TOP 7 SECRETS
OF COMMUNICATION
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN USED FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
By Gene Griessman, Ph.D.
Excerpt from
the training video/DVD “Lincoln On Communication”
Sample clip from the video
By following
some simple, timeless principles of good communication, Abraham
Lincoln achieved amazing results, advancing from the lowest ranks of
American society to the White House. If a backwoods boy on the
frontier can pick up and master these principles—these secrets of
communication-- so can you.
One: IF YOU WANT TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY, YOU MUST HAVE SOMETHING
TO SAY.
Communication is sharing. But you cannot share what you do not have.
No matter how skillful a speaker or writer you may be, if you are
ignorant of something that you could know, or if your knowledge is
faulty, you will eventually be found out.
Lincoln wrote an aspiring lawyer: “The mode is very simple, though
laborious and tedious. It is only to get the books, and read, and
study them carefully…Work, work, work is the main thing.”
Two. USE STORIES, ANALOGIES, AND IMAGERY
If you want to be a persuasive communicator, it's not enough to get
things exactly right. Your audience may quickly forget the facts,
the statistics, and the arguments that you use. But they are likely
to remember your stories and examples, and the imagery and poetry of
your language.
Show your audience, don't tell them. Paint a picture, and they'll
carry it with them.
Three: ASK QUESTIONS.
From Lincoln’s earliest days as a lawyer, he learned how important
questions could be in winning a case.
Good questions have immense value in communication and leadership.
Yet they are frequently under-utilized. You can use questions to
gain information or to guide a conversation. Often the other party
will not even know that they are being led. By means of questions,
you can get them to think about a subject that they might not have
considered previously, or lead them to look at it in a different
light.
Four: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
If you want to be an effective communicator, you must learn as much
as possible about your audience. So consider the type of person you
are trying to communicate with. Some people want to hear all the
details. Others want only a broad outline. Some are moved by
emotion; others distrust emotion.
Study your audience to determine if they are ready to listen, ready
to follow. "It takes two to speak truth"--Henry David Thoreau
said--"One to speak and another to listen."
Five: CONVINCE THE AUDIENCE THAT YOU ARE A FRIEND WHO HAS THEIR BEST
INTEREST AT HEART.
When you speak in public, you will be most effective if you think of
yourself, not as making a speech, but as someone who has come to
talk with friends about a subject that is important to them.
Lincoln stated in one of his speeches: "A drop of honey catches more
flies than a gallon of gall. Then he advised: “If you would win a
man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere
friend....On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to
command his actions, or to mark him as one to be shunned or
despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues
to his head and his heart.... "
Six: CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR MESSAGE.
Think about the impact your message will have on your audience
before you deliver it. If you are tempted to say something harsh to
somebody, ask yourself, “What will an angry message accomplish?”
“Will it destroy the relationship?” Or, “Will it generate positive
results?” Lincoln wrote: “No man who has resolved to make the most
of himself can spare time for personal contention. Better to yield
the right of way to a dog, than to be bitten by him in contesting
the right.”
Seven. IMPROVE YOUR ABILITY EVERY DAY.
Lincoln tried to expose myself to the biggest ideas and the best
communicators he could find. As a youngster, he steeped himself in
books such as biographies of George Washington, selections from
Cicero, Demosthenes, Franklin, and dramatic passages from Hamlet,
Falstaff, and Henry V.
Self-improvement need not be a solitary experience. Lincoln honed
his communication skills by becoming a member of literary groups and
debating societies.
And Lincoln learned to benefit from criticism. He realized that one
good critic telling you what you are doing wrong can do more to help
you than ten thousand people telling you how great you are. But
Lincoln did not let criticism destroy his self-confidence or his
will to lead. Criticism was just information to be used.
If you'd like to watch and hear Abraham Lincoln present these seven
secrets of leadership and communication, and expand on them, plus
give you three more secrets that aren't in this article, you'll want
to purchase the much-praised video/DVD/CD "Lincoln On Communication"
Click here for information about how you can obtain your own copy.
Every day do something no matter how small that will make you
better. That's how you become an effective communicator--one step at
a time. Famous newspaperman Horace Greeley, who often was Lincoln’s
critic, made this telling observation about the great communicator:
“There was probably no year of his life that he was not a wiser,
cooler, better man than he had been the year preceding.”
Information
on the
ABRAHAM LINCOLN VIDEO
