I’ve wanted to write about this for quite sometime now. This comes from watching and sometimes snoozing through one too many speeches by leaders (in politics and business) coming across as flat, uninspiring and being read. As a leader, speeches should aim be inspiring. When you aim to inspire, people should feel sincerity. Reading speeches is not leading – where inspiration is critical. For once I’d like to have a goosebump moment or have the hairs on the back of my neck stand up listening to a speech from a leader in Kenya instead of from a fictional one played on TV.
Whereas reading a speech may not necessarily mean you aren’t speaking from the heart, politicians like Obama or Blair are naturally good performers who are adept at using speech prompters, which make them look as though they have learned the speech, which is very seldom the case. They also have excellent speech writers and researchers who work with them on creating their speeches. But they also have a large amount of input so they are not just reading the words of someone else. It is always more convincing to speak without notes, but to learn a speech takes time and it means rehearsing. However all is not lost - Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy most memorable and inspirational lines didn’t come from extemporaneous speeches but from written speeches. “I have a dream…..” and “ask not what your country can do for you…..” both came from speeches in all likelihood written by someone else.
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