I had a quick hint for public speakers and speechwriters on how to make a speaker more statesmanlike. Don’t have important people make “housekeeping” remarks, like:

• I’d like everyone to thank our sponsors
• There’s a great buffet at the back of the room
• Don’t forget to attend those birds-of-a-feather sessions this afternoon
• Drop by our solutions booth out there on the tradeshow floor for a chance to win a Zune
• Take your game card around and have it stamped at all of our partner booths
• Etc.

Could you imagine Churchill starting a speech this way? Or JFK beginning his famous 1961 Berlin speech, “First, I’d like to thank Lufthansa for kindly providing us with a DC-9 while we’re here in Germany. Please stop by our hospitality suite at the Brandenburg Gate. OK, let’s get started. I’m sure you’re all anxious to get out of here and visit the biergarten.”

Here’s a perfect example of the right way to do it, from a video of a Steve Jobs keynote. I believe this was taken at Apple’s sales conference in Hawaii in 1983. He starts with a four-word intro: “Hi, I’m Steve Jobs.” This is actually a joke, since everyone in the room knows exactly who he is. Without missing a beat, he launches directly into his prepared remarks:

“It is 1958. IBM passes the chance to buy a young, fledgling company that has invented a new technology called Xerography.”

There is nothing extra here. It is spare and clean. There is nothing to detract from Jobs’ stature. He is confident, almost courageous. Some people use housekeeping remarks as a form of “um uh uh um” to help them warm up and collect their thoughts. Too much of this and they sound less statesmanlike and more like a gameshow host or an actor in an informercial.