What great speakers do before they stand up
Last month I took my seat at the retirement ceremony of one of the first Marines to welcome our family here to Camp Pendleton. He was retiring as a Colonel after 30 years of service to our nation. It was a big, emotional day for him, and I was honored to be a part of it.
Retiring him was his commanding officer, a general I also knew from social events. I had never heard this general speak, but I’ve heard several others at various events so I was looking forward to seeing this particular general’s approach to speaking. I knew him well enough to believe he would take the honor seriously and deliver his remarks with heart, and he didn’t disappoint.
Now, he certainly did what most retiring officers do: He covered the basics of the retiring Marine’s career. But he didn’t just get up there and rattle off a bunch of places and battles without context. He stood at the podium and gave us a glimpse into that colonel’s life — and not only his life but the lives of his wife and sons, who were beside him through his career and were impacted by it almost as much. The moves they’d endured, the absences, when each new child came into the world and where their dad was off to shortly after. The general provided colorful details and alluded to the emotions that went with them. What was this 30-year career to this man, and to his family? We understood by the end of his speech. It was beautiful.
I could tell he put work into it so I complimented him later and asked how he had prepared. He told me that it was important to him to take his time with these things. It was an important day, and he wanted his contribution to be reflective of that. Of course, before preparing, the general didn’t know off the top of his head where that Marine had been stationed in the 90s or the exact number of days after his first son was born that the Marine deployed. But he knew by the time he stood up to speak because he took the time to get the information he needed. Then, he took the time to craft a speech that was fitting for the occasion.
This general honored his Marine with the time he spent and the care he put into this speech. He honored his audience by developing a clear picture of the Colonel’s service, which enabled us to participate more fully in the celebration. With greater understanding, we could genuinely reflect on and celebrate a job well done.
Giving a good speech often has very little to do with the minutes in front of your audience and everything to do with the time and care taken before you ever stand up.
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MORE ON PREPARING SPEECHES AND PRESENTATIONS:
Three things you need to know before you write a speech