Decoding speechwriting and its critical traits - Rakesh Godhwani

In the wee hours of January 20th 2015, President Obama sat with his Chief?Speechwriter, Cody Keenan?to fine-tune his?State-of-the-union speech?that he was going to make to Congress and an entire nation that evening. The photo in this article shows both of them crouched over sheets of paper with the speech. I could give my arm or leg to get hold of those sheets of paper and see the comments and scratches that President Obama would have made on them.?

I admire the?process of speechwriting?a lot. It is like creating an artistic masterpiece for the world to cherish for years to come. However, speech writing is a very time-consuming and intense activity. It takes weeks, maybe months, to create a speech like the one Obama was going to give, and the speechwriter's job is to work with the leader and co-create this masterpiece.?

As a teacher, author and researcher of persuasive communication, I focus on speechwriting in my classes and believe that content is as important as the delivery style. It is hard to decouple the two, and the debate on style Vs content is still alive after Plato started it about 2,500 years ago. And I believe that before they deliver the message, good leaders focus more on the process of creating the message. That is the secret sauce that many of us miss.?

So what is a speechwriter's role, and what are an excellent speechwriter's qualities? Before that, my students often ask why a leader needs a speechwriter. Shouldn't the leader be writing their speeches themselves? And a hidden element of this question is like this - If I am a leader and I have to deliver a speech written by someone else, isn't that bad? My response to this question is as follows:

There is a misunderstanding that the speechwriter writes the speech all by themselves and gives it to the speaker, who reads it out. It doesn't work like that. The speechwriter's job is collaborating and co-creating a speech with the speaker.?

In the earlier decades, many leaders like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lincoln, and Churchill wrote their own speeches. They might have taken help from their aides too, but I need factual information. Obama's first speechwriter -?Jon Favreau says in a lecture?to budding speechwriters at a university in Dublin that Obama always felt he didn't need a speechwriter and wrote his own speeches. But Obama also welcomed the idea of having a dedicated resource to help him fine-tune and make his messages better. I guess Obama also realised he didn't have the enormous chunks of time needed to write speeches anymore when he started campaigning for the White House.??

In the last decade, I have seen these jobs, like speechwriting becoming more critical, and they are here to stay. The political arena is getting really hot on these jobs, and the corporate sector is also warming up.?

Now let me address the second question: What qualities must a speechwriter have to be considered a cut above the rest? They must have strong foundations in persuasion, public policy, economy, politics and mass communication. There could be more subjects, too, depending on the kind of leaders one aspires to work with. E.g. if you aspire to write speeches for a top CEO of silicon valley, then you need a strong foundation in tech-related subjects.??

You need to love writing. This job requires you to sit at a desk in a corner for hours and write. This might not be a social where you will meet lots of people. The only person you will need to meet is the speaker you will be working with.??

While drafting the speech, you must first understand the speaker's qualities, past track record and vision of what they want to achieve for their audiences. You have to understand the pulse of the world. You need to know how audiences react and how great speeches work to change their attitudes. You need to be aware of what the critics are saying about your speaker and incorporate it with a bit of humour in your speech.??

You need to be careful that the entire world will view and read this speech for years to come. This is your chance to do your bit and change the world with words.?

With all this in mind, you will start penning your first draft. Now comes the fun bit. Chances are, your first draft will be absolute garbage.?Your future drafts too, might end up in the dustbin very often. You are required to be patient. You will not last if you can't handle criticism or the big red or ink corrections on them. So enjoy this process and always tell yourself this is the birth of a masterpiece that will change the world.?

A few years ago, I did a speechwriting workshop at a wonderful school in Pune that develops future political leaders for better governance. As a result, I am beginning to see how the Indian political leadership is adopting the new media of reaching out to the world. Whether it is politics, corporate leadership or even academia, public speaking has become integral to effective communication. The art is not only here to stay but also gaining in popularity.?

-Rakesh Godhwani,

SoME Founder & CEO

Keynote, an exclusive Oratory Programme by the School of Meaningful Experiences and Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University, is designed to empower industry leaders to?become effective public speakers who can influence big crowds of listeners: https://www.some.education/program/programme-for-cxos ?