SPEAK LIKE A LEADER, WHETHER YOU ARE OR NOT!!

 ALWAYS SPEAK LIKE A LEADER, WHETHER YOU ARE ONE OR NOT!!

THIS HITS DIFFERENT!

Today I'm gonna share with you some speaking secrets, whether you are speaking or writing a speech for someone else or you may be writing for yourself too.

I don't know know whether you know this or not , but there is a secret language of leadership that we all used to be taught at school.

So what i am gonna do in my article is revive an ancient art of rhetoric and share with you six techniques so that you can all speak like leaders.

1.LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT, LOOK CENTER!!

How are you feeling like?

Distressed? Anxious? Little bit edgy?

That is because I am mimicking, hyperventilating!

This is the authentic sound of fear, and that fear transfers to you. This is an ancient rhetoric device, they used to call it asyndeton. And it is one leaders still use today.

So David Cameron uses it as : "Broken homes, failing schools, sink estates."

Tony Blair used to use it as well : " Education, education, education."

Barack Obama too : " A World at War, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a generation."

WHY THREE?

Well, three is a magic number in rhetoric.

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people."

"One people, one empire, one leader."

"Eat well, laugh often, love much."

This is also an ancient Roman rhetorical device. They used to call it Tricolon, which makes it sound like a peculiar part of the digestive system. But its just putting things in threes. Put your argument in threes, it makes it sound more compelling, more convincing, more credible.

JUST LIKE THAT!

And so we find the rule of three: here, there and everywhere. And so indeed you can tell the history of Verona through nothing more than the rue of three. Of course, far and away the most momentous event in Verona's history is today's TEDx : " Reinvent, Rethink, Relay."

2. Let's move on, number two, three sentences in which opening clause is repeated. Now this is what Winston Churchill did with his, " We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets." Of course he could have said this a whole lot quicker. But he wanted to communicate his emotion, so he repeated it. When we are emotional about things, our perspective distorts and this then manifests in our speech. And so this is the authentic sound of passion. It sweeps people away. And this is why this technique is used by slick salesman and by market traders. It sweeps people onto the next points, which is free balance in statements. 

3. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

There is nothing wrong with India, that cannot be cured by what's right with India.

If the sentence sounds as if it is balanced, we imagine that the underlying thinking is balanced, and our brain is tuned to like things that are balanced. Balanced minds, balanced diets, balances lives. And so we are drown to these kinds of sentences, we are attracted to them even if that balance is actually just an illusion. Like we are looking to the future, not the past. We are working together, not against one another. We are thinking about what we can do and not about what we can not do.

Now lets move to the number four

4. Metaphor is probably the most powerful piece of political communication. But its the bit no one ever talks about, the elephant in the room, so to speak, which is extraordinary because we use metaphor once every sixteen words on average. so our conversation is littered with metaphors, scattered with metaphors. we can't speak very long without reaching for a metaphor, and metaphors are very loaded. See, metaphors are over the places, and they are political in that they are used by people to lead people towards things, or indeed to make them recoil. And so we use beautiful images, images of people, images of love, images of family, of sunshine, in order to draw people towards things, and we use disgusting images-vermin, scary monsters, disease, sickness, in order to make people recoil. And they are all lies, and they are never challenged. And yet they have an enormous impact on the way that people behave and respond. There has been research showing changing nothing more than the metaphor in a piece of text can lead to fundamentally different reactions from people on questions ranging from whether or not they will invest in a company, whether or not they will back particular crime policies to even whether or not they will support a foreign war. And so this is really important stuff and it is all around us. 

So, just let me take three of the big metaphors: "The Arab Spring, Sun's shining, flowers blooming."

"This is a time of regrowth, rebirth, and rejuvenation." And yet it is a big lie, isn't it? Even the most optimistic, geopolitical experts look at the Middle East and say this is going to take two generations to recover. 

Let's take one more " The Financial Storm"

The financial storm for the financial crisis, was the financial crisis really an act of nature as the storm metaphor suggests? So it has nothing to do with the greedy bankers? Or timid politicians ? Or ineffective regulators? The storm plants a phony image in our minds that this is something that just swept in, naturally and equally will just sweep away with no need for action on our parts. It is a big lie.

5. If you speak using long words and long sentences, its is like giving someone a steak and asking them to swallow it. Whereas you give them something pithy, like a rhyme.

There are the five steps. And using these five steps you can make the most absurd arguments sound plausible. 

6. If you prefer thinking about persuasion in terms of neuroscience, they work because they speak to instinctive, emotional and logical reins. And so i am going to demonstrate now.

Let us consider a topic Donald Trump. I would like to speak for the topic:

"Plain speaking, honest, authoritative, America has been waiting for someone to grab it by the scruff of its neck, and pick it up. America has been waiting for a politician who can dare to tell the truth. America has been waiting for someone who can really show leadership. Trump's being knocked by the liberal establishment, but he is winning support from the people. That's because he is not spinning, he is telling it like it is. And he is not speaking to America at its heart, but he is speaking to a truth across the world now. The world has been waiting for enlightenment from someone like Trump for a long while now. And I will tell you what, we ought to be thanking our lucky stars that for once we have got genuine political debate taking place in US. Maybe who knows we might get something like this in India one day. Strange things have happen. "

Its a playful exercise but the point I am making here is very serious. The reason we all used to listen because it was seen as a basic entry point to society. How could society be fair, unless everyone has equal ability to articulate and express themselves? 

This is how you need to express your words, making your speech more effective.

Make it practical!!