What can an executive learn from an inauguration speech?

To answer that question, I took a close look at my favorite, John F. Kennedy’s inaugural written by the great Theodore Sorensen. I hadn’t read the speech in a while, and what I found surprised me. For all its famous lines (most notably, “ask not what your country can do for you…”), the speech gets its power from the brilliant and repeated use of contrast. In every paragraph, in fact in almost every sentence, the speech introduces something, and then refers to its opposite.

Just a few examples (some famous, some not):

we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike

United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

we offer not a pledge but a request:

civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof

not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are

The lesson for corporate executives is, in a speech or talk, opposites really do attract. To add drama and eloquence to your remarks, try to set up as many contrasts as you can.

The latest edition of my column in the Washington Business Journal, Speaking to Rise, describes how business leaders can improve their “executive presence” through engaging speeches, talks and presentations. With insights from experts Suzi Pomerantz and Steve Gladis, the column offers practical tips on how to use the spoken word to project the kind of self confidence and control of the situation that are the keys to executive presence.

If you’re a WBJ subscriber, you can see the whole article here. It should be available to everyone soon.

At the recent Toastmasters International Convention in Florida, friend and speechwriter colleague Pete Weissman gave a terrific address that offered wonderful strategies and tactics for successful speeches. Pete has worked inside the White House and United States Senate and for some of the world’s top companies. I’ll post the video of his remarks, when it’s available next month. For now, here are just a sample of his insights.

In this “Age of Social Media” — you’re never just speaking to the people in the room.  Someone is always recording,  blogging tweeting. So speechwriters have to understand how a message will be interpreted by audiences that are not even in the same room or on the same continent.

Speechwriters are bridge builders. We connect the speaker’s ideas with the audience’s interest.We turn what the speaker wants to say into something the audience wants to hear.

When I advise executives to tell stories in their speeches, one of the first things they say is, ” how?” You’ll find part of the answer in my article in the latest issue of DOING BUSINESS,’ the newsletter of the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. The key: “Believe it or not, the general guidelines for creating interesting kids’ stories are the same as for folding stories into an executive’s speech.” Skeptical? Read more here.

Jim Shaffer, author of The Leadership Solution, believes that top companies are guided by three best principles, including: the CEO acts as the champion of communication.   As  the Leading Blog quotes Shaffer,  “Open communication—linking people and what they do to the business doesn’t happen by accident. It starts with leadership. It’s driven home with leadership.”

Sounds like Shaffer is channeling former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, who once put it this way: “Communication needs to be a core competency of any business. It starts with the CEO.”

Shaffer goes on to say that too many executives think of communication as telling people what they need to know, instead of  creating clarity and building shared meaning. For Shaffer, communication  must not only be managed as a business process, it should also should be woven throughout all the other business processes.