Speeches for Leaders: Leave Audiences Wanting More

ABOUT THE BOOK
On a chilly November evening in 2011, Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, stood before the German Society of Foreign Affairs in Berlin and delivered one of the best speeches of his career.

At the time, the eurozone appeared on the brink of an existential crisis. Sikorski, no stranger to controversy, ventured an idea his more staid colleagues never would have dreamed of suggesting. He called upon Germany, Poland’s traditional antagonist, to awaken from its slumber and lead Europe out of decline. “There is nothing inevitable about Europe’s decline,” Sikorski said:

But we are standing on the edge of a precipice. This is the scariest moment of my ministerial life but therefore also the most sublime. I demand of Germany that, for your own sake and for ours, you help [the eurozone] survive and prosper. You know full well that nobody else can do it. I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity.

The speech made headlines around the world. The Financial Times newspaper ran excerpts as an op-ed article, and Edward Lucas, an editor with the Economist magazine and one of the foremost experts on Central and Eastern Europe, went even so far as to say that it “marked a crucial turning point in European history.”

What was it that made Sikorski’s speech so impactful? John Richardson, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, explained it in these words: “This was the speech of a politician who knows his history, does not want to repeat its mistakes, and has the strength and the clarity of mind to formulate a convincing message of hope for the future based on mutual trust between the European nations, which the crisis has so far called into question.”

But there was more to it than this. As Richardson pointed out, Sikorski’s speech also displayed something painfully absent amid the deepening troubles crippling the eurozone: it was “a demonstration of authority, personality, and charisma.” In other words, it showed leadership.

Leadership is at the heart of effective speechwriting, and it is the subject of this book. The reader should not be surprised to learn that Sikorski, in crafting his speech, consulted Charles Crawford, a fellow Oxonian and Britain’s former ambassador to Poland (2003-07), on matters of style. While Crawford is quick to acknowledge that the final speech was “very much Sikorski’s own work,” it is clear that the principles it embodies and exemplifies are those described in the pages that follow.

Crawford himself is no stranger to an unconventional but highly effective diplomatic style. During his tenure as Britain’s ambassador to Belgrade, for example, he once borrowed a kangaroo to enliven a commercial reception. But he is also an accomplished master who understands that the key to good speechwriting for leaders lies in a simple maxim—that it is “not what the speaker says, but what the audience hears” that matters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charles Crawford is the former British Ambassador to Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Warsaw, and an expert in public speaking and negotiations. His 28 years in the U.K. Diplomatic Service and reputation for blunt, direct analysis have made him a go-to source for analysis on international diplomacy for many media organisations including CNN, Sky News, and BBC TV. Mr. Crawford is a member of the comment team at the Daily Telegraph in London.