Leading Lines

How to make speeches that seize the moment, advance your cause and lead the way. For those who aim to be leaders, mastering the power of speechmaking - the art and craft of persuasion - is more important than ever. If you want to be heard, it's not enough to have something to say: you must know how to say it. Whether in government, business or civil society, a leader's speech sets the tone: the wrong words can destroy a company, damage a reputation, or even start a war. But the right speech can build prosperity, drive peaceful solutions and bring people together. So what makes a good speech? What should be included, excluded, how do you frame it? How can you convincingly apologise? What's the best way to celebrate success? And why should your audience believe you? This book meets the difficulties of modern speechmaking head-on, taking us through the fascinating process of eliciting ideas from leaders, and finding the best ways to express them. Using examples from history, literature and her 25- year career as a speechwriter, Lucinda Holdforth writes a compelling analysis of celebratory, rallying and explanatory speeches, sometimes put together under fraught circumstances. She provides a practical manual for crafting a powerful speech, essential for communications professionals, and also invaluable for any of us called to stand before our peers and make our case. She reminds us that democracies rise or fall on the quality of the debates we conduct, and the subsequent decisions we take. The right words can be transformative. They can shake a heart, or reimagine the world. Leading Lines will help you find those words, and lead the way.PRAISE'This book is for all those who love words and the power they have to change lives. Leading Lines will be an indispensable tool for CEOs and speechwriters of every kind, it is also, quite simply, a cracking read, attractive to anyone who likes a good story' Tegan Bennett Daylight