Want to be known for memorable speeches and presentations? Take a class with the master! Learn Winston Churchill's secret for great public speaking. 

Famed as an orator and leader of wartime Great Britain in World War II, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) has much to teach us about public speaking dynamism and influence. In fact, few speakers throughout history matched his skill in consciously using speech performance techniques to fascinate listeners.

Can you use his approach to mesmerize listeners in business presentations? Absolutely!

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Let's see how the great politician and orator made his speeches memorable events, quoting one of his best biographers, William Manchester.

A Master Class in How to Give a Speech

In the second volume of his brilliant biography The Last Lion, Manchester gives us a glimpse of the Churchill method of giving a speech. Although he was well recognized as an author, historian, and speech writer of distinction, Churchill had a “secret side” concerning how he went about delivering his speeches in Parliament. It’s a lesson all of us who speak in business should take to heart.

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Let’s take a peek at Churchill the master craftsman at work:

Once Churchill has the final version of a speech, he has it typed on pieces of paper measuring around 4” x 8”. The text is now set in “broken lines to aid his delivery,” or what a British cabinet member calls “speech form.” Now he is speaking—and what his fellow politicians think are notes on his topic is actually a speech completely written out and delivered word for word. These are speeches with “an illusion of spontaneity and include stage directions (‘pause; grope for word’ and ‘stammer; correct self’), each . . . a dramatic, vibrant occasion.”[1]

What about all the other aspects of great public speaking? They're in my book, How to Give a Speech. Amazon. Learn 101 ways to improve your speeches and presentations!

How to Speak with Presence and Charisma

Churchill’s unique method is a reminder that in speaking for leadership, you must go beyond organizing a speech well and enter the realm of dramatic performance. Think of it as how to command a stage for business presentations. However you characterize it, the system goes straight to the heart of achieving dynamism and credibility in an audience’s eyes.

Like all great speakers, Churchill grasped the difference between the literary world of preparing a speech or presentation, and the world of orality in which that speech is delivered. Your content can never live on its own, which is, of course, the reason you've been asked to deliver your speech at all. Your audience needs your stage presence to make your material come alive.

All of this is to say that Churchill focused on performing rather than just delivering content. The takeaway for your speeches and presentations? — Consciously think along these lines yourself. Learn why performance is as important as—and sometimes more central than— content.

In his book, Manchester quotes critic and philosopher William Hazlitt, who said that “Splendid prose . . . should be accompanied by vehemence and gesture, a dramatic tone, flashing eyes, and ‘conscious attitude’—a precise description of Churchillian delivery. [This] consummate performer,”[2] as Manchester calls him, can serve as your model of a speaker who perfectly combines vital content with an exciting style of delivery.

The Power of Silence in Public Speaking

Clearly, Churchill knew how to avoid negative body language that can ruin a presentation. Far more than that, however, he considered his nonverbal delivery to be a critical aspect of his speaking effectiveness. That includes movement, gestures, voice . . . and even the hesitations he baked into his orations!

Perhaps one of the easiest lessons to take away from what I call The Churchill Method is just that: his consummate ease in recognizing the power of silence, or how to use pauses effectively in speeches. In fact, to see one of Churchill’s speeches transcribed as he actually spoke it, is to be struck by the fact that it looks more like poetry than prose.

In my group workshops in public speaking training, I include an exercise that demonstrates the value of using silence when you speak. Below are the two versions of the speech I use.

The speech is Churchill’s first address to the nation as prime minister, delivered over the radio or “wireless” on May 19, 1940. The first version is a portion of the speech as written. The second version shows how Churchill actually spoke the lines of the speech, using the method of transcription I described above. I ask for a volunteer to read aloud both versions, then solicit from the trainees the differences in what they hear.

CHURCHILL’S SPEECH AS WRITTEN

"In the air—often at serious odds, often at odds hitherto thought overwhelming—we have been clawing down three or four to one of our enemies; and the relative balance of the British and German Air Forces is now considerably more favorable to us than at the beginning of the battle. In cutting down the German bombers, we are fighting our own battle as well as that of France. My confidence in our ability to fight it out to the finish with the German Air Force has been strengthened by the fierce encounters which have taken place and are taking place. At the same time, our heavy bombers are striking nightly at the tap-root of German mechanized power, and have already inflicted serious damage upon the oil refineries on which the Nazi effort to dominate the world directly depends."

CHURCHILL’S SPEECH AS SPOKEN

"In the air,

often at serious odds,

often at odds hitherto thought overwhelming—

we have been clawing down three or four to one

of our enemies;

and the relative balance of the British and German Air Forces

is now considerably more favorable to us

than at the beginning of the battle.

In cutting down the German bombers,

we are fighting our own battle as well as that of France.

My confidence in our ability to fight it out to the finish

with the German Air Force

has been strengthened by the fierce encounters

which have taken place and are taking place.

At the same time,

our heavy bombers are striking nightly at the tap-root of German mechanized power,

and have already inflicted serious damage

upon the oil refineries

on which the Nazi effort

to dominate the world directly depends."

Hear the difference yourself. Say the speech and record it twice: once as the "prose" or literary version, and the second time as the "poetry" of the spoken rendition, with its built-in pauses. You may be amazed as you listen back to what you hear simply from Churchill's phraseology: how much more vividly the images arise in your mind's eye; how much more of the speech you retain; and how the ideas impress themselves upon you forcefully.

The story being told, the ideas, the vividness of the imagery—in short, the message and meaning of this speech—all come through far more powerfully because of Churchill’s system. It’s a reminder that for great public speaking, you must tend to the care and feeding of your performance as well as your content. One way to do that is to use The Churchill Method.

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Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching and corporate group training worldwide. He is the author of the Amazon Best-Seller How to Give a Speech. His second book, Fearless Speaking, was named in 2019 as “One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time.” For nine consecutive years, he was ranked by Global Gurus as one of The World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, and he has been named as one of America's Top 5 Speech Coaches. His handbook for presenting in videoconferences, Speaking Virtually offers techniques for developing virtual presence. He is also the author of Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His latest book is The Confidence Book: 75 Ways to Reduce Your Anxiety, Let Go of Your Fears, Change Your Negative Thinking, and Perform At Your Professional Best. He is also the creator of The Dr. William Scarlet psychic mysteries. Contact Gary here.