Free 21 Great Leaders: Learn Their Lessons, Improve Your Influence by Pat Williams

you give people a vision of making a difference in the world, you give them a sense of
meaning
. For most people, being employed at Apple was more than a career. At his best, Steve Jobs made people believe their work had meaning.
    That’s our mission as visionary leaders: look within, discover our vision, then communicate that vision to our followers with power and a sense of meaning. When you and your followers truly believe that together you are making a dent in the universe, there’s no limit to what you can achieve.
    I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next
.
    S TEVE J OBS

The Second Side of Leadership

    COMMUNICATION

4
    W INSTON C HURCHILL
    Sending Language into Battle

    If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever
.
    Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again
.
    Then hit it a third time—a tremendous whack
.
    W INSTON C HURCHILL
    I n 2013, the British national morning newspaper
The Independent on Sunday
conducted a poll of readers to find the most inspiring public speaker of the past fifty years. John F. Kennedy placed third in the poll. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. placed second. And in first place, with 39 percent of the vote, was Sir Winston Churchill. 1
    The speeches of Winston Churchill during World War II did more than merely inspire the British people. His speeches may well have saved Western civilization from destruction by Nazi Germany. For a seventeen-month period, from the beginning of the Battle of Britain, July 1940, until the entrance of the United States into World War II, December 1941, the British Isles were on the ropes. Hitler’s Luftwaffe pounded Britain’s shipping and military installations then turned to terror-bombing civilians.
    Hitler was eager to launch Operation Sea Lion, a massive air and sea invasion across the English Channel. Only the stubborn resolve of the British people stood between Hitler and his goal of conquering Great Britain. Germany had already conquered France with astonishing speed, and Britain was next in line to fall. But the British people would not falter, would not fail. They were sustained by the thundering words of Winston Churchill.
    On April 9, 1963, President John F. Kennedy officiated a White House ceremony proclaiming Sir Winston Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. Though Churchill was in poor health and could not attend the ceremony, he and his wife watched a live transatlantic television broadcast and heard President Kennedy say, “In the dark days and darker nights when Britain stood alone—and most men save Englishmen despaired of England’s life—he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. The incandescent quality of his words illuminated the courage of his countrymen.” 2
    That’s a fitting description of the way Churchill waged a war of words against Hitler’s planes and bombs. Churchill’s granddaughter, Celia Sandys, once observed that both Churchill and his wartime nemesis Adolf Hitler were known for their ability to reach the emotions of the masses—but there was a huge difference between Hitler and Churchill. “Hitler could persuade you that
he
could do anything,” said Sandys, “but…Churchill could persuade you that
you
could do anything.” Her grandfather, she added, never used speechwriters but wrote all of his speeches himself. 3
    The first of the Seven Sides of Leadership is vision. But the most compelling vision ever conceived is useless if you, the leader, cannot communicate your vision to your people. The ability to communicate effectively and persuasively is essential to leadership. Churchill was a great leader because he was an inspiring speaker. He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.
O VERCOMING I MPEDIMENTS
    Churchill’s reputation as an inspiring speaker is all the more amazing when you