Your Leadership Speech Needs Your Attention

Your leadership speech is typically your chance to set out a vision for your organisation. A vision that's practical and implementable, And participation is key. So leaders' speeches at the party conferences are normally a good opportunity to spot the bizarre, ridiculous, and sometimes the rather good.

Yet, this year's leaders' speeches at the UK party conferences presented problems for us. And it wasn't just the "sausages" moment, from the Keir Starmer leadership speech. Because the Conservatives leadership arrangement was distinctly weird.

Yes, their current outgoing leader, Rishi Sunak, was there. He's not yet in California. But there was no focus on anything that the current leader might say.

Unfortunately, he's already an irrelevance to his party and to the country. The conference participants in Manchester instead wanted to hear leadership speeches from the four prospective leaders of their party.

And it seemed to work as each of them received their share of attention. And certainly their final pitches to the conference, without autocue, gave them ample opportunity to perform.

So, just like a party leader,  your leadership matters to members of your organisation. Particularly if you are the Supreme leader.

But it's also a matter of time and place. And you can't ignore that. It's not about me, me, me.

Because a devastating election failure by one party reinforces the need for new leadership.

Clarity of Purpose for Your Leadership Speech

And elsewhere, a stupendous election victory expedites the need for vision, clarity, agenda and direction. And so it is for business and other organisations.

Your task as a leader with your leadership speech is not simply to focus on matters such as your autocue (teleprompter) usage.

Or, whether you should use a script. Or indeed how long do you need to rehearse?

Yes, these are all important things that you need to decide upon well in advance.

But there are more important things to consider.

Essentially, your leadership speech is about setting out the challenges ahead, the solutions available, the direction you intend to take, and the obstacles that you will overcome on the way to victory.

That's it. That's your leadership speech.

When you need help and assistance with your next speech, your end of year speech perhaps, you'll find more than 100 top tips for speakers, presentation tips, podcasts and videos here at Time to Market. And when you're ready to take on a leadership role with your own public speaking, then you'll find an online course is the best place to start.