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28.07.2022
Magazine category

Rhetoric in leadership: How to lead employees through intelligent communication

Hollywood is leading the way. Brilliant films such as "Patch Adams" with Robin Williams show how strongly language can influence people. Even in courtroom scenes, the lawyers' pleas are decisive for the outcome of the trial. Rhetoric in leadership is a powerful tool with which you can directly influence your counterpart. Whether in conversations, meetings or presentations: Your rhetorical skills will ultimately decide how your message is received.

Why is rhetoric so important in leadership?

Leadership rhetoric is used to achieve a specific goal. Politicians use nothing else before elections to get the electorate on their side. In a company, these can be different goals. You can motivate your team for a particular challenge, guide them to resolve conflicts or get them excited about a new project. You can also use rhetorical communication tools to specifically change people's inner attitude towards an issue. 

There are often a few hurdles to overcome. For example, unplanned factors can arise in the conversation situation that undermine your rhetorical skills. This makes it all the more important to master rhetoric in leadership, to set yourself a concrete communication goal and to find plausible arguments for it. In order to learn from the situations afterwards, you should always reflect on the conversations again. Leadership intelligence means building trust with your employees and being persuasive and appreciative. Rhetoric in leadership is an important tool for this.

5 important rules for rhetoric in leadership

In order to achieve the desired effect with what you say, it's not just the content that counts. Below we have summarized some tips and basic rules that are part of good rhetoric.

  1. The right appearance
    You send out certain signals with your choice of clothing. For example, if you wear your best tailored suit, you are sending a different message than if you appear casual in jeans and a shirt. Do you want to gain the respect of your counterpart or show yourself to be particularly approachable?
  2. Controlling facial expressions and gestures
    Communication is not just about language. Your face reflects your mood and attitude towards a topic, while your posture and movements emphasize the importance of a statement.
  3. Maintain eye contact
    Every speech misses the mark if you hold it over the audience without engaging them with your gaze. Eye contact increases the attention of your audience. With a larger audience, it is best to choose friendly faces at the beginning to give you the necessary confidence for your speech.
  4. Directing your voice
    Around a third of the impact of a presentation is achieved through the targeted use of the voice. A fragile and insecure voice will not have the same effect as a strong, confident and loud voice. For voice training, you can use certain breathing techniques to specifically influence the sound of your voice.
  5. Use pauses in speech
    Pauses in speech are essential so that the listener can process what has been said. If you speak without pauses, you can expect a lot to be lost along the way. You also build up tension through pauses.

Rhetoric in leadership can be learned. If you would like to learn more techniques as a manager, our coaches will be happy to assist you.

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