David Gergen’s 2022 book Hearts Touched with Fire – How Great Leaders Are Made has an excellent chapter on The Art of Public Persuasion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed reading David Gergen’s excellent 2022 book Hearts Touched with Fire – How great leaders are made. Chapter 9 in it, on pages 154 to 169, is titled The Art of Public Persuasion and has a good discussion of public speaking. Sections in it are titled:

 

FINDING YOUR PUBLIC VOICE

THE BASICS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

  First, Know Your Purpose

  Second, Have a Clear Message

  Third, Pay Attention to the Key Elements of a Speech

  Fourth, the Importance of Stories

  Fifth, Master the Elements of Eloquence

PERSUASION IN A DIGITAL WORLD

 

I blogged about how the chapter opens on October 8, 2022 in a post titled You can learn about public speaking from the same old book used by Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. My only problem with this chapter is the statement opening the section titled THE BASICS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING, on page 161, which I will blog about in a follow-up post:

 

“Some years ago, a pollster reported on the three greatest fears of Americans. Their results: Number three were bugs, snakes, and other animals; second was heights; the greatest fear was speaking in front of an audience.”

 

The Executive Summary beginning on page 235 lists the following 20 Key Takeaways:

 

OUR COUNTRY NEEDS A SERIOUS COURSE CORRECTION
PREPARE NOW TO PASS THE TORCH TO NEW GENERATIONS

LEADERSHIP, ALWAYS HARD, HAS BECOME HARDER

LEADERSHIP STARTS FROM WITHIN

HAVE THREE OBJECTIVES EARLY

FIND YOUR TRUE NORTH

FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS

EXTEND YOUR LEADERSHIP JOURNEY OUTSIDE YOURSELF

TRY HARD THINGS, FAIL, MOVE ON

YOU ARE NEVER TOO YOUNG TO LEAD

DEVOTE A YEAR TO NATIONAL SERVICE

SECURE YOUR FINANCES

EMBRACE CRUCIBLE MOMENTS

LEARN TO MANAGE YOUR BOSS

MOBILIZE OTHERS THROUGH PERSUASION

YOUR GREATEST ENEMY MIGHT BE YOU

LEARN FROM NEW MODELS OF LEADERSHIP

SEEK GUIDANCE FROM THE PAST AND PRESENT

FRIENDS AND NETWORKS STILL MATTER

MAINTAIN A CELESTIAL SPARK

 

The fifteenth takeaway, on pages 241 and 242, titled MOBILIZE OTHERS THROUGH PERSUASION says:

 

“From the days of Demosthenes, who practiced speaking with stones in his mouth, to the days of Oprah, who can create magical moments with her guests, leaders have relied upon their capacity to persuade. As Churchill is believed to have said, ‘Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as a gift of oratory.’ As in so many areas of leadership, there is only one way to master it: practice, practice, practice. Accept every offer to speak; prepare carefully (Churchill would spend an hour of prep for each minute he had in a parliamentary speech); and solicit feedback.”

 

There is an Epilogue titled Answering the Call, containing a section starting on page 258 titled IN THE ARENA that quotes paragraph eight from a well-known speech given on April 23, 1910 by Theodore Roosevelt titled Citizenship in a Republic which powerfully begins by stating:

 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

 

The image of Theodore Roosevelt came from the Library of Congress.