Hopefully, you’ve had time to see this movie. One of the best of the year. Gary Oldman won the Oscar for best actor.
I’m on my fourth book on this period of history–so far I’ve enjoyed the matching book, The Darkest Hour, the most.
Several years ago, I read James Humes’ The Sir Winston Method: The Five Secrets of Speaking the Language of Leadership. As you can tell, it informed our conference discussion of the Language of Leadership and I was happy to review it again.
Here’s a quick summary of the 5 secrets:
Secret 1: Begin strongly: Impress your audience with an opening zinger.
Secret 2: Focus on one theme: A speech is like a symphony. It can have three movements, but it must have one dominant melody.
Secret 3: Use simple language: Toss out the beat-around-the-bush jargon of bureaucrats and pick up your pace with personal, colorful language.
Secret 4: Draw a picture in the listener’s mind: Transform dry abstractions like “private enterprise” into a powerful picture like “the sturdy horse pulling along the cart of democracy,” as Churchill did.
Secret 5: End with an emotion: Express feeling from the heart when you cap your speech.