George Guzzardo conveys why leaders have been speakers throughout history. LIFE Leadership builds leaders, speakers, and authors through a systematic process of learning. Thousands have benefited from the program and, knowing Orrin Woodward, millions will soon be reached. Here is George's article.
A LEADER SPEAKS
Part of being a leader is conveying a vision with passion that connects with the audience. Over the last one hundred years less emphasis was placed on the importance of rhetoric in our school systems. In fact many people may not even understand the word rhetoric because of the loss of importance placed on it. Rhetoric is the ability to use language effectively. It was valued by past civilizations. They placed great emphasis on speech. This is a key component to leadership. That is why LIFE Leadership is committed to providing products that compliment a leaders presence, projection, and passion. You will find, however, that the element of a great speaker is more than good grammar and appearance. When you examine the great leaders of history you will find that they inspired their constituents. They were great connectors and they had a message that they were passionate about. They had something important that was heavy on their hearts. They were passionate that their message would have an impact on not only those in the audience but on the times in which they lived. Great speakers are not necessarily loud, fire and brimstone speakers. Some were actually quite and calm and were difficult to hear. But, they had a message that connected to the hearts of those in the audience. When people heard their message it went from their heads to their hearts.
Cicero, Edwards, Whitefield, Henry, Spurgeon, Churchill, and King to name a few all had something in common. They had a message they were passionate about that was critical to their times. Their message is still just as critical to our times now.
Marcus Tullius Cicero spoke about the fall of the republic from the corruption in government. As the Roman Republic was in decline, Cicero examined the causes of private and public confusion. “Long before our time, the customs of our ancestors molded admirable men, and in turn those eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however inherited the republic as if it were some beautiful painting of bygone ages, its colors fading through great antiquity; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its form and outlines.”
Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield awoke the people from their slumber to the importance of values and virtues. John Pollock wrote about the observation of “a prominent New Yorker who went to see Whitefield speak to a crowd of all denomination, Dutch and English; some Jews…Whitefield took his stand on a little hill, a natural pulpit. No notes, yet the discourse flowed logically and reasonably with a delightful simplicity: no long words, his delivery the product of art. Whitefield spoke directly to the crowd, his voice having a strange ability to sound as if he stood beside them, and they quieted.” They heard, “We are unprofitable servants, we have done not near so much as it was our duty to do.” “What have you been doing?”
Patrick Henry was passionate about holding on to the principles that are necessary for freedom. Jefferson once said, “I never heard anything like it. He had more command over the passions than any man I ever knew.” John Adams wrote that Henry was a man “of deep reflections, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and felicity of his country and his speeches,” and his contributions to the Patriot cause would never be forgotten.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon convicted his audience about the necessities of timeless principles and the price that would be paid if the foundations collapsed. “There is a more dangerous spirit now abroad, entering into Nonconformist pulpits, and notably preventing the testimony of some…by those who reckon themselves to be men of culture and intellect…Their theology is fickle as the wind. Landmarks are laughed at, and fixed teaching is despised, “Progress” is the watchword, and we hear it repeated ad nauseum…It is progress from the truth, which being interpreted, is progressing backwards.”
Winston S. Churchill is best known for ability to communicate to his people what it would take to win the war of freedom. His speeches literally turned his country around. In 1897 he said, “Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory…Abandoned by his party, betrayed by his friends, stripped of his office, whoever can command this power is still formidable.” He was also a staunch believer in the value of learning leadership from the study of history. “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” “Think what your actions now will mean, years hence, when you remember them again. What kind of person will you wish you had been, what kind of sacrifices will you wish you had made, when you or those who survive you look back upon this from the future.”
Martin Luther King was a man whose passion to pursue a dream led to the fulfillment of breaking the shackles of oppression and opened the door to freedom more than any recent leader. In 1968 he said, “Non violent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding.” He knew the passionate pursuit of our dreams was the measure that would lead to confronting our fears. “First we must unflinchingly face our fears and honestly ask ourselves why we are afraid. The confrontation will, to some measure, grant us power. We shall never be cured of fear by escapism or repression, for the more we attempt to ignore and repress our fears, the more we multiply our inner conflicts.”
Best selling authors Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille write about the need for leaders to step up in their new best seller ‘Leadershift’. “You can try to fit in and to impress, or you can lead.” “In contrast, think of Lincoln, Churchill, and Ghandi – these are men who made the hard choice. They rejected trying to impress and instead they led.” Are we hearing the messages from those leaders from the past? When you read you will hear those speakers, their passion, and their messages. They are singing in unison to us today. They are calling us out with the hopes that we will heed their warnings, “Will we lead?” God Bless, George Guzzardo
