The power of one good speech

January marks the beginning of awards season in Hollywood and one speech in particular has grabbed special attention already. Here's my view on why that happened and how you can do the same in business.

When Barack Obama gave his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Oprah Winfrey was watching at home in her living room. As he left the stage she said, “He could be the One”. She gave him support and connections along the way, endorsing him instead of Hillary Clinton to become President in 2008.

If you haven’t seen Obama’s DNC speech it is well worth watching (whatever your political views are). It is a case study in how to get a standing ovation through the power of great oratory, storytelling and a dynamic speaking style that triggers a range of powerful emotions from the audience.  

This week at the Golden Globes it was Oprah’s turn to give a rousing speech. It grabbed the hearts of people across the room so strongly that her standing ovation started half-way through. Now people are talking about her the way she talked about Obama.

There have been suggestions of her running before this, which she has always denied, but the level of passion behind it has never been this strong. Meryl Streep, who was watching the speech from the front row, said “She launched a rocket tonight. I want her to run for president. I don’t think she had any intention [of declaring]. But now she doesn’t have a choice.”

We could debate all day about whether someone with no political experience should run for president, using their current leader as an example. But what does all of this mean for you? What can you learn from this? Perhaps you have seen two people go for a promotion and wondered why the less qualified person got the job. Maybe you have expressed your ideas in a meeting, only to be shouted down, then minutes later heard someone else say the exact same thing and gain a unanimously positive response. Why is that? The answer is simple.

Ideas don’t speak for themselves.

It doesn’t matter how great your idea is, or how qualified you are. Those elements are not enough for you to succeed. You must also be able to rally people around you to make ideas happen. Some people are more skilled at one-to-one connections, others are better at talking to large groups. Success in politics undoubtedly requires both. In business you need to master the art of communicating in person, by phone, Webex and email, but the moments you spend with people are the most important.

Think about it this way – why do you meet people? In the age of emails, we are able to send lengthy messages, complex documents and slides at the touch of a button. So you never need to meet clients or colleagues to give them information. You meet them to connect and to bring more life to a message than an email can.

Here are my top 3 take-away messages from this:

1) How much time do you spend working on your delivery of an important message? The answer? Not enough. I don’t mean the number of hours you waste on Powerpoint slides. I worked with a client last year that was tinkering with changing a couple of words on a 200-slide deck that had 100 words per slide, the day before a pitch that was worth over ￡700 million. They hadn’t spent any time practising their delivery or even deciding who would present each part. I had to forcibly stop them from typing so that we could work on what mattered – making sure that they looked and sounded compelling, confident and convincing. Don’t get me wrong. You need good content. They had it. They just thought good content was enough. I knew the client wouldn’t read that 20,000 word document while they were in the room. Instead the client would look at them and think ‘do we believe in you?’ We changed their focus, worked on the delivery for a full day and they won the pitch. Before your next important meeting or pitch grab a colleague or a coach and work through your delivery. Remember that amateurs practise until they get it right. Professionals practise until they can’t get it wrong.

2) Stories rule. They are not ‘nice to haves’. They are not ‘little extra bits that might liven things up’. Stories ARE the message. We are born to remember stories. Our minds light up and create mental pictures that we can remember for decades when we hear a great story. In contrast, lists, bullet-points and ‘executive summary slides’ are forgotten, no matter how nice the graphics and font are. Check out Obama’s and Winfrey’s speeches to hear clear examples of stories that are not side-lines. They are used to encapsulate the heart of the message.

3) Authentic passion – I’m sure you have heard people talk about their professional life and their personal life. This can lead to people thinking that their work is a place where they should be impersonal. As a result you may hear people say, “I feel really excited about this issue,” while hunching over and staring at the table, with their arms folded. You don’t need to leap up and down, but you do need to let your voice and body communicate in the way that you were born to speak. Many adults have put their voices and bodies into lock-down in a bid to seem professional. Perhaps there was a time when that worked. That era is over. The age of social media demands a more human response. You cannot lead people with just your job title either. Your team, client or community expect more from you. You must share your passion, show how you feel and engage their emotions, so that they feel compelled to support you. That’s how you start a movement, win a pitch, get a promotion or get votes in an election.

You may feel that stories, practise and passion are not for you. These areas can certainly take practise, as you fight against years of bad habits and cultural conditioning that may have hindered you along the way. I highlight them to ensure that you focus on them. Everyone was born to speak, including you. Communication is fundamental to our survival. How much you use these inborn skills is up to you.