Good Morning,
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My current read is ‘Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers’ by James C. Humes (http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Like-Churchill-Stand-Lincoln/dp/0761563512). I was caught by the title and I am really enjoying the lessons in this book.
Two of the lessons which have resonated with me are: knowing your audience and having a power quote on hand.
Knowing your audience, whether we are acting as a speaker, emcee or just interacting with others helps us get our message across most efficiently. Failure to know our audience can cause our message to go awry, be taken the wrong way, or worse yet, be misunderstood.
To illustrate knowing our audience, James Humes uses a story told to him by then president of Campbell Soup who spoke about his nephew during the Vietnam War. The nephew, after being injured and in a hospital, needed help to write a letter to his wife. In dictating the letter to a nurse, he mentions that, in part, the nurses there are very regular looking. The nurse who was taking the dictation took offense at the statement and the nephew. He then told the nurse, the letter was intended for his wife.
Last night at church we were talking about following advice or orders and the consequences of not doing so. In my mind popped an incident with my favorite general, Belisarius of the
The second lesson is having a power quote on hand. These quotes can be from anyone, how they are presented is the key. The important point is to have the quote ready to use when you need it. So powerful are these quotes that those who speak them are often remembered long after they have passed for saying these quotes. President Theodore Roosevelt used a quote from an unknown source. This quote now outlives him (“Walk softly and carry a big stick’). How many other quotes do you remember which have survived their speakers? This is the power of using quotes.
James Humes then lists some of his favorites, like Winston Churchill’s quote: “No one can make you inferior without your consent.’ That is a powerful quote and one that I have come across in half a dozen books over the last few years.
Later last evening at church, the topic of discussion was fear, so I tossed out FDR’s famous quote: ‘The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself’. That hit home, everyone nodded in agreement. Right concept, right audience, right quote.
Knowing who we are communicating with, what they like, what they expect, what they are familiar with helps open the door to smoother communications, and in the case of the nephew, a less jealous wife awaiting his return home.
Having one or more very powerful quotes on standby to help us convey our message helps to turbo-charge what we are saying by bringing in the big guns. A short succinct quote can often accentuate our point faster and more efficiently than we can on our own. With all those wonderful quotes out there, like ripe fruits on trees, let’s go and pick a few juicy ones to help out in our day to day lives.
Enjoy!
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