What can really motivate your employees
to bring their best selves to work?
Staff meetings and company-wide addresses can energize a team
and build a strong company culture.
As a leader, it's your responsibility
to energize, strengthen, and build
an organization that can accomplish a vision.
Today, I'm going to share some advice
on how to deliver a speech for work that's truly inspiring.
We'll cover why it's important to bring your employees
together, the best ways to captivate your audience,
and provide actionable examples along the way.
Be sure to stick around for one common mistake you
should definitely try to avoid.
You don't want to miss this one.
Now, let's quickly review why giving
an encouraging motivational speech is important for you
to do as a boss.
When you're in charge, one of your responsibilities
is to be the inspiring visionary who
compels each employee to bring their best selves to work.
Even if you run a department within a larger organization,
your role is to encourage peak performance.
If you'd like to learn more about how to be a great boss,
be sure to check out this video.
While every boss has multiple responsibilities
beyond encouraging their employees,
this is really at the heart of what being a good leader
is about.
Since your employees may have heard you speak before,
and they're familiar with the broader vision and values
of the organization, each individual speech
should be timely and reflect what's going on right now.
A company is ever evolving, and so are
people's challenges and needs.
By speaking to the current moment,
you can make your team feel valued, heard, and respected.
So now that we understand why one
of the most important responsibilities of a leader
is to give motivational speeches,
let's understand how to do it well.
I'll break it down into three key steps.
Step one, be vulnerable.
First, you'll want to demonstrate vulnerability.
Now, this word has become really trendy,
but what it really means is that you
want to show your humanity, personality, and relatability.
While sticking to workplace-appropriate topics,
you can use humor, tell a personal anecdote,
or refer to an inside joke that your audience understands,
which can help them feel like they belong.
One example might be to tell a brief personal story
about your weekend.
Did you have a fun family movie night,
or did you discover a new restaurant
or maybe take the dogs on a nice long walk?
If you're speaking remotely from your home,
you might even open up with a 10-second tour
of your workstation.
Show your team what you have on your desk that
delights or motivates you.
It can be something as simple as a picture of your pet,
or maybe even point out a house plant
that you've been over-watering.
If you feel uncomfortable about getting too personal,
you could refer to something like the coffee
cup in your hand and talk about the little details
and make it yours, like maybe having
double shots of espresso, with two shakes of vanilla powder,
or even crack a joke about putting up
fancy books in the backdrop of your Zoom screen.
Now, all of this might sound trivial,
but a brief reminder that you're a person with a life
outside of work makes you relatable,
and it can set a sincere tone for the rest of your speech.
It's even better if there's a way
to smoothly transition from that topic or observation
into the goal of your speech.
Now, before I move on to the next tip,
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All right, next up--
step two.
Share the purpose of your talk.
Why are you meeting?
The second feature of an engaging speech
is to be clear about the goal of the meeting.
Are you trying to motivate your staff
to reach a specific objective?
Are you announcing changes and want to bring everyone
into alignment?
Clearly tell the audience what you
want to accomplish in speaking with them today.
If you're gathering your employees together
to talk about upcoming changes, even if they are positive,
be as clear as possible about what exactly is happening.
Explain how those changes might look and feel
for various stakeholders, so they
feel considered and recognized.
If you're speaking at an infrequent all-hands meeting
your content will be broad, but you can still
be direct about your purpose.
Are you reflecting on a past job well done,
or revving up the team for a big audacious initiative ahead?
Don't be subtle.
State your aim explicitly.
If there's a training element to your motivational talk,
be super clear about why it's important for everyone to learn
and adopt the new content.
Changing behaviors or practices can be an uphill struggle.
So, the more that you lean into the why and express faith
in your team, the smoother it will go.
Step three, maintain positivity.
In order to be motivating, no matter the reason for speaking,
you want to show optimism and positivity.
If the meeting is to share good news, this is easy.
But if the gathering is more somber,
your style, opening, and especially the closing,
should be hopeful and affirming.
Let's say you're bringing the team together
because they aren't meeting goals.
Remind them of the times in the past
when they caught up quickly despite a slow start
and end on a positive, hopeful note.
If you're announcing staff changes,
focus on how confident you are of the future.
Name the people in departments will
be taking over specific functions
or describe a new hire's background and accomplishments
if you've identified a replacement.
When the speech is broad, like at a holiday party,
unleash your inner cheerleader.
This is easy for charismatic extroverts.
So for all you introverts out there,
be intentional about amplifying your genuine confidence
in your team.
Step four, tie back to your companies core mission.
Reiterate well-established company-wide core
values and the long-term vision and mission of your company.
These fundamentals are easy to forget
in the day-to-day business of each employee's job.
And a reminder that their efforts
are contributing to a mission can be highly motivating.
Plus, by discussing this mission or set of values publicly,
you're demonstrating your belief in it and, by extension,
your belief in the company.
This level of confidence can be inspiring to many people.
If your organization has established core values,
you're expecting staff to know and embody them.
Almost any public talk can reaffirm those.
Allude to them throughout your speech.
Now, if you're purely trying to give a pep talk,
you'll want to focus on the necessity of teamwork
towards a common goal and how each employee's contribution
links to the broader mission.
Feeling a sense of purpose is crucial to a sense
of professional well-being.
For more on the importance of having an impact,
this video can help.
If your company doesn't have a formal mission
or a set of values, consider the big aim of the company.
What does this company have to offer employees
in its best state?
What does it have to offer the community, or even the world?
Step five, end with gratitude.
Finally, show gratitude, appreciation, and honor
the wins.
Simply recognizing people's efforts
can encourage re-engagement with work.
It shows employees that their efforts mean something.
So during a speech when you have everyone's attention,
it's a perfect time to be publicly
thankful for hard work.
Examples of gratitude might include
using the speech to give an employee recognition
award, which is meant to highlight
a specific person going above and beyond expectations.
If there aren't any formal awards,
you can still call out teams or name employees
who produce results or done work that deserves
to be publicly recognized.
More generally, try to stay away from using "I"
and replace it with "we."
If you're describing successes, even
if you were instrumental as a leader,
it can be demotivating to hear just about you.
"I hit our numbers this quarter" doesn't recognize
the efforts of the team.
It's better to say "we hit our numbers this quarter.
Great job, everyone."
So now that we know what to do, there's a good rule of thumb
to follow about what not to do.
A good rule of thumb when giving a motivational speech
to a group is to avoid overwhelming your audience,
with too much data or detailed reporting of results.
Now, there are meetings for those specifics are
appropriate, but when the main agenda is to be inspirational,
you want to tell stories and be open-hearted.
Simplify, show empathy, and tell the story of your company
and why each person contributes to that heroic story.
So to quickly recap, my top tips for leaders
giving motivational speeches are display
humanity and vulnerability.
Share the reason for the speech and what you
want the audience to take away.
Embody positivity and optimism.
Remind your employees of the big picture, the company's mission,
and core values.
And end with authentic gratitude.
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that you can find right here.
Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.