She Knows How to Make Speeches Sing
July 03, 2018
Concert musician, speechwriter and speaking coach Mette Hรธjen brings all her backgrounds to bear in her new book, "Business Rhetoric."
Review of Business Rhetoric: How to Turn Your Words Into Goldย (2018; 175 pages).
Four years ago, at the Professional Speechwriters Associationโs inaugural meeting at New York University, Mette Hรธjen gave a novel talk on what executive communicators can learn from musicians. A corporate communications advisor based in Copenhagen, Denmark who has studied rhetoric and music, Hรธjen provided the PSA audience with both inspiration and out-of-the-box thinking. (This reviewer remembers her presentation, and very much enjoyed it.)
Business Rhetoric, Hรธjenโs new book of tips, tricks and exercises for those who want to improve their leadership communication skills, expands on some of the themes of that 2014 talk.
The book highlights how the need โto convince other people and convey a messageโ is universal, whatever sector of the economy in which one works. Hรธjen also points to how the โrhetorical performancesโ that take place in corporate settingsโspeeches, sales presentations and so onโcan be improved via insights derived from the world of musical performance.
Hรธjen allows that this may appear to be a โparadox.โ She explains that while musical performance is perceived as a โsoftโ world, while business and executive leadership communication represent a supposedly โhardโ reality in comparison, itโs the musicians and conductors who are โjudged much, much harderโ than any CEO or senior executive, at least when it comes to the impression they create with audiences.
She further observes how musicians are held to very high expectations around โdiscipline, training, collaboration and communicating a vision,โ even by non-musicians. Almost anyone can recognize when a note is played off-key, for example (even if oneโs musical training ends somewhere after โDo-Re-Miโ).
But people usually do not, as Hรธjen writes, bring โthe same ruthless focusโ to bear when judging speeches in the workplaceโeven if we regularly endure keynotes, panels, townhalls and other โcommunicationโ exercises that sink without a trace, failing to make a single lasting impression.
Hรธjenโs book provides a roadmap for those who want to avoid playing bum notes in their next corporate rhetorical performance. This book will help presenters and speakers think beyond their scripts and talking points, to topics such as physical settings, the need to outline any remarks in advance and how one needs to practice, practice, practice all aspects of performance to deliver a speech well. (That includes advice on breathing, body language, controlling any nervousness and so on.)
The emphasis on practice and preparation reflects Hรธjenโs musical background. Her formal background in rhetoric comes through in the bookโs insistence that speakers anticipate the counter-arguments to whatever actions or decisions their remarks are intended to advance, and reference those counter-arguments in their speeches.
While trying to shift an audience from one point of view to another on some issue, Hรธjen observes, a speaker will fail by merely overloading an audience with information. Persuading others through a speech requires engaging with the objections some in the audience may have to what the presenter is proposing, and gently refuting the naysayersโ arguments.
In politics and in law, this all standardโbut in corporate settings, particularly when employees are the audience, many senior leaders see persuasion as an alarmingly high-stakes proposition (or perhaps a pointless choreโโIโm the boss, arenโt I?โ).
Rather than readily addressing objections and disarming them, the people at the top of the corporate hierarchy may prefer to play it safe, rely on their positional authority and emit โan overwhelming number of empty words,โ as Hรธjen writes, leaving listeners cold and unresponsive.
Hรธjenโs timely book is as much a call for rhetorical courage as it is a collection of very useful advice. And as she shows, exercising courage is just like playing an instrument or learning a particular piece of musicโand becomes easier the more you are willing to practice it.
You can learn more about Mette Hรธjen via http://businessrhetoric.com/.