It's likely that at some point we have all seen a convocation, state-of-the-university, or other speech by an institutional leader fall flat -- even when the subject matter of the speech was not itself intrinsically dull. Yet it has rarely been more important for presidents and cabinet members to be able to speak compellingly and directly to a wide array of constituents, as institutions are increasingly called upon in the public sphere to make strong cases for funding, for their impact and outcomes, and even for their relevance.

To learn why well-intentioned speeches by campus leaders sometimes fail -- and how to help your academic leaders prepare better for them -- we turned this week to speechwriter and policy analyst Chuck Toney, who serves as assistant to the president of the University of Georgia. He offers these tips in avoiding three common pitfalls:

• Lack of structure
• Lack of research into one's audience
• Failing to engage one's audience in the subject matter from the start

Structure

"Audiences want speakers to succeed," Toney notes. "Think about it -- a bad speech is a very awkward experience for the audience, too, so they are invested in your success. They're willing to go where the speaker is going, as long as the end is clearly in sight and there are milestones along the way that show you are making progress toward that end."

Toney notes that too often in the case of an inadequately planned speech, an institutional leader will fall into the trap of repeating at intervals, "And now I want to say ..." Lacking clear milestones, Toney warns, "a two-minute speech may feel like a 45-minute speech."

He notes that there are several ways to provide milestones for the audience.

First, the overt method: a speaker can begin by announcing the structure and the number of milestones to expect: "There are three things I want to say." Then the speaker can emphasize the milestones as they're reached: "First, ... Second, ... Third." Toney points to Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford University as a good example of the overt method.

In the speech, Jobs offers three stories about his life, then wraps up with a powerful conclusion about what he learned from these experiences. "It was a 14-minute and very engaging speech," Toney remarks, "and the audience knew what was coming. They knew the structure."

An institutional leader can also deliver structure less overtly, through rhetorical devices such as the intentional repetition of a particular phrase that cues the audience to the fact that the speaker is moving through the phases of the speech. For example, Toney offers the scenario of a speech from the president of the University of Georgia emphasizing the institution's service mission. One way to structure the speech would be to repeat the phrase "We serve Georgia by..." three times. The repetition becomes the device that carries people forward through the speaker's points.

"People respond to structure," Toney notes. "Structure is key in engaging them."

Research

"If you're a college or university president," Toney explains, "and you are going to talk to a rotary club with a lot of business leaders, and you need to talk about why the liberal arts or the dramatic arts are important, make the topic meaningful to that audience without losing your basic point of how the liberal arts are important to a broad-based education. If you don't tie that topic to their interests and concerns and make it important to them, you will lose the chance to really convey your points to this key audience. If you want to talk about agricultural research to a community of retired elementary school teachers, note how better agricultural production matters to them at the grocery store and matters to the better nutrition and development of their grandchildren and the children in the schools they know."

We asked Toney for a checklist of questions that campus speechwriters or assistants to the president and vice presidents of the institution can ask of a representative of the intended audience when scheduling a speech to an external, off-campus group. He suggests these questions:

• Tell me about your group (ask an open-ended question to invite them to describe their group and its interests)
• How many people will be there?
• Who are they?
• What do they do?
• What other speakers have they heard recently?
• What speakers have they enjoyed hearing, and what were their topics?
• What do you think they would like to hear from Dr. ____? What do you think they'd like to know about our university?

"If nothing else," Toney notes, "That last question gives me insight into their expectations. People like to talk about their organizations. Ask very open-ended questions."

Engaging the Audience in Your Subject Matter

Toney warns that speeches often misfire simply because the opening remarks are aimed either "too high" (for example, if an esoteric subject is not made immediately relevant to the audience) or "too low" (for example, when a speaker begins with facts the audience already knows). "You want to start with new information about a topic that is meaningful to this audience," Toney suggests.

Here are two examples.

• An institutional leader is speaking to an external audience within the surrounding community. Because the audience is already familiar with some basic information about the institution, the speaker opens not with a shortlist of the institution's strengths, but instead offers information and perspective that confronts misperceptions about the institution (such as misperceptions about the admissions process, athletics, student behavior, or the political leanings of the faculty).
• An institutional leader is addressing an audience from another geographical region who lack a baseline of knowledge about the institution; in this case, the speaker opens with the one thing that will be likeliest to grab their attention and challenge any assumptions they've brought to the table; Toney uses the example of a speech by a leader at the University of Georgia emphasizing that UGA is the nation's first state-chartered university.