Why most CEO speeches don't create passion or purpose

270,000 have watched this leadership keynote - live audience of 4500 executives

I have listened to a huge number of CEO speeches over the years to their global teams at major events, and there is quite often a problem.  

The same for Finance Directors.

I was once about to start a leadership programme at one of the world's best known Business Schools and the session immediately before me, to introduce the week, was led by the Finance Director.  Just before he entered the room, we had 40 highly energised, highly motivated people, bursting with energy, ideas, initiative and passion.  

People driven by a desire to solve problems, achieve the impossible, sort out issues, and create a better future for their customers or internal team. I had just flip charted up some of the things they were most excited about at work.

As that Finance Director began to speak, the energy drained right out of the room.

Within a couple of minutes he had lost the audience, many of whom were doing things like emails, WhatsApping friends or researching their next holiday online.  It was awful and embarrassing....

So here's another approach in the video above.  It's an unscripted 3 minute piece I did without any rehearsals, quite spontaneously, in the middle of a one hour keynote to 4,500 people on how to create highly engaging corporate events. Just to make a point.

And it's all to do with passion.

In my experience over the last 25 years, at over 1000 large events, the more usual senior team speeches are full of strategic matters, growth targets, opportunities and challenges, yet can fail to inspire, motivate, encourage.

That Finance Director's own presentation was a set of financials plus graphs of projected growth against competitors and so on.  

As soon as he left I asked the group how they felt.  "Detached", "Bored", "Wanted out".

Above is an example of a different direction of travel - a different type of approach altogether from the more usual one - in this case for the Insurance industry, which is often attacked in the media by customers for being slow in paying their claims, and fast in making profits. 

The key is to connect with a higher purpose - by focussing on how the company builds a better world.  

How we make a difference.

Now of course we also need to communicate strategy, detailed plans, progress, issues, opportunities and challenges, but they will always be received best in the context of a compelling vision of a better future - which as you can see, takes only a couple of minutes of a much longer session.

* "How AI Will Change Your Life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World" - Patrick Dixon's latest book on AI is published in September 2024 by Profile Books.  It contains 38 chapters on the impact of AI across different industries, government and our wider world.