Has there ever been a global political event which provoked so much scrutiny of the participants’ communication style/tone? The already infamous Zelensky/Trump/Vance ‘conversation’ at the White House has given us endless hours of debate and analysis. I was struck by the lack of restraint, an absence of moderation, a dearth of statesmanlike language. It felt a bit like a teenage tantrum (apologies to teenagers) and it’s not how politicians and leaders have typically behaved, particularly in public. The other notable element for me was the comment ‘it’ll make great television’. A giveaway that everything is about performance rather than substance. Hard to imagine how that felt to the grieving families of Ukraine.
People have always analysed leadership communication so I thought I’d look at some of what’s been said and how it might be useful to us. Classics professor Mary Beard has been vocal in this area, and there’s an excellent BBC Radio 4 programme, Read My Lips, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0520q63 which explores politicians’ changing communication stylesover time.
Mary Beard criticises politicians who speak in sound bites/slogans rather than developing an argument, as famous orators like Socrates and Churchill did. But they are now compelled to speak thus because audiences have changed and because we now better understand their needs and tolerances – they have shorter concentration spans (average sound bite in the US – 9 seconds; average clip viewed on YouTube – 2.5 minutes); we all consume content on different devices, in different formats, at our convenience; speeches are replayed, repackaged and re-edited; and there’s a plethora of other content vying for our attention.
So, speakers have had to respond to this, and are quite rightly delivering material to audiences in a way that is likely to resonate with them. Interestingly, Alastair Campbell suggests that politicians should go back to a pre-sound bite style, be more expansive and trust audiences more. Presumably he’d like Conservative politicians to test his theory! I fear the boat has already sailed on this one.
But are sound bites such a modern and sinister phenomenon? Rename them ‘memory bites’ and consider how many short phrases Shakespeare bequeathed to us, and we might look at them more favourably.
Focusing on the audience’s needs is a key theme from Frank Luntz, the influential American pollster and political consultant. “They’re the ones that matter, not you”.
Hurrah to that – it’s one of the principles of my training. Moving the focus from you, the speaker, to them, the audience will make your ideas more relevant, your performance more engaging, your confidence greater.
No doubt to the delight of Mary Beard, there’s plenty of classical ‘packaging’ still in use, including ‘the power of three’, rhyme, and anaphora (the deliberate repetition of the first part of a sentence). Tony Blair once used the latter to great effect at his party conference, talking about terrorism. Classics professor Edith Hall tells us how Pericles’ funeral address to the Athenians – one of the most famous speeches in antiquity – has influenced many a modern presentation. Interesting to note also that JFK’s speech writer Ted Sorensen studied classics (“Ask not what your country …….”).
Another concept understood by the great classical orators, but underemployed by many today (except Trump who does this very effectively), is the power of emotion. Aristotle suggested that “persuasion may come… when the speech stirs their emotions”. Politicians in the 21st century will reach voters better if they combine emotional and intellectual/factual content. We should do likewise, whatever product/service/ideas we are peddling. Are we not all, essentially, in the persuasion business?
Not surprisingly, it’s emotion, alongside novel and memorable content which Carmine Gallo identifies as the secret of a great TED talk (he’s helpfully analysed hundreds of presentations for his book Talk Like Ted). That and talking at 160 words per minute which, interestingly, is almost the same pace at which continuity announcers tend to speak on BBC television (three words per second).
So, as we all seek to sharpen up our communication skills, perhaps we should turn our eyes to the ancients rather than the new kids on the block. And as for global matters let’s hope that…
“All’s well that ends well”
