Traits of the Best Motivational Speakers

The best, most experienced motivational speakers know how to instill confidence and drive in employees that lasts long after the speech is over. They know how to help employees break harmful patterns by offering a fresh perspective that will motivate your people to adopt new, healthier ways of doing things. After the talk, employees won’t just feel more motivated; they’ll also feel more capable of improving their performance.

1. Providing an Interactive Experience

   A stellar motivational speaker provides an interactive experience that draws people out, soliciting their opinions and experiences. This speaker gives personal coaching to individuals in the audience—not necessarily to everyone, but to a sampling of employees who represent the spectrum of the people in the audience. The speaker shares stories people can relate to, because those stories relate to their own experiences.

2. Digging Deep into the Issues

   A top-notch motivational speaker digs deep into what your people need to know about, learning about the specific challenges they face. She recognizes obstacles your people face that even you might not see. She delivers a speech customized to their needs by talking in depth with key people ahead of time, doing the legwork to learn exactly what your people need to hear.

3. Staying Unpredictable

   The best motivational speakers are not predictable. They use inspiring stories and anecdotes that come from a surprising range of fields, rather than just the workplace, throwing exciting curveballs that help the audience perceive their reality in new ways. By catching people off guard, they prime them to see things in a different light.

4. Strategizing for Success

   An excellent motivational speaker helps your people be at their ultimate best by effectively guiding them toward greater success. He doesn’t just leave them inspired; he also leaves them with an action plan, and the tools to continue creating their own strategies for success. As he solicits questions from audience members, he might walk them through the process of crafting their own personal strategy for success, which serves as a concrete example to others.

5. Creating a Sense of Elevation

   The motivational speakers who have the best impact on people create a sense of elevation in their audience. Elevation is a collective belief in the vision and purpose of your organization, which drives each employee to strive to help it succeed. A great speaker inspires renewed passion for fulfilling the company’s vision and fills each audience member with the belief that they are all capable of building something great together.

To keep employees learning and performing at their best, have a motivational speaker provide presentations to your workplace. It takes time for these qualities to become fully engrained in a workplace, although you’ll start seeing clear benefits right away. The training will give your people the personal development support they need to succeed in the long-term. This opportunity will make employees feel valued, and it will keep the whole workplace feeling positive and focused on improving the performance of the company.