The Four Speeches Every Leader Has to Know

It covers the fine art of persuasion and argues that there are four speeches every leader has to know: the opening speech, the executioner speech, the consolation speech, and the farewell speech.

This book provides a rhetorical manual for political and business leaders to motivate followers even in times of hardship. It covers the fine art of persuasion and argues that there are four speeches every leader has to know: the opening speech, the executioner speech, the consolation speech, and the farewell speech. The authors explore how leaders should speak in order to appear credible to an audience, and they argue that the leader has to take on suffering and to give meaning to suffering as experienced by people. To be persuasive, the speaking leader therefore has to acknowledge that life is inscribed in the reality of change and suffering. The point is not to glorify suffering, but to acknowledge the depths of the human condition and how this knowledge may shape the art of speaking well. The authors analyse speeches from a wide variety of speakers, including Sir Winston Churchill, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and Angela Merkel. The book ends with a rhetorical dictionary for leaders to help readers familiarize themselves with helpful terms from rhetorical theory.