Rob Friedman: Motivating the troops: The speech to boost morale and convince people to do hard things
Thanks to Rob for producing extensive handout notes which I’ve annotated as the main part of this blog report.
Rob Friedman is a senior writer for Eli Lilly & Co. and a former editor of Speechwriter’s Newsletter. He’s been attending Speechwriters Conferences for over twenty years.
“Reasons lead to conclusions; emotion leads to action.”
– Neurologist Donald Caine
Any organization going through change—in short, virtually every organization in the world today—needs leaders who can motivate employees to step up, overcome obstacles and achieve tough goals. But how to do it?
Motivation and emotion share the same root – the Latin word to move.
As with a persuasive speech, the goal of a motivational speech is to move an audience from one place to another. But while persuasion works mostly through logic, reason and argumentation, motivation – which aims at action – relies on emotions and feelings, such as pride, respect, belief, duty, fear and desire.
Ten techniques that stir feelings and move people to action.
1. Build a bond. Build the speaker’s credibility by establishing authority and empathy.
People want to know you know what you are talking about and you are with them, that you are an empathetic expert. The odds of getting people to do difficult things increase if they feel those doing the asking know what they’re talking about and understand what it takes.
Someone once said, “Morale is faith in the person on top.” Motivational speakers are authorities and experts. When college football coach Lou Holtz speaks on improving performance, he (or those introducing him) underscores that he inherited five losing teams and took them all to Bowl games within two years.
Motivators also make clear that “We’re all in this together” – not you must do this, but we will do it together.
When Queen Elizabeth I visited her troops on the eve of the attack of the Spanish Armada, her authority emanated from the fact that she was the Queen. But she showed her bond by saying: “… I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all.”
Her visit illustrates an important point about credibility: it’s built not on rhetoric but on actions.
An executive who speaks heart-to-heart without notes shows how close to the audience they are. This establishes instant credibility.
Having leaders who make sacrifices gives credibility when calling for change from other employees.
2. Pump them up
Good motivators stroke the ego, tell people how good they are, inspire confidence that they can get the job done. When a client is asked to speak, find out about the group’s accomplishments and recognize them. One common technique is to “compliment and stretch” – recognize their accomplishments but urge them onward, as Napoleon did, exhorting his troops in the Italian campaign of 1796:
“Soldiers, you are precipitated like a torrent from the heights of the Apennines; you have overthrown and dispersed all that dared to oppose your march … Yes soldiers, you have done much; but more still remains for you.”
3. Light the burning platform
People need a sense of urgency to be motivated to act or change. Better than the ‘don’t worry, be happy’ style, dramatize the magnitude of the challenge and the need to act now. State what is unacceptable. Dispense with the sugar-coating; give it to them straight.
On December 8, 1941, with the U.S.S. Arizona still smoking, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation:
“We are now in this war. We are in it – all the way. It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war … We don’t like it – we didn’t want to get in it – but we are in it and we’re going to fight it with everything we’ve got.”
4. Stretch them
To get high performance, you need to get people to do more than they believe they can. Among the ways to do this are to:
Set high expectations, big challenges. Set standards for yourself higher than anyone else would set them. In spring of 1961, JFK committed the U.S. to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth within the decade. The country had 12 minutes of human spaceflight experience when JFK made his challenge.
Stoke their pride: remind them how capable they are; tell them they’re part of a tradition, a legacy; describe why they’re better than the competition and why they’ll win. Patton does this. Vince Lombardi.
Appeal to something bigger than themselves. Describe how their accomplishment will make a difference to people; save the cause; uphold a moral imperative. Tap into whatever in your organization is bigger than individuals. What would world be like without your organization? Queen Elizabeth I. Russell Crowe in Master and Commander preparing his crew for battle: “This ship is England.”
5. Examples to show them success
Identifying with high achievers helps people reach. Hold up a hero, an exemplar, or someone who has overcome adversity. Look into organizational history for inspiring stories. Hero was a character in Greek Mythology.
Example:
Wilma Rudolph was born in Tennessee in 1940, premature at 4½ pounds. She suffered one illness after another and her left leg and foot were weak and deformed. Doctors told her she had polio and would never walk.
But her mother never gave up on her. Unable to take her to the local hospital – which was segregated – she took her to a black medical college in Nashville – 50 miles away – twice a week for two years. Wilma was 12 before she walked without crutches, braces or corrective shoes.
