Eight secrets that great leaders & CEOs use
In this book, you’re going to learn all eight of these valuable secrets that great leaders and extremely effective CEOs always use to make a difference every single time they give a speech or a presentation.
And by the end, you will realize that you can actually practice and acquire all these strategies to improve and scale up your communication skills as a leader.
⿡ Secret number one: Always have conversation centered around big, meaningful ideas. Every speech or talk you give should have a single, overriding big idea.
Big ideas not only stick with people but have an innate quality to keep lingering in your audience’s mind long after you finish speaking. You don’t need to make it more complicated or complex; it can be quite the opposite—simple.
Take Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address during the American Civil War, where he defends the ideal of liberty. It is only three minutes long and ranks among the most powerful speeches in history, proving that brevity and clarity win out over length.
⿢ The real secret to delivering impactful speeches is speaking in the moment. Preparation plays a crucial role in creating a great presentation, but on many occasions, the real impact comes with the unplanned moments. Those feel more authentic and relevant to the audience, allowing them to be remembered for a long time.
The third secret is this: simplicity is always best. The more complex your messages, the more they get lost in translation. But if your message is simple, clear, and easy to understand, it will be much more easily remembered by the audience and acted upon.
Any leader or CEO knows how important simplicity can be in making sure that people understand their ideas and that people want to follow them.
⿤ Secret number four: adopt the style of a straight shooter in your communication. Effective communication is not just about having a smooth and dynamic delivery; it’s basically telling the truth
The staff really appreciates and hungers for leaders who will be forthright, more so when the chips are down and the news is not particularly good. It is much better to confront prickly issues head-on and candidly rather than being circuitous with euphemisms or sugar-coated messages.
⿥ The fifth secret to speaking with impact is to be an optimist. While honesty is a virtue, it’s equally necessary to keep hope alive. People will follow those leaders who can strike a balance between realism and optimism, making them believe in something better.
⿦ Secret number six: it is important to keep an eye on the future. Strong and good leaders will not lose sight of looking towards the future, even if times are hard and challenging.
A clear and well-defined vision for what lies in the future acts as a strong motivator among employees to work communally towards a shared and common goal.
Now, to impactful speaking secret number seven: be real. The people sometimes may feel that they are distanced from you as a leader. Break down that wall by being relatable—be it through humor, sharing experiences, or lightening with self-effacing comments. Authenticity builds connection.
And finally, the eighth and final secret: Stand for something that matters. The leader and CEO in you must understand that you’re the embodiment, the representation, of your company’s mission and core values. Everything you say, everything you do, must tie back to that overall mission.
When you stand for something that means something, when you stand for something that has value, you inspire others; people want to get on board with you to help promote or support that cause. Now you can begin to practice each of these secrets to have better and effective communication.
