop an audience mindset: it’s not about you, it’s about them!

“A speech is a gift, not a performance.” This is one of my favorite homilies about speaking, because its puts the emphasis right where it should be.  On your audience and what they need. Your speech isn’t about you. You are speaking because you have something great to share with your audience.

What does everyone sitting in the auditorium long for (and so rarely receive) in a keynote address?  A provocative idea, a great new tool, a penetrating insight that could change their business, their careers, their lives.

Even if you’re doing your monthly all hands for employees, you are there to give them direction and even more importantly to give them inspiration, motivation, recognition. If you’re speaking to your investors you are giving them the gift of clarity about the state of their investment.

Give your audience something that will make their business or lives better. Something that captures their attention, provokes them to think, compels them to discuss, and motivates them to act.  When you succeed in doing this in a keynote, your external audiences will talk about how great your speech was, and they’ll want to come hear you again. Even more importantly, when you succeed in doing this internally, you harness the inherent power in your great team to achieve great things.  In other words, you lead.