Leadership In Speaking

"Every artist was at first an amateur" Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the places where it leads" Erica Jong

In these unpredictable and uncertain times, a particular kind of party leader, a more populist style of orator, are increasing getting themselves elected. These leaders know instinctively how to cultivate their image and are getting themselves elected by stirring emotions around divisive and incendirary issues.

30 years ago, there was a different kind or leader in charge. These leaders were more measured and academic, who presented reasoned arguments and conditional promises to their voters. It was another universe. They were often predictable and sometimes even a little dull by today’s standards, yet they were reassuring in their patterns. There was much less confusion compared to what we’re getting right now as the world reacts from one never-ending drama to the next.

Today, with persistent challenges affecting the macro-environment daily, business owners and investors have a hard time relaxing. 4 years ago, we had a virus that shut down whole economies in days. Global supply lines have been totally disrupted since by western reactionary policy and increasing conflicts. There are still backlogs going back months if not years in all industries from car manufactures to medical device producers. There are ongoing issues with securing raw materials at a national level for the production of highly sought after goods as nations compete for minerals for components and the inflation of the price of basics for every man and woman on this earth seems to continue to upswing. Our planet is getting warmer with every passing year. A quarter of the planet’s population has started to refuse to accept basic science agreed centuries ago by academic institutions. I could go on...

With the presence of a 24-hour news cycle, the relentless feeds of social media pouring AI generated nonsense out of our phones and the never-ending outrage over the most minor of distractions, it’s an environment that favours the kind of people who have an insatiable need to be center stage. In short, those with narcissistic tendencies. It's noisy out there and the environment is not for the faint hearted.

Now putting politics aside; executives, business leaders, founders, teachers, experts, specialists, students, influencers and even those of us who don’t consider ourselves leaders, we all have to communicate as leaders today and cut through the noise! The bar has never been higher and due to the modern requirement mix of simplicity, personability and creativity, in part inspired by the thought leaders and tech wizards of Silicon Valley and simply every leader who has ever made our hair stand on end when they speak. Anyone who is anyone is required in the business world to have a certain level of Kudos when they speak. To be able to influence and inspire others It doesn’t come without a lot of hard work.

As a modern leader, being able to communicate is your most crucial skill.

At the heart of every organisation lies humans who need to set the example and inspire the rest. It has never been more necessary for every leader, every manager, every supervisor, every soul to be able to inspire and persuade. It’s all in here, it’s not rocket science, but its crucially important because of the continuingly difficult and uncertain environment. We must communicate constantly, consistently, with intention to everyone in our spheres, especially in the hybrid working environment because people lose heart quick from one day to the next.

Every human that gets up in front of an audience takes the mantle of leadership and it takes preparation, confidence, and humility to do it right.

As a coach I have worked with many leaders in many organizations. One of the biggest challenges for any leader is to get up and expose their knowledge and themselves to an audience, particularly in a hostile situation.

All great leaders need a North Star

In his book ‘True north’ by Admiral James Stavridis, which is a study of 10 great naval leaders over a period of many centuries, he describes 9 essential qualities of a great leader: Creativity, Resilience, Humility, Balance, Honesty, Empathy, Justice, Decisiveness, and Determination.

All these 9 great qualities can be communicated while being in front of an audience as a speaker. But it takes both internal work and life experience to be grounded in those qualities and external work to be able to communicate it. An important exercise to consider is how do you communicate these qualities? How do they reveal themselves to an audience. How can an audience identify them?

How do you communicate creativity?

How do you communicate resilience?

How do you communicate humility?

How do you communicate balance?

How do you communicate honesty?

How do you communicate empathy?

How do you communicate justice?

How do you communicate decisiveness

How do you communicate determination?

Some of these qualities are character based, some of them are spiritual or just personal and each of them have their own way to be communicated. Here, I will attempt to explain how you can express these 9 qualities while you’re on stage.

I would argue that Creativity is about how you illustrate and structure the ideas that you're using in a way that makes sense and resonates. For example, how can you use metaphor to help you to make parallels to help you communicate your concepts? What is your concept like? What does it resemble that everyone is familiar with? Can you take risk to challenge your audience in a less conventional way? For example, draw parallels with current events, speak to the heart of what people care about? Can you adapt and improvise your content last minute to the situation to connect better with the audience?

When it comes to Resilience, are you calm? Do you react well under pressure? Do you put your audience first? What can you do in your preparation to roll with the potential punches that are coming your way and keep strong. Prepare thoroughly and seek to take on any challenges with calm and deep breath.

When it comes to Humility how can you communicate that you have the capacity to be equal to your audience? Do you know how to connect to them? The ego is the true enemy of humility. How can you keep the ego at bay under pressure?

When it comes to Balance how is your posture? Is there tension in your body? How does your energy flow through you. Is your energy consistent? Do an energy and feelings check before beforehand. Warm up, if necessary, this will help immensely.

Honesty is knowing what you’re saying is true. However, honesty starts with an honest connection to oneself. Are your arguments coming from the heart or do you have anything to hide? How transparent are you? Are you prepared to give them bad news when it comes to it? Are you prepared to deal with the conflict that ensues? Make a list of 1 to 3 things that are important to you that you won’t compromise. Can you share your own experience in a way that makes it relevant to your point and make meaning for the audience?

With Empathy, can you anticipate the mood? Can read your audience? Can you adapt your tone to the mood of the room? Can you be vulnerable with your audience even though you are the one leading them? Have I truly considered what their needs are and have I done the preparation to make this presentation as accessible and as meaningful as possible.

When it comes to Justice, how can you communicate that? Have you considered all elements in your content? Is what you're saying fair and equitable? Are the asks realistic? Have you prepared enough to be able to meet your audience’s needs?

With Decisiveness, do you hesitate or are you clear, concise and to the point with the information that you were giving? Rehearsal will improve this as you link your ideas and transitions fluidly. Decisiveness is attractive for people and an important skill for any leader to earn people’s admiration.

Finally, when it comes to Determined, have you given enough?  Do you seek to connect to your audience? Do you really seek out their attention and fire through to your objective? Rather than over preparing in advance, ask questions and get to the heart of your audience’s needs. Seek (non-violent) conflict if necessary.

A couple of years ago, British actress Emily Blunt was called out for having made a mean comment during an interview several years prior about an overweight waitress. While it was unfortunate and frankly misjudged, nearly all of us capable of speaking without thinking about the consequences first. Once the matter was raised over social media, she promptly apologized for her comments with no reservations. One journalist criticized her response as groveling. It goes to show, as leaders, we need to stick to our authentic selves when we respond, because there will always be someone who will criticise us whatever that response will be. The actress made the right decision and owned up to it rapidly, without any fuss or defensiveness.

In 2025, we are presented with a new paradigm. As things get flashier and noisier and we continue to focus on the how—continuing to make presentations shorter and zippier and catchier—are we forgetting about the what? And more importantly, the why.