Whatever the motivation, there is no reason why a speech should be an ordeal for the person giving it or for those listening. But there is an important reason, aside from personal inducements, for speeches to be given. In spite of mass communications in the modern world, speeches fill an information chasm. Although we are flooded with broadcasts and publications (radio, television, newspapers, and now even the Internet) providing data for everything under the sun and answers to questions we never asked, we get information in bits and pieces. Most of us are informed or misinformed by ingesting fragmented, edited, and opinionated messages, especially from the nation’s primary sources of televised and Internet-based news. What we need, at least some of the time, is unexpurgated information and the opportunity to question the informant. Speeches are a vital ingredient for a well-balanced diet of current and historical events.
Shortly before the turn of the century, Theodore Vail became a colossus in American industry and continued to innovate until his death in 1920. Newspapers called Vail, the man who built AT&T, the “Cincinnatus of Communications.” In his first AT&T Annual Report to Shareholders, Vail titled the lead-off section, “Public Relations.” He was one of the first major business leaders in America to recognize that good public relations provides the proper climate in which to build a successful business. And we all know what a success AT&T is today and has been for over a century. To Vail, “good” public relations meant honest reporting. “If we don’t tell the truth about ourselves,” he wrote, “somebody else will.” Telling the truth about oneself requires more than a 30-second commercial. Company speakers are an integral part of a total public relations effort. Newspapers, TV, films, magazines, radio, and other company publications all provide one-way communication. But only a company speaker can respond immediately to questions and provide instant feedback to the public in a much more personalized way than by responding via email or with a phone call.
Since the 1960s, the public’s confidence and trust in institutions — business, government, and labor — has declined drastically. Young people are challenging time-honored values and older people are distrustful of change. In addition to established public relations programs, today’s issues call for face-to-face contact with people in the community to answer their questions, recognize their concerns, and express positions.
Speakers are one link in an effort to “tell the truth about themselves.”
Why give speeches at all? Because without them, your message will be incomplete.
From a practical point of view, speeches are essential to meeting the demands and criticisms of today’s consumers and constituents.
From an intellectual point of view, speeches have quite often been the launching pads which have moved nations into freedom or chains. Almost every great thought of mankind was first expressed in a speech. Aristotle, Socrates, and Cicero gave speeches which were taken down in shorthand by slaves and then, at least in the case of Cicero, transcribed and sold to the public. Shakespeare wrote plays — which were mostly full of speeches. Walter Lippman pointed out how important it was that America’s founding fathers were able to draw on the classical authors and, according to Henry Fairlie, “First in importance among these were the orators.”
Throughout history, the words from speeches have been the banners people have rallied round. In the twenty-first century, speeches continue as a primary source of many ideas and phrases that move people into action.[1] Ask yourself, can you remember the words John F. Kennedy wrote in his best-selling (Pulitzer Prize winning) book, Profiles in Courage? Probably not. But not many of us can forget what he said in his inauguration speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” This, incidentally, was first said in a speech by Frederick I of Prussia about 300 years ago. Can any of you quote phrases from the books of Winston Churchill? It’s doubtful. But who can forget his phrase, “The Iron Curtain,” used in a speech more than sixty years ago at Fulton, Missouri?
In more recent years, Ronald Reagan was known as the “great communicator” because of his speeches, and Barack Obama — well, the truth is, his speeches hold his followers and others spellbound. Of the many reasons he was elected president, his speeches would have to be near the top of the list. And remember, he reads from a teleprompter — he uses scripts.
From Washington’s Farewell to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “ … we have nothing to fear … ,” and Churchill’s “ … blood, sweat, and tears,” the list of memorable speeches is endless. Good speeches are printed and quoted and remembered.
Why give speeches? Emerson said, “Speech is power; speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” The American statesman Chauncey DePew stated, “There is no other accomplishment that any man can have that will so quickly make for him a career and secure recognition.” In the 1970s, an executive of General Motors, commenting on why they had employees at nearly 100 locations available to give speeches to local organizations, said, “It has long been our experience that the best way to convey information is on a personal basis.”
Why give speeches? Because they satisfy a crucial need for more complete communication.
Who Will Listen?
Dr. Edward R. Annis, a former president of the American Medical Association, began a speech some years ago by saying: “When you talk about some of the crowds I have spoken to, it reminds me of a lady who called me and said, ‘Dr. Annis, now that you have made the big time on television and all that, how many people do you have to have before you make a speech?’ I said, ‘Well, I still insist on two — but I will be one of them.’ I will talk to anybody who will listen, because I think it is important.”
Before quitting the news business and getting into speeches, it occurred to me that it might help to know if there was a market for my services. Being unable to afford a market research expert, I took my own survey in about 20 minutes. The formula was easy. Knowing there were 20 Rotary Clubs in the immediate vicinity of my city in the 1970s and that Rotary Clubs meet every week, simple arithmetic added up to about 1,000 speeches a year being given at Rotary Clubs alone. Armed with that knowledge, my guess was at least 4,000 or 5,000 speeches were being given each year in any metropolitan area. I was wrong. There were 1,000 or 2,000 speeches being given every day in my metropolitan area. In metropolitan New York in the 1970s, an estimated 10,000 speeches were being delivered every day.
Service clubs are not the only groups looking for programs. There are also Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), retiree clubs, garden clubs, conventions, school assemblies, and scores of other organizations ranging from monthly labor union luncheons to weekly “establishment” meetings. The audiences for speeches are there — always have been there and always will be there.
The question, then, is not who will listen — everybody listens to speeches — but rather, who will listen to you give a speech?
The answer is that almost everyone has something interesting to say regardless of their profession. The doctor, lawyer, engineer, and company president — all are experts in their field as far as everybody who is not in their field is concerned. But even the nonprofessional has something of interest to speak about. A used-car salesperson undoubtedly has some amusing and fascinating stories to tell about his or her business as well as some useful, practical advice to share with all of us who buy a car. Or as an avocation the speaker might be a general in the National Guard or a member of the Propeller Club. Maybe he or she is an expert scuba diver or parachutist.
Everybody has a little more knowledge in a particular field than the rest of us, and there’s an audience out there waiting to hear about it. But whether a person is a used-car salesman or the president of the biggest bank in town, an audience expects and deserves more than a mental grasping for words and information from the speaker. If a company executive is invited to speak to 500 people at a convention, he or she would be a fool to start thinking about what to say to them while en route to the site and then jotting down a few notes while munching on salad prior to the speech. The speaker would be smart