Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: 21 Powerful Secrets of History's Greatest Speakers

Twenty-one tricks of the greatest communicators and change makers of history by an author who wrote speeches for five American presidents. Five!! Imagine the experience of the author. Many of the 21 techniques are truly amazing. For example, Churchill's method of preparing a speech for the ear, Napoleon's power pause, or how to use effectively statistics in a speech. I'm convinced that applying and mastering only a few of the 21 techniques will supply the reader with the presence, poise, and power to electrify his or her talk.

I would title this book, "The language of leadership". It's content is excellent and well organized. It teaches ways to speak and act like a leader and therefore command such authority through the power of the spoken word.

The chapter titles all begin with "Power", but the author practices what he preaches by getting across the information in a well organized and easy to get through manner. If you look at the highlights in each chapter and skim through, you get the jist of information, hence making it easy to comprehend in a day.

Every chapter has its content and then real life examples from the author's experience. The examples are both historic and contemporary, very useful, convincing & often interesting, although ocassionally unecessary to get the message accross.

The criticisms I've seen of this book are that it is patronizing or too long winded or redundant. I don't find any of these things to be true. I however admit, that instead of reading the book cover to cover and sentence by sentence, I read it as any executive would read a proposal or document - skim to get the highlights and then go back in for more detailed reference when needed. I got a great deal out of the book this way.

I purchased the book for a Dean of a Business school and a high power executive. While skimming through it, I found myself quite absorbed. Since then, I've found myself continually thinking back to what I read there and I ended up buying myself a copy for reference and one as a gift for the CEO of my company as well.

Makes a great gift for a Type A executive or anyone in a position of leadership of any kind. This isn't just a public speaking book, and it's not about overcoming shyness or a "Toastmasters" type thing. It's about how to make what you say be powerful and effective.

Well written with great examples. Not your typical textbook, which makes for a refreshing approach to leadership classes.

Unbelievable that no one taught me these principles years ago. This guy has been around a long time! Excellent, easy to read and incorporate.

This is an excellent book for speakers os any level who wish to make small yet noticeable improvements to their speaking performance. Churchill and Lincoln both mastered the skills necessary to be great speakers. The greatest secret that I took from this book is the power of the ..... PAUSE. To stand in front of a group of people saying nothing , with poise and confidence , is a skill the truly seperates great speakers from the rest.
I would recommend this book without hesitation.