How to Give a Corporate Culture Speech

by Rose Mathews
When communicating corporate culture, discuss your company's mission and vision.

When communicating corporate culture, discuss your company's mission and vision.

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As a leader in your organization, you are a curator of your business's culture and history. Throughout your career, it will be necessary to communicate this information to key stakeholders -- to new hires, to the staff and board at annual meetings and to potential partners and investors. It's important that you master the content of this message and craft a compelling delivery.

Keep it Simple

When writing your speech, paint with broad brush strokes. Choose three or four key points, and then use vivid stories to illustrate those points. Visual aids can help put your message across, but don't get bogged down in charts, graphs or excessive data. Make sure your presentation has a clear beginning, middle and end. The speakers' group Toastmasters International recommends that you tell your audience what you are about to say, then you tell them, then you recap what you just told them.

Body Language Basics

To succeed as a communicator, you must learn to be relaxed and comfortable when giving presentations. When speaking, keep hand gestures to a minimum, make sure you have good posture, and do your best to conceal signs of nervousness. Better yet, minimize nervousness by being well-prepared and practicing your speech. Do whatever relaxation technique works best for you, whether that's taking slow, deep breaths or visualizing yourself giving a powerful and successful presentation.

Communicate History, Mission and Values

What does your company do? What are your company's values? How does your company measure success? If your business doesn't have a written mission statement, it should. And this mission statement will inform your company's culture at all levels. A discussion of corporate culture should also highlight values -- does your company prize customer service above all? Is your company committed to advancing a cause? You can illustrate these values by sharing turning points in the history of your company -- how you got where you are now.

Respond to Employees, Address the Future

You are a keeper of the history of your organization, but you are also leading it into the future. In communicating your company's culture, it's key that you are aware of market trends, challenges and competitors. Your sense of the corporate culture should be fluid and forward-thinking. Don't ignore your stakeholders' concerns. If you're giving your speech in the middle of a recession, you can't ignore that reality when discussing the culture of your organization.

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