She then decided to become an athlete. She became a high school basketball star and track phenomenon.
On September 7th, 1960, in Rome, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in the Olympics. She won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and ran anchor on the 400-meter relay team.
She was named United Press Athlete of the Year for 1960.
Cast your net wide; draw on examples of excellence in sports, the arts, business, exploration, leadership, your field and more. Exemplars can be institutions as well as individuals. Search the history of your organization for examples of heroic feats – and use them to motivate people to overcome current challenges.
6. Show them the consequences of failure
Some people crave winning; others fear losing. Many kids are motivated by the threat of “or else”.
Patton fired up the troops by reminding them that “Americans don’t like to lose.”
To keep the Catholic schoolboys in James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man virtuous, the preacher paints a hell-raising picture of the agonies of hell.
To motivate people to uphold the highest standards of ethics, describe the devastation caused by the leaders of Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Cendant. Just mine the pages of the newspapers.
Motivate by describing (among others):
The potential damage to your organization if someone bends the rules
The dangers if a law or regulation prevents your organization or products from helping people
The impact on society if your organization didn’t exist – or failed
7. Tell them what you want them to do
Be clear about the goals of the speech. Make sure the audience is clear about the action you want. Good leaders distill what is complex and make the actions seem doable. Enumerate the steps.
In August 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King was inspirational but also gave his followers explicit instructions:
“Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”
GE under Jack Welch followed three priorities: globalization, services, and Six Sigma and quality. In each internal speech, Welch hammered home the actions employees needed to take to fulfill these priorities.
8. Paint a Vision of future
Show your audience why their struggle will be worth it – they will win, help humanity, be more fulfilled, sustain the legacy of a great institution. Paint the vision of the future, show what it’ll mean to accomplish the tasks.
Again, King:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, June 18, 1940, on the upcoming war against the Nazis:
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
Eli Lilly executive Patty Martin spoke on diversity in a talk titled ‘Make Difference Matter’:
One final question for each of you. What does success look like for you? I know what it looks like for me. I asked my daughter what she wants to be when she grows up. She answered, I want to work at Lilly, because you make good medicine. I want Lilly to be the kind of company in twenty years that will attract my daughter, motivate her and use every God-given talent she has to offer to help make great medicine. That’s what success looks like to me. That’s what matters to me. Ask yourself this question: what matters to you? And then, please, let that be your reason for doing everything you can to make difference matter.
9. Conclude with the call to action or challenge
Mine the preceding eight steps for ideas.
Restate the magnitude of the crisis or issue
Find the right quote, or tell a story of accomplishment that’s a metaphor for the action you’re asking for
Sum up your action steps – but then reinforce the impact of succeeding
Give them the reasons why they can do it
Remind them of a higher calling
Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel urging his leadership team to the hard task of transforming the company:
“Now it falls to us to write a new and, I believe, luminous chapter in this story of transformation. As we set out, I want you to feel as I do that this is not what we are forced to do … this is what we are called to do. Let’s get to it!”
10. Show your passion
Ultimately a speaker’s passion can make the difference between motivating the audience and leaving them dispirited. This can be challenging for corporate speakers.
Listen for your clients’ passions so you can incorporate them when they have to motivate. Learn what it is your speakers are passionate about. Write stories for them that will help. Listen to the clients. Write conversationally, drop the passive voice.
Speaker training makes a big difference. Coach them to speak without notes and to make eye contact. Get a structure they’re comfortable with and encourage them to use their own words. Have them rehearse out loud. Passion shows up in the voice. Encourage them to show their passion. People are afraid of going over the top. There’s cognitive dissonance feeling goofy when it’s right on. Remind them what’s at stake.
Find the human impact at the end of the desired action.
At the end of the day have integrity. Temper good motivation with realism – drop the cheerleading. Be candid.
Motivational Speech Samples
Reading 1
Queen Elizabeth I, visiting the troops at Tilbury on the eve of the battle with the invincible Spanish Armada, 1588
“My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust.
“I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms; to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.
“I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and by your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”
Motivational techniques she uses:
– she links herself to her people, obliterating the distance with them
– she appeals to national pride
– she shows vulnerability and courage
– she predicts victory
– she’ll reward them with money
Reading 2
Napoleon exhorting his troops during the Italian campaign of 1796-7
“Soldiers, you are precipitated like a torrent from the heights of the Apennines; you have overthrown and dispersed all that dared to oppose your march. Milan is yours; the dukes of Parma and Modena are indebted for their political existence only to your generosity.
