THE
7 LEADERSHIP
QUALITIES OF
GREAT
SPEAKERS
By Gary Genard, Ph.D.
THE 7 LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF
GREAT SPEAKERS
BY GARY GENARD, PH.D.
To Speak to Lead, Serve Your Audience
Speaking as a leader means you must share some
destinations with other forms of leadership, while taking a
different road toward others. You need to be visible, selfassured, a good communicator, sometimes bold, and highly
focused on the task at hand. You may even benefit by taking
chances. But here's a key difference: while leaders understand
the need to serve to some extent, as a speaker that
characteristic must take precedence over all others.
Who are the great speakers from history that you admire?
Lincoln? Winston Churchill? Susan B. Anthony? JFK? Martin
Luther King, Jr.? Maya Angelou?
Every one of these speakers didn't visibly care about achieving
excellence. They did care about sharing with their audience the
values, ideas, and vision in which they and their listeners had a
mutual interest.
Effective Communication Skills
Transcend Industries
If you want to speak
as a leader, you
should stop trying to
look and sound like
one. It's more
important that you
embody certain key
attributes of leaders
who speak. And that
means refining
some of the qualities
you equate with
Change the context from politics to business, nonprofit
service, science, or any other field and the reality is the
same: to inspire audiences, you must give of yourself over
and over again. After all, it is called "giving" a speech!
Trying to make audiences respond more to you than to what
you're saying is a common mistake that will keep you from
true influence.
So, aside from the expected qualities of vision, experience,
credibility, and eloquence, what are the "gifts" leaders give their
audiences when they speak?
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leadership.
The 7 Attributes You Need to Speak as a Leader
INTEGRITY
Listeners who don't trust a speaker will never truly open up to that person's influence. Honesty is a key
component here of course. But for speeches and presentations to rise above the ordinary, the level of honesty
must achieve actual integrity. Audiences will be willing to change only for a speaker who shows that he or she
walks the walk. Models: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dalai Lama, Rosa Parks.
VITALITY
Speeches should be conversational, but they're also performances. Physically and vocally, great speakers take
hold of listeners' imagination and say, "Wait until you hear this!" The speech that isn't vital in terms of an
energized performative will stay firmly glued to the earth. As an actor, I strove for that level of intensity in every
performance, and I still do as a speaker. Models: Theodore Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary
Roach, Winston Churchill, George S. Patton.
GOODWILL
One of the shortcomings of our culture is speakers who are more concerned with their Twitter followers or book
sales than the needs of their listeners. "Goodwill," on the other hand, means benevolence or concern with the
audience's interests. How many high-powered speakers demonstrate that attribute? Not many, perhaps, but
great speakers have always done so. Models: George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mahatma Gandhi.
VULNERABILITY
Surprised at this one? Along with integrity, audiences look for some level of vulnerability in a speaker. No one
wants a presenter suited up in medieval armor, because we can't get through to such a person (which is the
whole idea of the armor!). Self-consciousness and anxiety may make you want to hide while speaking in public;
but the reality is that you shouldn't try. Models: Lou Gehrig, Chief Joseph ("I will fight no more forever"), Helen
Keller.
EMPATHY
We sometimes think of great speakers as larger than life, but they seldom are. Yes, they project power as they
try to lead us to greater things; but they can only do so if they understand our fears, hopes, and desires. For
great speakers, "I feel your pain" isn't a vote-getting ploy but a credo to live, and speak, by. Models: Patrick
Henry, Maya Angelou.
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HUMOR
Ever heard that you should start a speech with a joke? If so, throw that advice out with the other suggestions
on how to be excellent. Jokes are zero-sum games in which you either win big or go down in flames. Humor,
on the other hand, is easy to find and tie into your topic. The best speakers look for the universal that all
audience members can relate to—and it's frequently humorous. Models: Mark Twain, Ronald Reagan, Will
Rogers, Jay Leno.
HUMILITY
You'll probably find this attribute something of a balancing act. Leaders often need the largest audiences
possible for their messages. Once they've found such an audience, however, they must subordinate
themselves to the needs of those listeners. It all has to do with serving the audience, as stated above.
Models: Mother Teresa, Hubert Humphrey.
So remember, whatever your topic is, every audience wants to see attributes in you that go far beyond content, and
even charisma. Display the seven gifts named here, and you'll be giving listeners not only something, but someone of
value.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Genard, Ph.D., founder of The Genard Method, is an expert in theaterbased public speaking training. As an actor and speech coach, he uses
performance techniques to help executives and leadership teams speak with
confidence and influence. Dr. Genard consults and trains for corporations,
governments, nonprofits, and individuals worldwide. He is the author of the
Amazon best-selling titles How to Give a Speech, Fearless Speaking (named by
Book Authority as “One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time”), Speaking
Virtually, and Speak for Leadership. He publishes the weekly blog Speak for
Success!
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