Ever since I worked one summer in an engineering workshop, I have had an anathema to Meatloaf. The trouble with the hit record - starting to date myself here - was that a large ‘don’t mess with me’ biker type welder had taped the title song ‘Bat out of Hell’ end to end. He played it non-stop loudly for the entire day. Every day.

Even now (alright, some thirty years later) the intro, the chorus the whole darn lot is etched somewhere permanently into my brain. There too is the track, ‘You took the words right out of my mouth’. But here, I have to say, Meatloaf had a point.

When it comes to getting ideas across in speeches, getting other people to think they came up with the idea in the first place wins every time. Hey, it works in marriages, works too when it comes to setting ground rules for sulky adolescents (Get them to suggest the guidelines). If people think it’s their idea, they are more responsible, more cooperative and more interested in the outcome.

That’s the bit when the audience is looking up at you, nodding with their eyes and ears firmly focused on you and what you are saying..

How you do it? Well I guess it’s a bit like flattery. Appeal to their better natures, talk up to them, and yes flatter them a little bit it you have to. Get them thinking how bright smart and intelligent they are. Just don’t let on that an overweight biker in a leather jacket told you so.

Check out our sample speeches