“The army, which so proudly menaced you, has had no other barrier that its dissolution to oppose your invincible courage. The Po, the Tessin, the Adds, could not retard you a single day. The vaunted bulwarks of Italy were insufficient.”
“Yes soldiers, you have done much; but more still remains for you.”
– The segue at the end both compliments and stretches the troops.
Reading 3
Sue Suter, former U.S. Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services, to New Zealand Rehabilitation Association
“I contracted polio when I was two years old. I don’t remember it. But I do remember my parents telling me about the advice that the doctor gave when it was time to take me home from the hospital. He told them, ‘Just put her in bed. She’s going to be staying there the rest of her life.’
“When I was in college, I decided to go after a Master’s degree in clinical psychology. But my career counselor advised against it. He warned that it was hard enough for a woman with a disability to get married. Having an advanced degree would only intimidate a man more.
“When our son was born, the day before he and I were to leave the hospital a social worker visited me to inquire how I was going to possibly care for a newborn infant.
“These were well-meaning professionals who believed that they knew what was best for me. But my life would be much different, and I probably wouldn’t be with you today, if I had followed their advice.”
Reading 4
Tim Russert at Commencement of the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law
“People with backgrounds like yours and mine can make a difference.
“In Poland, it was a young electrician named Lech Walesa, the son of a carpenter, who transformed a nation from communism to democracy. In Czechoslovakia, a writer named Vaclav Havel, the son of an office clerk, who traded his pen for a podium and rallied his people to freedom. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, a brave black man who worked his way through law school as a police officer, spent 28 years in jail to make one central point: we are all created equal.
“All these leaders have one thing in common with you. Like the past, the future leaders of this country, of this world and of the legal profession were not born to the blood of kings, but to the blood of immigrants and pioneers.
“Now it’s your turn.”
Reading 5
Sidney Taurel, Lilly’s 2006 Global Leadership Conference, on why his leadership will succeed in transforming our company
“The road ahead will be tough – make no mistake about it. But it leads to a brighter future for those with the will and the skill to walk it.
As we set off now, it may help to look back over our 130 years of history and realize that – as a company – we’ve traveled this way many times before.
Over the years, the people of Eli Lilly and Company have repeatedly responded to a changing environment by bringing forth new technologies: insulin … polio vaccines … cephalosporin antibiotics … the first biotech products … breakthroughs in neuroscience.
“At several points in our history, we have reinvented the company, along with our product line, evolving our business strategy to deal with new threats or opportunities – think of the creation of Elanco … the acquisitions of new business lines in cosmetics, medical devices, pharmacy benefits management … and then the subsequent divestment of these assets to refocus on pharmaceutical innovation … all of this is living proof of the vital capacity of the firm to learn and adapt and thrive in a world of constant change.
“Now it falls to us to write a new and, I believe, luminous chapter in this story of transformation. As we set out, I want you to feel as I do that this is not what we are forced to do … this is what we are called to do.
Let’s get to it!”
Reading 6
Dr. Robert McAfee, inaugural address as president of the American Medical Association, framed as a conversation with his son, who had recently begun his own practice as a physician, June, 1994
“One last piece of advice.
“More than anything else, I want you to remember to be a good physician, a good doctor. I want you to listen to your patients. I want you to touch them every day on your rounds. Hold their hand. Squeeze their shoulder. Pat them on the back. Look into their eyes.
“Remember how lonely that person is; remember how lonely you were when you were a patient. Don’t be afraid to sit down with that patient rather than stand at the end of the bed. That small gesture can make such a big difference. Remember to take the medical chart into the room with you, and write your medical progress report in the patient’s room – it’s so much more meaningful.
“Don’t forget to smile – it’s awfully important. And don’t be afraid to cry. Sometimes when you are alone with the patient, when you remember a special patient, a colleague, a loved one; sometimes when you are with the family, sometimes when you are home alone, sometimes in those quiet moments. Don’t be afraid to cry. It’s okay.
“And don’t forget to call the family. Not just when big victories Occur – but sometime, some day, when there isn’t any reason. Just to say, ‘How are you getting along at home? Mother or dad is doing fine – be home in a few days – are you ready for them? How do you feel about things? Is there anything we can do for you?’”
Reading 7
How to tell a story
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little, started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted.
— Buddhist parable
as a template for success.
