The Challenging Speaker
I make a great point of telling an audience that I am not a Motivational Speaker nor an Inspirational Speaker. I am, however, a challenging speaker.
To my mind, calling yourself a Motivational Speaker could almost be an insult to your audience. It suggests that they are lazy, unproductive and lack motivation. I feel almost the same about an Inspirational Speaker; do all in your audience lack creativity and inspiration? For sure, people can be inspired or motivated by many things in life, including speeches by public speakers but to set out to give a motivational or inspirational speech, is to set yourself above your audience; I feel few public speakers could justifiably do that.
Why do I call myself a challenging speaker and how does a challenging speech differ from a motivational or inspirational one? First, let me say that not all my speeches fall into the category of ‘challenging speeches’ but some do, and it is a field I am striving to develop. The purpose behind a challenging speech is to get the audience to think about, to question and, perhaps, to take action based upon the theme of the speech. What it doesn’t do is to say to the audience that they are wrong, they lack motivation or need inspiration. A challenging speech doesn’t even always suggest that there is something wrong but simply invites the audience to think about the theme but to do so in a questioning or investigative manner.
In this way, a challenging speech can be useful in questioning assumptions, examining existing patterns of behaviour or belief. It can be particularly useful in raising awareness of new or different practices or perspectives. As such, it can be useful to business or corporates when new processes or services are about to be considered. It can also be useful on a more personal level where change is being made possible or threatened.
In conclusion, I regard myself as a challenging speaker in order to avoid insulting my audience and also so that my speeches can be of value to business as well as personal audiences.
