Leading With the Lost Art of Rhetoric (like… whatever…)

I am a “rhetoric snob.”  I admit it.  It’s not pretty.  I listen to how people speak (leaders in particular), and I observe how they use words and phrases as they try to earn credibility, become memorable, persuade, and influence.  As a result, I often cast wide nets on people’s character and make judgment calls against them.

…But I try not to. Honest.

If there were a Rhetoric Snob Anonymous group, I swear I’d be at the RSA meetings every week peeling back the onion with my Rhetoric Snob peers, trying to figure out why I so keenly notice when people use the same phrases over and over without fully understanding what they are saying.

I’d try to uncover why I physically cringe when I see a missed opportunity for a leader to use a platform to communicate an exact vision.

I’d learn how to curb my snickers and guffaws when I hear leaders bellow stalemates like:

“We’ll socialize the value-adds by leveraging internal assets,” and “promote game-changing actions that lead to synergy and cutting edge results.” (…oh just gag me…)

And of course, all of this will be said because “at the end of the day, it’s the customer’s voice that matters.”  Check out more overused phrases.  You’ve all heard them.  You might even use them a bit too often. Things have gotten so bad over the years with this ubiquitous phenomenon that you can now snicker all the way through your next meeting while playing Business Buzzword Bingo with like-minded cohorts.

But why does this happen?

What ever happened to the art of rhetoric?  Why, amidst the “leadership competencies” that require other offensive over-used words like “self-awareness,” “vision,” “flexibility,” “stewardship,” “business acumen,” (etc), has the critical competency of “communication” become so bottom-barreled?  At a time when people need inspiration to imagine that anything is possible, why do so many leaders fail at using one of the most powerful thrusters for people: words.

Over the last 40 years, we have not only lost the art and the importance of rhetoric, we have come to settle for its absence.  Folks, “rhetoric” doesn’t mean an embellished sense of speaking, or a speech that uses such big words that you forget what the person is talking about.

“Rhetoric” is simply the mindful application and usage of words so that your readers or listeners get the exact sense of your meaning.

Why don’t more leaders do this?  Instead, they fallback on interfacing with words that won’t risk disconnects or promote adversity when we hope to bring closure as we manage by objectives.

(Oh shoot.  I just did it myself.  Guilty.)

The world is shaped through a series of judgments, and while most will say that in almost all cultures the first judgment is what we see, it is equally true in most cultures that the second judgment is what we hear. Leaders are measured on the aspirations of their business, but they are judged on the inspiration of their words.  We see this all the time with politicians and actors, school teachers and community servants, leaders and parents.

• How many times have you decided not to watch a movie because of something the actor said, or decided to vote for or against a politician for the same reason?
• How about the time when you had respect for someone’s actions, only to have that feeling diminished after the person opened his or her mouth?
• Why don’t leaders place more emphasis on rhetoric these days?
• How are you focusing on the exact words your choose when you speak to your followers?

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati

———————————————————
Christa (Centola) Dhimo, President & Founder, via Best Practices.
She can be reached at [email protected]

Image Source: pegasusnews.com, cache.thephoenix.com