3 essential steps for writing a speech for the CEO

It’s a prize writing assignment, but it has its risks.

Your CEO wants you to write a speech for her, but you’ve never written for the head honcho before. Where do you start?

If possible, have a face-to-face meeting with the CEO. Meeting in person is important for several reasons. First, you can more carefully study the CEO’s nonverbal cues and speaking patterns that will factor into how to craft the speech.

Also, you can observe speaking patterns. Does she use short sentences? Does she use metaphors? Does she have any catchphrases?

Whether or not you include any of this and the draft you create, it’s important to know what you may have to work with—or work around.

Here are three steps you shouldn’t avoid when crafting your speech:

1. Do your homework.

It’s a good idea to do as much research as possible in advance of that face-to-face meeting, covering not only speech topics, but also on the venue, the audience and of course the speaking history and preferences of the speaker.

Know when the speech will be delivered, the venue and the format. Will the speech be a keynote, a panel discussion or something else? Find out if you will need to think about multimedia or other visual aids that could be required.