Leaders Speak with Confidence and Authority

• 00:04 If you want to speak like a leader,
• 00:07 it really means one thing, you want to become a great public speaker.
• 00:12 Think of the best leaders of all time.
• 00:14 Whether it's government or business, it's very hard to imagine someone
• 00:19 like that who was an awful public speaker, or even a mediocre public speaker.
• 00:24 The greatest leaders in history, and even today, are also great public speakers.
• 00:31 In fact, great public speaking and leadership are synonymous.
• 00:35 Because part of being a leader is you have to lead groups of
• 00:40 people to take the actions you want.
• 00:43 If all you can do is speak one-on-one, it's very hard to reach a whole group.
• 00:48 So that's what speaking like a leader is really all about,
• 00:51 it's being a great speaker.
• 00:53 Now, what does that mean?
• 00:55 When you think of great leaders throughout history, and modern-day,
• 01:00 it doesn't matter if it's Roosevelt,
• 01:02 it doesn't matter if it's Churchill, Reagan, Clinton, John F. Kennedy.
• 01:08 Whoever your leaders are that you admire, they're all different,
• 01:12 different styles of speaking, and yet,
• 01:15 they're all remarkably similar when it comes to certain traits.
• 01:19 For starters, they all spoke with amazing confidence.
• 01:25 When you saw Roosevelt speak, or Churchill, or Clinton, or
• 01:30 Tony Blair, in recent times, they don't show a shred of doubt.
• 01:36 Nervous, you don't see hands shaking.
• 01:38 You don't see them say, well, I kind of think, maybe, sort of.
• 01:41 No, they speak with absolute confidence in their ideas, and that's contagious.
• 01:49 And I'm going to teach you how to do that.
• 01:52 The other big trait that they all share,
• 01:55 is the ability to talk about big ideas, complex ideas about the world,
• 02:01 but to talk about it using simple language that everybody understands.
• 02:08 Now, this is a big problem for a lot of people.
• 02:10 Because if you're a little bit insecure, the natural tendency is,
• 02:15 I'll show people how smart I am.
• 02:17 I'll show them how I know everything on this subject, and
• 02:20 I'll use big words, and I'll use acronyms, and I'll use fancy lingo.
• 02:26 That's what people do, who aren't leaders.
• 02:29 Leaders understand it's about helping these people.
• 02:34 It doesn't matter if it's investors for a startup.
• 02:38 It doesn't matter if it's voters, it's about helping them have the ideas that
• 02:42 you already have, and getting them to do something with you.
• 02:45 That's what leadership is about.
• 02:47 Winston Churchill, very learned individual,
• 02:50 wrote the ten volume history of English speaking people.
• 02:54 Would still pride himself in being able to give complicated speeches on foreign
• 03:00 policy during the war, never used a word with more than two syllables.
• 03:04 Because he understood, as he often told his staff,
• 03:08 there's a huge difference between how the eye processes words,
• 03:13 big words, versus how the ear processes words.
• 03:17 The ear really doesn't process big words,
• 03:20 it's better to keep it shorter words, smaller words, simpler words.
• 03:26 And those are some of the things that we're going to focus on in this course, so
• 03:31 that you can speak like a leader.
• 03:34 But the big picture of course is, you gotta be a great speaker.
• 03:38 That means people have to understand you, understand your messages.
• 03:42 Remember your messages, because you made them so compelling.
• 03:46 And know what you want them to do, and want to take the actions you want.
• 03:50 So you've gotta be a great speaker.
• 03:53 You've got to exude confidence.
• 03:56 And you have to have a message that people understand and can buy into.
• 04:00 Do those things, and you can learn to be a great public speaker.
• 04:05 And please realize, this is not something anybody's born into.
• 04:11 John F Kennedy was considered a horrible public speaker,
• 04:14 even as a member of Congress, as an adult.
• 04:17 He was considered a horrible speaker.
• 04:19 Read head down, hands shaking a little, he learned to be a better speaker.
• 04:24 Winston Churchill was considered a very bad public speaker compared to his father,
• 04:30 who was also a political leader and
• 04:33 was just great at thinking off the top of his head in the House of Commons.
• 04:38 Winston Churchill had to work at it, work at it, and practice, and practice,
• 04:40 and practice.
• 04:41 He wasn't a natural.
• 04:44 But he learned to be a great public speaker.
• 04:48 Ronald Reagan might be a role model for you.
• 04:50 People don't realize Ronald Reagan was a good speaker,
• 04:54 not just because of his acting background, but because when he had a major
• 04:58 speech like the State of the Union address, he would practice it.
• 05:02 Read it out loud for three hours a night, in the residency,
• 05:06 in the White House, getting familiar with the text.
• 05:10 Not to memorize it, he was using a teleprompter.
• 05:13 He would then spend an entire day of videotape rehearsal for
• 05:16 a big speech like State of the Union.
• 05:18 He did all that so he could sound completely confident and
• 05:22 relaxed with the material.
• 05:25 So these are some of the secrets of the greats.
• 05:28 And now, you're going to know exactly how to do it.
• 05:30 And if you follow this course, you're actually going to do this.
• 05:34 So that by the time we end you will, in fact, speak like a leader.

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