Are your speeches like Hospital Pudding?

Some speakers are personally likeable one-on-one.  Put a podium in front of them, and it's a snoozefest at best.

Being likeable is super important - don't kid yourself on that.  Life is too short to tear down Rome every other day, just to prove a point. Kindness, joy, and wit have merit.  But is your speaking as good as your one-on-one interactions?

Some people in very senior positions skate by on position, while their speeches can be boring, and waste a lot of people's time. The fact is that these speakers waste a lot of company money by not maximizing the time in front of a room filled with bright minds. People can't remember your key points when their energy is sucked into fighting to listen to you because of 'adequate' speaking skills.

The only reason people don't walk out on some speakers is the same reason that you eat pudding in a hospital.  You eat pudding because it's the only thing in front of you.  Given better options, that pudding would be in the garbage.

If you consider how much it costs to put people in the room to listen to someone speak (salaries, room cost, catering, planning, etc) the impact of a speech quickly becomes an issue. 

Speaking well should be a part of a business plan, as a part of supply chain.  Speaking in a town hall is the essence of managing the water cooler conversations for the next two weeks.

Speaking is where you get ideas into the hands of people who are supposed to take action, not just endure your latest stab at the podium.

This is a huge, vastly under-managed segment of business that would ideally be leveraged, not treated like yet another over cooked, bland, plastic wrapped, hospital pudding, where it's the only option put it front of you.