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I have a high regard for motivational speakers. They have overcome tremendous personal adversity. Listening to their stories is inspirational.
Some of them sell millions of books. Those with celebrity status can charge $100,000 or more for a talk.
There are pros and cons to hiring a motivational speaker. While there are reasons to do so, here’s a secret they don’t want you to know: They don’t motivate.
Pros
Motivational speakers are charismatic. They charm a crowd. The stories they relate are compelling.
They inspire an audience by making them feel good. Their message is often: I overcame these odds and look what I achieved. You can too.
Their message is thought provoking and interesting. Your audience will enjoy their talk. It will be a source of discussion.
They will likely give the speaker a rousing ovation.
You’ll leave their talk with a sense that you did something positive by hiring them.
Those are all good reasons for hiring motivational speakers.
But they won’t have an impact on your audience that will last much longer than the applause.
Cons
The extreme view was articulated by Marcus Cauchi: “Anyone who brands themselves as a motivational speaker is peddling you a fiction. And anyone who takes the money of some poor sucker in the belief they are serving their people or their business by bringing a trainer/speaker in to deliver sales performance improvement in an afternoon is peddling snake oil.”
Cauchi believes “the entire motivational speaker business is a fraud of the highest order.”
His logic is compelling. Each person in the audience has different personality traits and psychological baggage. The idea that everyone will be impacted by a compelling talk and quickly change those traits that have been impeding their progress is fundamentally flawed.
An article in Psychology Today by Bobby Hoffman, Ph.D, an expert on human motivation and associate professor at the University of Central Florida, reinforced these views.
Hoffman questioned the basic premise of motivational speakers, which suggests, “Do as I do and you too will succeed.” He finds three issues with this approach.
Whatever the speaker did to conquer the obstacles in their life is unlikely to have withstood scientific scrutiny as an approach that will work for others – much less work in the same way for the disparate members of a typical audience.
It’s difficult to debunk the message of the motivational speaker. Hoffman notes that, when the formula used by the speaker fails to produce similar results in practice, “the user is often blamed for not following the prescriptive formula or chastised because they are a ‘non-believer.’”
Motivation is constantly in flux “based on the task at hand, the performer’s beliefs, and the venue conditions.” It changes based on the person and the problem being addressed.
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Generalizations are unlikely to address those issues.
Hoffman’s conclusion is compelling: “Personal motivation cannot be authorized by others, unless the person who is trying to motivate you has the same unique experiences, beliefs, and opportunities as you – a logistical and scientific impossibility.”
Takeaways
To entertain your audience, consider hiring a motivational speaker. They won’t disappoint.
But if you want to generate more AUM by helping your advisors become more effective, use consultants who provide actionable tools to help them improve their skills.
There are no shortcuts that will replace the hard work of developing useful skills.
Dan trains executives and employees in the lessons based on the research on his latest book, Ask: How to Relate to Anyone. His online course, Ask: Increase Your Sales. Deepen Your Relationships, is currently available.
Read more articles by Dan Solin
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
