August 2; The Manager Must Inspire with the Content, Style and Target of his Words
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Eight: Communication; 2 August

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,

but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs,

that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 4:29

Good Speech

Rush Limbaugh

Charmaine and Your Business Professor are enjoying an intimate dinner with radio personality Rush Limbaugh and 3,500 of his closest friends. No matter what your politics everyone agrees: Rush knows how to communicate.

Limbaugh, not burdened with a university education, has an audience of tens of millions and is unfailingly polite with seldom an unkind word for anyone. Public policy differences are usually cloaked in good-natured humor.

***

The left-leaning CNN used to be as sensitive,

In the early days of CNN, network founder Ted Turner forbade anyone to say “foreign” on the air. After all, CNN was an international network and what was “foreign” to one person was likely home to another. The punishment for saying “foreign” rather than “international” was a $50 fine. (Frank Luntz 2007)

First do no harm with your words, but instead think about how best to elevate your audience.

The deadliest skill a leader can possess is the ability to persuade.

***

As Alert Readers know, Your Business Professor is a cheerleader for lifelong learning. If there is a class that can improve my skills, such as they are, I’m in.

So to improve my ability to communicate, I though I’d sit at the feet of a wise instructor. And ask stupid questions.

(Which are the only kind I ask.)

I needed to pick an instructor who could help me in this continuous learning. I wondered — who has Rush Limbaugh worked with?

***

Stephen D. Clouse teaches at the highest levels in the intersection of entertainment and politics. He often lectures at Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia. The purpose and passion of Clouse’s work is to train leaders to communicate — to persuade.

To be effective, Clouse says, you must be like-able. And not be seen as pitiable Willie Loman, in the play Death of a Salesman, who would step out into the world “riding on a smile and a shoeshine…” with a desperate need to be liked. Which is not unlike the first step in the sales process of establishing rapport.

But Clouse was talking about more than a need to be liked — he emphasized that to succeed at the highest levels and to persuade, you must truly like people.

Enjoy people? Like people?

I’m doomed.

But there might be help for you. Clouse gave a number of tips to improve your likeability — by improving your vocals.

1) Speak slowly. Clouse reminds us that the great communicators from Larry King to Bill Clinton to Ronald Reagan have a very slow, deliberate, confident speech delivery.

2) Enunciate each word completely. Many of us will trail off at the end of our sentences. Clouse says, “A microphone is cruel to those who do this because everything is captured and conveyed.” Finish a sentence with strength.

3) Punch key words. Your listening audience wants to learn, and more important, to be entertained.

4) Extend vowels. Make you’re a-e-i-o-u’s longer. This conveys warmth and emotion.

5) Natural voice in an ‘audio check.’ The sound tech will adjust levels to your voice. Be natural.

Which may require practice. The professionals make it look easy. And professionals use professionals to coach.

***

To communicate well and to do good will require practice. And practice. President Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator, had years of voice lessons and brought us The Eleventh Commandment. Shortened a bit, it says, “Do not speak ill of any fellow…

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

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