The role of a leader is getting tougher and requires new and improved communication skills.

As the Hay Group, the global management-consulting group, put it recently:

‘Leaders of the future will need to…find new ways to create loyalty, lead increasingly diverse and independent teams over which they may not always have direct authority, and relinquish their own power in favor of collaborative approaches inside and outside the organization.’

Yes. Gone are the days leaders can rely on old fashioned, command and control dictates…

…Now they must inspire others to join them in causes, using the right mix of online and offline communication strategies to win the day.

It’s all change, change, change…Or is it?

Truth is, modern communicators don’t need to alter everything to win hearts and minds. There’s sill a great deal to be learned from great leaders of the past – who had to cope with plenty of uncertainty, change, division, loyalty vacuums, and more – that can be applied to our new ways of doing things.

And top of that list is President Abraham Lincoln, still lauded almost 150 years after his death as one of the great leaders of all time.

3 Lessons Today’s Leaders Can Borrow From Abe’s Communication Playbook:

 #1 – Be a Plain Speaker

Lincoln knew the value of creating simple messages that were easy to get, remember and share. He purposely avoided the ‘high falutin’ and airy language of other politicians of his time…and won greater appeal as a result.

Even when he spoke for hours (which he often did), he made it easy for those who heard him to explain what he said to others who weren’t there in just a few sentences.

Consider the following examples:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”

“All men are created equal”

“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

Every one of these is free of complexity, jargon and detail…each of which would individually or collectively undermine the effect of his messages.

And in our era of information overload and reducing attention spans, it has never been more important to avoid all of these sins. Live by the maxim: ‘the simpler, the better’.

Tip #2 – Listen before you speak

Lincoln wasn’t just a polished speaker; he was also an excellent and avid listener.

He used to say of himself:

“When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.”

Simply put, he did his homework. He paid attention to audience analysis and why what he might say might matter and strike a chord with those he addressed…and all before he’d say a word.

He didn’t guess. He didn’t wing it. And while his preparation may have taken him longer than many others, he was more persuasive for it. As he put it himself:

“I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

By helping his audiences to see how well he understood where they were coming from, what was important to them, and what his ideas might mean to them – he built trust. And this platform of credibility enabled him to make consensus and agreement more likely than if he just demanded accord.

Modern communicators too must crave a platform of trust. And central to winning such credibility must be an audience perception that you are playing more for their side than your own.

Tip #3 Boost engagement through storytelling and imagery

Last, but not least, Lincoln consistently used stories and visual imagery to make memorable and powerful points

He was especially keen on stories with a moral and a large proportion of these would have drawn on his extensive knowledge of Aesop’s fables, Shakespeare and the Bible.

I’ve included just a few of my favourite examples below:

a. On moving past blame?:

Lincoln was addressing some visitors, and he said, “Some Union supporters oppose any accommodation or yielding to the South in any manner because the Confederates began the war and should be held responsible. Now this reminds me of a good story I heard once, when I lived in Illinois”.

“A farmer had a vicious bull that took after anybody who tried to cross the field. One day a neighbor climbed the fence and was soon running for his life. This man was fast, though, and he got to a tree with the bull close behind. There was no time to climb the tree, so he led the bull in a chase around the tree. He finally was able to grab the bull by the tail. The bull was now at a disadvantage. He couldn’t catch the man and he couldn’t shake him from his tail. The more they ran the madder the bull got. He pawed up the earth and bellowed until you could hear him miles away. Finally, he broke into a dead run, the man still hanging onto his tail.

 “The neighbor, now dragging along behind, shouted at the bull, ‘Darn you, who commenced this fuss?’

 “That’s our situation here,” summarized Lincoln. “It’s our duty to settle this fuss at the earliest possible moment, no matter who commenced it”.

b. On ludicrous arguments:

“He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when sentence was about to be pronounced pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.”

 c. On ideas that should be treated with disdain:

 “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”

And what do all of these have in common? They’re visual, entertaining, engaging and remarkably easy to share with others later.

It worked a treat in his day and plays even better today. Enough said.

Over to You

What historic leaders have you learned from? Why?

Please share your thoughts, suggestions and observations. They’re always welcome.

To find out how we could work together to inspire others through your ideas, please  click here!

? = Story source: Angelfire.com