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Don’t Make ‘em Get the Hook for You.

They say timing is everything. It’s a shop-worn phrase in assessing athletic feats, music, movies and television … and yes, politics. It’s trite and it’s also true, as we’ve seen clearly in the past few weeks.

You may not have sat rapt in front of a screen the way I have. (I’m guessing you have a life.) I’m such a speaking-geek I’ve followed hours of convention viewing by listening to podcasts featuring speech-writers and political operatives.🙄

All the campaign speeches, along with the professional analysis, have clarified some things that work, and some that don’t, when we have a message to convey and people ready to hear it.

Yes, they’re right about timing.

The Democratic National Convention ran long enough most nights to push principal speakers out of prime time. More than one pro called it “political malpractice” by the producers.

The blame can be spread around though, to all those early-evening legislators, governors, and activists who had their moment on stage and stretched it into more moments than any of us wanted to hear.

If every speaker turns their five minutes into ten or fifteen, the president of the United States takes the stage after millions of Americans have given up and gone to bed. That’s not right!

Also, a lot of those earlier speakers weren’t all that engaging. They may have satisfied their own egos, but they didn’t do much for the audience. I watched many of them thinking, “They need to get the hook for this guy.”

Of course, the folks running a convention don’t have a hook to pull people off the stage.

They do have the teleprompter, though. And Republicans at least know how to use it!

Arizona Governor Kari Lake, like most elected officials, enjoys the spotlight. She’d exceeded the time she was allotted at Donald Trump’s Arizona rally by six minutes when producers took her speech off the teleprompter and replaced it with a request to “wrap asap.”

And then, when she kept talking, another message: “Please get off the stage. Trump waiting.”

When we’re speaking in a meeting, at a conference, at our nephew’s bar mitzvah, it behooves us to wrap things up before someone has the urge to tell us directly to get off the stage.

Who is that, speaking to us?

If it’s you, we want the real you. Not some artificial, over-rehearsed, robotic version of what you think you’re supposed to sound like.

We heard some of that authenticity from the DNC stage. Hillary Clinton sounded more Hillary-ish than she ever did back when she was the candidate. Less uptight, more herself. Her husband’s still a fine speaker, although he’s also one of those get-the-hook guys. Sheesh—I thought Bill would never wrap it up.

Both Obamas electrified their partisan audience. And most analysts seem to agree that the former president was right on the money when he talked about being “the only guy stupid enough to speak after Michelle.” It would be tough to outshine Barack Obama as a speaker, but his wife did.

Doug Emhoff was loose, natural, and endearing. He sounded as if he were just telling a few friends how he happened to start dating Kamala Harris and wound up as the Second Gentleman.

And Tim Walz knocked it out of the park. He’s been in politics long enough to have given hundreds of speeches, but not at this level, as he said himself. He did claim expertise in pep rallies, though, and his convention speech felt like one. He seemed comfortable with the crowd, in his role as Number Two, and in his own skin.

I try so hard to stay away from the overused “authenticity.” And, the fact is that being real in front of an audience is essential—and not always easy. I tell my clients often, the main thing your listeners want from you is you.

Be sure to show up fully and completely as you when you’re the one speaking in a conference room or on a virtual platform.

You know what I always say about the exchange of energy.

Communication is all about that exchange. And that’s true whether you’re talking with a friend over coffee, sharing your ideas at a team meeting, or giving a speech at the United Center.

Some of those DNC speakers were missing the energy. Yes, it made sense for campaign strategy reasons to have, for instance, Bob Casey, Chris Coons, or Nancy Pelosi on the stage. It did not enhance the show, however.

If you were watching the convention, you noticed the way some speakers exuded energy of their own and embraced the energy of the audience … and some didn’t.

Convention producers can play music and distribute signs for delegates to wave. They have all kinds of tricks to amp up the energy in the room. Once a speaker is at the microphone, however, it’s up to them to create that energetic exchange with the audience. The memorable speakers did that masterfully.

We need to do it when we’re speaking too, whether the context is professional or personal. And we don’t have a whole convention team to do part of that work. When we speak, it’s on us.

About that exchange …

You’ve heard from me, and now I look forward to your impressions of the speeches and the speakers we’re hearing lately. Share them in the comments section below.