If we are going to question the wisdom of promoting the cult of the superlative individual leader as the cure for our current difficulties – despite its having so demonstrably also been their cause – it will be worthwhile to examine why we would be so irresistibly drawn to do so. What is the basis of this obviously compelling argument?
The question is: are we going to continue confusing the cause of our problems for their cure? The “leaders” specially cultivated and commended to us by the modern leadership movement as uniquely capable of perceiving the future and showing us the way to it, failed. But not merely that . . .
We have only just been trodden under the heels of some of the most profound failures of the modern leadership movement’s singularly qualified individual leaders. And yet, we now find ourselves awash in ever more wide-eyed calls for yet more abject submission to still greater leaders, together with some of the most vacuously uncritical celebration of putative examples of such to issue from presumably mature and experienced observers. It might seem counterintuitive that the cure for the dismal leadership we have suffered in past years . . .
We’ve looked a bit, in the past few days, at some approaches for making your case in a public speaking engagement: 1) stating your premise, your starting point, up front; 2) presenting your argument rather than merely restating, illustrating, or providing evidence of support for your case; and 2) honestly posing and frankly addressing the major critiques of your position, then using them to provide contrast to understand, and additional platforms from which to reach, your conclusion. The point remains to be made, though . . .
When you are performing a speaking engagement of any sort, before any size audience, you tend to be conscious of the limited time you may have to make what to you – and, potentially, to your listeners – is a large and important point. As a result, your instinct may be to emphasize your own argument, and to find as many effective ways as possible to illustrate it for your audience. This effort should surely form the core of your presentation. However . . .
An effective way to begin a public address of any size is to state your position at the outset. You can even do this before you lay out your premise. Then, as you move on to present your case your audience will know both where you’re coming from and where you’re going. This can often help them better follow your argument as it unfolds, and evaluate it at both the rational and empathetic levels, based on a personal acquaintance with its meaning and a professional appreciation of its purpose. As it happens, though . . .
In public speaking, far too many of us inadvertently transform passion for our own ideas into a blanket contempt for those of others. That may be how you feel, and the deeper you look into the matter, the more justified you may believe yourself to be in this. But if you simply blast your audience with this attitude, you may inadvertently be revealing a contempt for them as well. . .
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