The Original Leadership Tool

Today, as presenters, we are hit with a new paradigm. As things get flashier, noisier and we continue to focus on the how—continuing to make presentations shorter and zippier and catchier—are we not forgetting about the what? And more importantly, the why?

It's time to go back to the beginning and reconnect with a time-tested concept from an ancient philosopher mind.

Ethos, Pathos, and logos, an ancient but reliable model for leadership persuasion

In ancient Greece, at the earliest stages of human civil society, leaders understood the importance of debate in forming a democracy. In fact, being able to speak publicly, communicate ideas and persuade our peers is intrinsic to democratic governance. During this ancient period of discovery, certain philosophers and practitioners began to build a framework of tools to consolidate and distill the skill of speaking to an audience. One such theorist was Aristotle, a philosopher of some weight during his time, created a broad work called Rhetoric (developed from his own lectures) which was the first public speaking and persuasion theory ever published. One key tool on persuasion is the 4 key appeals of Ethos, Logos, Pathos and Kairos.

For those of you unfamiliar with Aristotle’s Persuasion Triangle I will quickly explain it now. This triangle represents 3 integral ingredients (or appeals) that help to make any argument or case to an audience to stimulate debate, the 4th is the context and timing on which that argument sits. Back in the days of giving speeches at the local Agora or on the Pnyx in ancient Athens, academics, philosophers, and civil leaders needed to facilitate political debate and participation in assemblies in furthering democratic principles. It was widely construed during this period of fledgling organized civil society that, without oral debate, there can be no democracy. I think the modern context does indeed demonstrate that to be true.

The 4 appeals:

Ethos: the appeal of authority for the speaker and their content. Where the speaker has credibility, either credentials, experience, or considerable knowledge in the topic. They are endorsed by others for their knowledge and demonstrate mastery with their vocabulary and ethical grounding behind their ideas. The Ethos is indispensable for the leader as you cultivate both credibility and character.

Pathos: the appeal of emotion and storytelling. The stimulation of imagination through anecdotes, imagery, metaphor, and creativity in a presentation. Pathos is what gives us hope, engagement, excitement, and inspiration in a speech, when we present a vision of a better future for example, pathos can also instill fear, confusion, frustration, and despair when certain leaders want to divide and frustrate.

Logos: the appeal of logic in the form of data, stats, presented research, numbers and evidence. Logos also represents clear structure to the speech, for example in 3 parts or outlining the parts and components of the whole talk at the very beginning if the talk is very long or a workshop.

The 4th wall: Kairos: the appeal of context in the form of timing or ‘season’. In the words of New York investor Gary Vanyerchuk “If content is king then context is god”. The time and place of a presentation is crucial as it determines the wider context of the current situation in which the content is being shared coupled with the culture and mindset of your audience. To give an example, an urgent internal meeting via zoom to discuss short term operations during the onset of COVID was a very different context to a routine meeting on the same topic. To give another example from a sales perspective, when Canon launched its L90 Canon fax phone in 1990, it surely garnered interest from business owners and companies all over the world back then, but it wouldn’t get much interest in 2025.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century and well in to the 20th century, something happened to the balance of the 3 appeals. The focus in communication in many industries and institutions swung over to Logos: with fact-based and structure being the focused appeal to build upon. Top down, left brain, siloed and reductionist in approach led to a scientific lab like communication style based upon informative data that could be reproduced easily and widely by using primitive means. Today, in the 21st century, with all our high-tech tools, always on multimedia screens, the shift is undeniably towards Pathos: the emotional and creative appeal, in part due to the explosion of the TED platform. This has been a great development but being too focused on Pathos (especially at the expense of Ethos) leaves us with well designed and sometimes emotional presentations yet with empty, vague and directionless messaging. For the leader, Ethos always needs to be present in the argument. It can’t work without it.

A balance of all 3 was the original blueprint some three thousand years ago but some presentations require a heavier focus on Logos such as when presenting data of research, presentations addressing issues around climate change or justice naturally lean towards Pathos. But all presentations benefit from a healthy dose of all three. While we might not to be able to tell a personal story during a presentation of business figures, we can certainly give those figures meaning by saying why they are important.

These 3 appeals of Ethos, Pathos and logos help remind the leader what’s important to communicate and the 4th one Kairos is when to do it. Aristiotles work is all about balance and continues to define leadership rhetoric today as a powerful tool.