Professional leadership communication, to promote greater social understanding.
Reading a Fox News piece last week headlined “Biden’s Afghanistan speech written poorly with even worse delivery, experts say,” I was taken back to a formative moment very early in my career. I …
“We don’t hit, we don’t bite, and we don’t throw things.” Those are the first rules any parent teaches any child. And then the parents put the kids to bed, …
When I accepted the job as AFL-CIO Director of Speechwriting, my coworkers at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union sent me off with a toast: “To the voice …
In my book An Effort to Understand, I tell the story of how I once told my five-year-old daughter that in our family, we don’t say passed away—we say died. …
Last week I was writing a column on speechwriters’ behalf for a magazine for CEOs. (Oh yes, I’ll share that when it comes out.) I was at pains to explain …
In his inaugural address, President Biden named a lot of massive problems the country has to tackle. COVID. Economic horrors. Social justice and racial equity—the explicit term, “white supremacy” appeared …
I was invited to sit in on a conference call with some political speechwriters this week. As we discussed President-Elect Biden’s rhetoric, I said something that annoyed some of the …
Written a couple of weeks ago and published on my personal blog Writing Boots, with instructions for people charged with writing something meaningful for CEOs and other institutional leaders: “Break …
Not long ago, a speechwriter friend of mine sent a video to her CEO client, a woman, and the CEO told her the video was sexist. The speechwriter sent the …
““It was a great show,” FDR told his prominent speechwriter after a speech that helped him win the 1944 presidential election, “in which you played a great part.”