Book Review: The Package

Yes, we can,’ ‘give me a strong government, I’ll give you a strong India’, and ‘Make America great again’. Three slogans by three leaders. Three statements which seem quite normal but have the impact to that extent that two of them made winners out of the orators. Like them or hate them, but you certainly cannot ignore them.

So, what separates these people from the rest, we might not be followers of their ideology but are so mesmerised by their speech that we end up hypnotised by them and start following them? This forms the crux of the book Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership by Simon Lancaster, a seasoned speechwriter, speaker and reputed author.

Communication has been the crux of leadership. It can be safely said that though all good communicators need not be good leaders but to be a good leader one has to be a very good communicator. As stated by the great philosopher Aristotle in his book Rhetoric, a great communicator needs to have three basic qualities: ethos/credibility, pathos/ emotion and logos/logic. This is relevant even today. No communication can be complete without any one of the three. And this has been affirmed by present-day neurological research as well.

In this book, the author has illustrated how to win over the instinctive mind, the emotional mind and the logical mind to become a winning leader. After all, a winning leader is a person who has the ability to win minds.

Metaphors, from the beginning of communication, have been used to drive the point. Many times metaphors work like magic, where direct words fail. As stated by the author, correct use of metaphors is essential for effective communication. To be a leader, one has to look like a leader. Not just in the physical sense but the way one carries oneself. A strong demeanour sends in powerful signals of strong leadership. Good communication has to be supported by a strong personality. But all words and external appearance are futile if a credible inner purpose is not present. For a leader to be successful, he has to have a strong sense of inner purpose in addition to communication skills and leader-like personality. The author has given tips of how to unravel the ‘Secrets From The Language Of Leadership’, some stated above and many more in the book.