June 26, 6:09 am
Hiring a speaker? Let him speak
A while back I was hired to deliver a keynote speech for a national organization’s annual meeting. My philosophy is that if you’re going to hire a speaker on a particular topic, let that person speak on the topic — don’t try to write his speech for him.
But that didn’t happen this time. One of the company’s VP’s got a little controlling with what he wanted me to say.
Okay, VERY controlling.
In retrospect, if I ever find myself in the same situation again I’ll probably say “thanks for the offer, but find someone else to talk.”
At first it was just a phone call from a vice president outlining a few things he wanted me to cover. I didn’t mind that. Normally speakers appreciate a heads up for how to tailor a speech.
But one phone call became two, … then three, … then four, … and pretty soon he was starting to fill in the gaps. I came within a hair’s breadth of asking him “would you like to give this speech?”
When the time came, it was one of the least enjoyable keynotes I ever presented. It wasn’t my style and I know I could have done a lot better. Don’t get me wrong, the speech came off fine enough. People talked with me afterwards and I sold some of my books, which is the usual fare.
But I know the speech would have packed a lot more punch and had a much greater impact if I had been allowed to create my own presentation around the topic I was given. Trying to cover every detail the VP wanted drew energy away from the speech rather than adding to it.
What I’m saying here is if you hire someone to speak to your organization, do your homework ahead of time and select someone you know is going to give the type of speech you want.
But if you have a detailed outline of what you want delivered, think about giving the speech yourself.
Filed in Opinion, Training, Leadership, Workplace, Keynote, Corporate Culture
Discussion
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