1
Road map
From oration to or-action
‘Public Speaking’, which is more popularly known as ‘Oration’, has a strong historical tradition. From classical Greco-Roman polis-states to contemporary corporate-administration eco-systems, oration as a leadership phenomenon has come a long way. Classical literature has eulogised the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) and his contribution to the genre through prolific literary outputs on the topic of oration. Even before Cicero, the great sophist Gorgias (Greek philosopher, 483–375 BC) in his Encomium of Helen (414 BC) demonstrated the power of dialogue that can transcend even ethical considerations. Logical argumentation may be used to transform an action deemed unethical as per the cultural references of the times into positive social valuations. A case in point is that of Helen of Troy: Gorgias defends Helen, the resplendent queen and unhappy wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, from the accusation that her selfish love for the Trojan prince Paris was at the expense of the lives of the countless citizens of Troy! With the sophists, persuasive pitch as a genre of intelligent communication gained public acceptance. Political leadership aspirants had to undergo oratory training under the tutelage of the sophists.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) and his masterpiece Rhetoric, dating back to the fourth century BC, popularised the tradition of oratory techniques, traditions that are distinguished even in modern and contemporary schools of thinking. From appeal-centric types of speeches –
- ethos (appeal to character),
- logos (appeal to reason) and
- pathos (appeal to emotion)
to context-based speeches –
- epideictic (praising or blaming in a ceremonial manner),
- forensic (judicially speaking for or against guilt or innocence) and
- deliberative (speeches asking audiences to take decisions)
Aristotle’s rhetorical taxonomy continues to contribute oratorical criterion-setting frameworks even in diverse domains as managerial communications.
Very famous accounts of the classic debate-pitches between Ajax and Ulysses, characters from the Roman poet Ovid’s masterpiece Metamorphosis (AD 8), deliberate on the significance of persuasion and oratory in leadership expertise. They compete for the prize – the shield of the famous Greek warrior Achilles. Ajax is descriptive and defines the value of the shield as intrinsic to the shield. Ulysses, on the other hand, evokes the sentiments of the audience by relating their ethos as rightful heir to the legacy of the owner of the shield. Ajax accuses Ulysses of unethical deeds. Ulysses transforms Ajax’s accusations by projecting them as necessary leadership acts to benefit the larger cause of the Greek audience. Ajax talks, Ulysses moves the audience, and that makes all the difference! A more modern persuasion derivation is demonstrated by Mark Antony from the English dramatist William Shakespeare’s historical play, Julius Caesar (first performed in 1599). Antony transforms Julius Caesar’s negative image of a power-hungry dictator to a citizen-caring empathetic leader, as illustrated in the famous lines reproduced as follows:
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff1
Since then, influence of rhetoric on human thought and conduct has metamorphosed into sensational senatorial debate skills in domains of public governance. The American presidential election debates have had a great following. The Kennedy-Nixon presidential face-off in 1960 continues to have monumental historic value. The JFK library quotes:
On September 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon stood before an audience of 70 million Americans – two-thirds of the nation’s adult population – in the first nationally televised Presidential debate. This first of four debates held before the end of October gave a vast national audience the opportunity to see and compare the two candidates, and ushered in a new age of Presidential politics.2
Thus, the character to be trusted, the ability to rule, the value to be proposed, the vision for the system, the love for the audience – all these and more may seal the fate of systems through a simple five-minute speech-pitch-oration. Never has political pitch been more scrutinised, critiqued, valued, mythicised, and media-propagated to expose, impose, involve, inculcate leadership discourse in the minds of 70 million people in a manner that the 1960s JFK-Nixon debate did or has done. Since then, the power of speech has expanded into corporate leadership as well, transitioning from senatorial debates into elaborate product presentations.
The global corporate practices have developed the concept of presentations with communication aids, like PowerPoints, audio-visual, and role-play demonstrations. Steve Jobs championed the presentation-pitch style in the 1980s and the 1990s. Since then, we have many works deliberating on the significance of corporate rhetoric in non-fiction genre, in self-help stylus, and in managerial academia, as well as in research and development (R&D) verticals of corporations. Gradually, a few top business schools developed courses on business presentations and corporate oratory skills. A business leader builds a credible personality not just through her product presentations, but also through her ceremonial addresses in non-business occasions, like convocation speeches, webinars, farewell speeches, summits, conferences, seminars, or even get-togethers; or, in the worst case scenario, crisis and reputation-salvaging moments. Thus, addressing a large number of audiences today has itself become a serious business, like TED Talks. Dale Carnegie researched on public speaking through works such as T...
