Eight Secrets of Successful CEOs and Leaders Who Speak Well

When it comes to public speaking, speakers must technically speak well, but they must also have substance. They must look and sound like leaders—especially if they’re CEOs and executives.
Your first focus must be content. Technical skill alone is not enough. It’s not only what you say, but how you make it clear and compelling. Message is the foundation. Without that you’re just a speaker, not a leader.

Secret #1: Talk about big ideas
Every speech, presentation or communication needs one big idea. A big idea is all most people can remember. A big idea has a life of its own. And it doesn’t require a big speech. It’s big because of its power, not its length. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is 271 words, and it’s one of the best speeches ever given.

Secret #2: Speak in the moment
No one likes a canned speech. Canned speeches turn people off. You must talk to people about what is happening in the moment. “If you think about the usual setting,” said one CEO, “you have an audience sitting there saying ‘Who is this person and why is he talking?’ That’s not a great setting to start with. It appears somewhat adversarial,” he observed. Your message must be about them and about what’s happening in the moment in order to win over an audience that isn’t sure it even wants to listen.

Secret #3: Keep it simple
One big problem with many speeches is they try to do too much. Your message must be simple and straightforward to be remembered.

Roger Marino, founder of the high-tech giant EMC, says he learned early on how important communication is in business—especially when it comes to keeping things simple. Marino considered the brilliant professors when he was in school to be the ones who could actually communicate the ideas in ways people could understand. “Communication is everything,” he feels. “You really have to hammer a message home.”

Keeping it simple is how he now keeps people interested and absorbed in the subject at hand. “I just explain the steps,” he explains. “A CEO has to do the same thing: take people from A to B to C.”

Secret #4: Be a straight-shooter
A survey my firm once conducted on communication found the number one quality people want in a leader is honesty and integrity. To speak like a CEO, your message must ring true. Audiences want a leader to be more than a good speaker; they want a leader to tell them the truth, no matter what.

Secret #5: Be an optimist
When you are the CEO, you face good times and bad, and you must balance reality with hope. A hallmark of leadership is optimism. The CEO must see and talk about what’s possible.

When Bill Ford, Jr. ousted CEO Jacques Nasser at Ford Motor Company in 2001, the company was losing billions of dollars. But at that quarter’s news conference in June 2003, Ford responded to each question with unbridled optimism. “We are back on firm footing,” he said. “I feel good about where we are today and where we are headed.” Within 20 months, Ford had turned optimism into reality by turning the company completely around.

Secret #6: Focus on the future
In difficult times, we look to leaders for hope. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in midtown Manhattan when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. On that morning, his political career was on thin ice; he had been kicked out of the house by his wife who was furious after publicity about a mistress.

But that day, Giuliani knew what he had to do. At the scene of the disaster, he literally risked his life, trapped in the rubble of Ground Zero for 15 minutes. But through it all, he focused on hope. “New Yorkers are just the most wonderful people in the world,” said Giuliani, “with the best police department, fire department and the best emergency workers (anywhere).”

His message was potent. New Yorkers, and the word, made it through that frightful day, thanks in no small part to Rudy Giuliani’s message.

Secret #7: Be real
A CEO is at a distinct disadvantage with many audiences. Your title puts them off. They believe they have nothing in common with you. This is a lousy way to start a speech, meeting or even conversation. Your job is to find a way to make a connection. To connect, you must be real.

Dan Wolf, CEO of Cape Air, has a reputation for doing this. Warm, self-effacing and genuine with his audiences, Dan draws on his background and eclectic interests to connect. In town meetings with employees he can relate to all individuals—pilot, mechanics, business folks.

“I use self-effacing humor,” he explains. “And my organizational skills are not great, so that’s great material for humor, too.” Good leaders find ways to humanize themselves and still maintain their authority.

Secret #8: Stand for something
Those survey results of mine also made it clear that people aren’t just going to work for a paycheck. They go to work to be part of something bigger. They want the work to have purpose; they want the organization to have a mission. They want to know that what they do makes a difference in some way.

The person who embodies the mission and purpose of an organization is the CEO. The most successful CEOs are perfectly aligned with the mission and purpose of the organization. Those CEOs stand for something.

CEOs and leaders who succeed as speakers don’t get to the top because of luck. Most leaders who speak well became great speakers because they chose to be. By heeding these 8 secrets, any CEO can follow in their path.

About the Author:
Suzanne Bates is President of Bates Communication (Wellesley MA), a presentation skills consulting firm that helps business leaders and executives project an authentic voice of leadership, and get a competitive edge in business. An award-winning television news anchor and reporter, Suzanne can be reached by phone at 800-908-8239 or by visiting www.bates-communications.com