On Friday morning last week, a man walked to a lectern at Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming to give a speech that several thousand people had already written for him in their heads. Kevin Warsh was delivering his first keynote speech as chairman of the Federal Reserve at the Kansas City Fed's annual economic policy symposium — on his hundredth day in the job.
Top Tips to Help You Manage Expectations for Your Next Speech
Long-term US borrowing costs had just hit a near two-decade high. The US Treasury had waded into the bond market days earlier. Every economist in the room, and every trader who wasn't, had already decided what the speech ought to say. One chief economist summed it up before the event: the markets had bid the speech up into something the Fed would rather it wasn't.
That is expectation management in a single sentence.
No Reserve with These Speech Expectations
There is a lovely irony here, too. Warsh used part of his keynote speech to argue that central bankers should say less about their future decisions, not more — that guidance given too early "risks creating ambiguity in the name of clarity". A speech about managing expectations, delivered straight into a wall of them.
Now, we have seen this before on a smaller stage. A hedge fund presentation once sent stocks tumbling. The media spent weeks building up David Cameron's Europe speech before he had said a word of it. And you will face the same thing in miniature at your next conference, sales kick-off or board meeting. Your audience arrives with a view. They have read the agenda, seen your job title and drawn their conclusions.
Your job is to make an impact. That is why you are speaking at all. So here are six tips to work through before you next take the platform.
Top Tips: Manage Expectations for Your Speech
Tip 1: Purpose
Decide what you want your audience to know, understand, believe or do at the end of your speech that they would not otherwise have done. Write it as a single sentence. If you cannot, you are not ready to write the speech.
Tip 2: Know Them
Know your audience fully. Not just their job titles, but what they are hoping you will say — and what they are quietly dreading. Expectations you have not identified are expectations you cannot meet.
Tip 3: Recognise
Take account of the external environment. If there is political, social or economic noise in the hours before you speak, think hard about its effect on the room. At the very least, be ready for the questions it will produce.
Tip 4: Promote
Publicity in advance builds anticipation, and anticipation fills rooms. Just remember that every bit of build-up is a promise. Promote the speech, then deliver the speech you promoted.
Tip 5: Edit
Be prepared to change your material when circumstances change. A paragraph written three weeks ago can be overtaken by a Tuesday morning headline. Cut it, replace it, and do so without regret.
Tip 6: Rehearse
If you edit, you must also give up the time to practise the new passage. New case studies and fresh analysis need rehearsing exactly as the old ones did. Topicality is no substitute for professionalism.
A much-anticipated speech is a gift, not a burden. It means people care what you are about to say. The opposite is far worse! Your task is to work with the anticipation rather than against it — and then to deliver.
Work to Manage the Keynote Speech Expectations
Work at managing your wider audience's expectations for your keynote speech and become more confident and productive.
For more public speaking tips, you'll find our full series here. And when you're ready to sharpen your own public speaking skills, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
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