July 21, 2025 · Erik Reagan
Jerry Seinfeld once joked that according to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. "This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy." I've seen this anxiety firsthand.
Many capable leaders who routinely make critical decisions can find themselves unnerved by the prospect of delivering their quarterly or annual "state of the company" address. If you count yourself among them, you're in good company — but your company needs your voice.
Guidance and preparation can significantly ease these nerves. When you have a clear framework for what you want to say and why, that stomach-churning anxiety often transforms into focused energy. The structure I'm about to share has helped countless business owners move from dreading these talks to recognizing them as powerful leadership opportunities.
Before diving into the content of your speech, take time to identify your "North Star" - the overarching purpose of your address. Ask yourself:
First: Start with Your North Star
First: Start with Your North Star
Your North Star serves as your guiding light, ensuring every point you make supports your central message. Without this clarity, your address risks becoming a disconnected collection of updates rather than a cohesive, purposeful communication.
Once you've established your North Star, you can lean on this simple tool. Here are four questions you can use to help guide and filter your content:
This is the factual foundation of your address:
1. What do you want your team to KNOW?
Be transparent about both successes and setbacks. Share relevant data that provides context but avoid overwhelming your audience with too many numbers. Select the metrics that most directly connect to your North Star message.
This shapes how your team interprets the information you've shared:
2. What do you want your team to THINK?
This section bridges raw information and emotional impact by providing the "why" behind the "what." Help your team see the bigger picture and understand how all the pieces fit together.
(Sometimes you can use "What do you want your team to think about?" which can take a different but still helpful spin.)
This emotional component is often overlooked but is crucial for engagement:
3. What do you want your team to FEEL?
The emotional tone you set can be the difference between a team that's merely informed and one that's truly inspired. Consider sharing stories that evoke the desired emotional response, whether that's celebrating a team's perseverance through challenges or highlighting customer impact stories.
This action-oriented conclusion transforms understanding into momentum:
Be explicit about your expectations and provide clear next steps. The most effective state of the company addresses translate into tangible action and behavioral shifts.
To illustrate how this tool works in practice, here's a simplified example:
North Star: To rally the team around our new customer-centric strategy while acknowledging current challenges.
Know: Our customer satisfaction scores have dropped 15% over the past year, while our competitors are gaining market share. However, our new product launch exceeded revenue projections by 20%.
Bringing It All Together: An Example
Think: Our current market position demands urgent attention, but we have proven our ability to innovate successfully. By reorienting around customer needs, we can regain our competitive advantage.
Feel: Concern about our customer satisfaction trends, but confidence in our collective ability to turn things around. Excitement about the opportunities ahead if we execute well.
Bringing It All Together: An Example
Do: Implement the new customer feedback loops we've designed; participate in the cross-functional customer journey mapping sessions; prioritize quick wins identified in our recent customer research.
Even the best-structured message can fall flat without effective delivery:
Final Tips for Delivery
If one or two questions in the Know-Think-Feel-Do tool don't apply for a certain speech, just bypass them Remember, your state of the company address shouldn't exist in isolation. The most effective leaders reinforce their key messages in regular communications, creating a consistent narrative that guides their organizations forward.
You may have noticed that the Know-Think-Feel-Do tool doesn't give any guidance to how to structure your speech. That's a subject for a different article. But if you need a starting point, a very common approach for a company status speech is to break it into three parts: where we've been, where we are today, and where we're going.
Your quarterly or annual address is more than just an update — it's a strategic leadership tool that, when approached with intention and structure, can align, inspire, and mobilize your entire organization. And with proper preparation, you might even find yourself preferring the podium to the casket after all.