Should Schools Employ A Motivational Speaker?

Posted: June 10th, 2010 | Author: Research-Team | Filed under: Speaking | Tags: | 1 Comment »

Few people will dispute the positive effect that a motivational speaker can have on his or her audience. On a daily basis we can see in the media examples of good motivational speakers, especially in the world of sports. The same can be said throughout history, where the best and most memorable world leaders knew how to make a respectable motivational speech. Nowadays, demand for motivational speakers is higher than ever and they are becoming a staple fixture at corporate events. According to recent press stories, UK schools are even hiring them. But do they have a role to play in schools?

If certain head teachers are to be believed then yes they certainly do. In certain schools there is an increasing problem with lack of ambition and disaffected young people, they argue, and using a motivational speaker can go some way to alleviating the problem. In such situations, the motivational speaker’s role is to motivate the students to see the full range of options open to them and to encourage them to take responsibility for their own futures. It is working according to various teachers.

Some schools hire a motivational speaker to speak to children at very important times of their educational lives, such as just before their exams start. At such times the young people are likely to be stressed and anxious and may be suffering with low self esteem. Those in favour of the use of a motivational speaker in schools claim that they can boost both self esteem and exam results.

Not all taxpayers will agree that the motivational speaker fee is the best use of their money. However, head teachers are claiming that the idea is paying off. Maybe now is the time to look into what a motivational speaker can offer to our young people.


Would a Motivational Speaker Work?

Posted: March 12th, 2010 | Author: Research-Team | Filed under: Speaking | Tags: | No Comments »

As the employment of motivational speakers becomes progressively more common in the enterprise and academic sectors of the United Kingdom, traditionalists everywhere in the country can be heard criticising and turning their noses up at what they scathingly declare to be some kind of absurd new fangled American tendency. It is hilarious, actually, precisely how nearly anything that is widely used in the US can be so quickly written off by particular types of scornful Brits.

What’s perhaps funnier, in an ironic kind of way, is that the motivational speaker could not be any further from some sort of new fangled American sensation. Motivational speaking is not innovative by any means. Examples of the motivational speaker are present all through history; as far back as speech itself goes.

Not only in history is the motivational speaker common. All through generations of literature, the best commanders were always fantastic speakers. Fictional motivational speakers have long encouraged fresh generations of speakers. Which speaker hasn’t attempted to emulate the power, impact and drama wielded by Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s rhetoric-laced ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech?


The work of a good motivational speaker cannot be underestimated. A strong example is that of Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight them on the beaches’ speech. Morale has been boosted and conflicts have been won and lost by good motivational speakers.

It follows then, really, that their competencies in the corporate and academic sectors has been spotted. When morale is low and sales have plummeted, it is very easy for companies to find themselves stuck in a rut. Uplifting words uttered by supervisors frequently have an accusatory or warning tone, which hinders as opposed to helps the situation. Hardly surprising then that the motivational speaker is in more demand than ever.

Who then is the motivational speaker of the twenty-first century? In the public eye it is still the politicians. In the field of sports it is the football managers. In the realm of learning it’s the teachers. However as motivational speaking becomes big business the motivational speaker becomes a more vague, more fluid notion. The present motivational speaker is the big business man, the sports star, the adventurer, the celeb and the success story, or any mixture thereof. You may disbelieve their ability or disbelieve their authority, but you just can’t argue with the outcomes of a good motivational speaker.gab