I’ve worked with many CEOs and C-suite executives and far too many of them find ways to wiggle out of rehearsing important speeches.  In one memorable instance, the CEO in question had actually rented out a conference hall that seated several thousand people in order to practice in a big hall.  He kept us waiting several hours, and when he finally showed up, he announced that he was too tired to rehearse.  We had a light and sound crew with us, and of course the requisite corporate hangers-on.  All told, a dozen people, a giant hall rented for the day, and no CEO. 

It’s baffling.  As a former actor, I (along with every single one of my Thespian colleagues) count on rehearsal.  Many of the reasons are obvious: it’s nice to know what you’re doing, you learn in a safe space, better to screw up in front of your colleagues than an audience, and so on.

Less obviously, perhaps, you get to inhabit the role, or the speech, physically.  You get to walk where you’re going to walk, stand where you’re going to stand, and so on.  What does that accomplish?  It allows you to look competent.  If you’re ‘winging it’ you’ll always have a certain hesitancy, no matter how confident you think you are.  You wouldn’t play an important tennis match without practice.  Why speak without practice?  It’s the same thing. 

I always wince inwardly when a CEO tells me he’s better off winging it because he’ll be fresher, more spontaneous, not over-rehearsed.  My standard reply is that stage actors get six weeks, 9 – 5 every day, in order to look assured and competent.  So give me three rehearsals! 

That sometimes works.  But what’s really going on is that rehearsing is anxiety-provoking, so CEOs, being human, want to put it off.  I tell them that the performance will be even more anxiety-producing, and especially so without rehearsal. 

These days, we want our speakers to look human, casual, to sound conversational, to be authentic.  But don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can achieve that by winging it.  When you do that, you actually look less authentic, because people expect leaders to be confident, and when they look hesitant, the audience assumes they’re lying.

Don’t be fooled.  Rehearse.  It’s better than the alternative.