You are dead wrong, if you think this book Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers by James C Humes is stuffy and outdated.
It is just because of the names of these two long dead renowned figures: Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
In fact, this is one of the most highly recommended books on public speaking. And the author James Humes, who has been a speechwriter to five Presidents, including Ronald Reagan.
"Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History’s Greatest Speakers" offers practical speaking techniques for speakers of all levels to improve their speaking skills..
Below here, I have abstracted some of the key content from most of the 21 effective secrets from the book. Read through them and then only you decide whether this book is worth buying.
Power Pause:
Whether you’re presenting a new club president, introducing a speaker, making the brief remarks at a ceremonial function, or talking to a chamber of commerce, state some silence before you speak.
Try staging the strategic delay the next time you deliver a sales pitch or answer a query put to you during a conversation.
Power Opener:
Effective speakers of today emulate history’s greatest when they make that opening sentence count.
Successful persuaders open their messages powerfully, not with little ingratiating words of appreciation or praise.
Power Presence:
Keep your style simple but the same! Think of Barbara Bush and her hallmark white pearls that complemented her white hair. Then adopt a style that suits you — and that people will indentify with you
Power Point:
Demosthenes, the greatest of Athenian orators, was asked what the three tests of a great speech were. He replied: “Action, action, and action!” He advised would-be speakers to first think what they wanted their audience to do and build around that action.
Power Brief:
Leadership sometimes means surprising your audience. If they are settling into their seats anticipating a twenty or thirty-minute speech, astonish them by speaking for only five minutes. That is a Power Brief.
Terse is far better than tedious! Being short-winded comes off far better than being long-winded. What is the greatest speech ever delivered? Many say the Gettysburg Address. How long was it? Two minutes.
Power Quote:
Speech is theater. So dig up one apt quotation and frame it with props. Use only one quotation per speech, and dramatize it. Stage it, perform it, act it out! Put power into your quotation!
Power Outage:
Any talk or presentation should be the oral projection of your personality, experiences, and ideas. Emphasize oral projection, not mechanical projection. No inanimate screen can match a flesh-and-blood presentation.
Power Wit:
Aristotle once wrote, “The essence of humor is surprise.” If that is so, why attempt to be funny when everyone is expecting it? Instead, sneak an amusing story into the middle of the talk, when it is sure to provide some sort of comic relief.Follow the three R’s of presenting humor — make it Realistic, make it Relevant, and don’t Read it!
Power Parable:
Churchill, in his “scaffolding of Rhetoric” notes, said that an abstract idea goes in one ear and out the other — never establishing itself unless it is reinforced by a picture or story. Turn concepts into concrete if you want them to be understood and remembered.
Power Reading:
The first rule of effective speaking, Cokrane told both Churchill and Roosevelt, is this: Never, never, never let words come out of your mouth when your eyes are looking down.
Power Word:
In every line an actor delivers, said (Emlyn) Williams, you’ll find one word that carries the thrust of the statement. You can discover that word if you mumble every other word of the line but clearly pronounce that key word. Pause before offering that word.
Power Active:
The passive (voice) is for the “cover your ass” types. But the active voice is for the take-charge leaders. The passive is not the voice of a leader. The passive is the voice of the bureacrat who wants to duck responsibility.
Power Dollar:
Benjamin Franklin said this about requesting donations: “What is the most you think you can ask for? Then double it! Don’t base your request on how much he will give you but on how much you will need!
Power Button:
When writing an article, you can italicize. You can underline. But how can you italicize or underline in a talk? Listeners cannot hear the underlining of a sentence.
A lot of you may use a highlighter pen to emphasize a significant line when you read a report or survey. Well, the Power Button phrase is your highlighter pen, illuminating the Power Line that follows.
Power Closer:
Even if your talk has been flat, you can still leave the audience roused with a good closer. For such a strong ending, said Churchill, you have to appeal to the emotions — pride, hope, love, and, occasionally, fear.
