The Leader Phrase Book: 3000+ Powerful Phrases That Put You In Command. Alain Patrick

      Speaking well is an important skill to master. When you speak, it is crucial to not only say the right thing, but to avoid common pitfalls. Here are six invaluable tips to help you speak like a leader:

      1. Speak clearly and briefly

      Ordinary people who aspire to be leaders should express their thoughts with clarity and brevity. No one likes someone who hogs a conversation or who speaks in circles and endless tangents. Donald Trump, CEO and chairman of The Trump Organization, is a good example of a clear speaker. He doesn’t try to blind anyone with meaningless words, but rather comes right at you with straight talk. As he wrote in his book How to Get Rich, “[B.S.] will only get you so far.” That is a clear thought in a few simple words. I couldn’t have said it better myself!

      2. Expand your vocabulary

      Don’t ever think that you have finally attained a great vocabulary. Make a commitment to learn one or two new words every day. Read magazines and books and underline words you don’t know; learn their meanings and practice ways to include them in your everyday speech. If you know, say, a thousand more words than the average person, it will make you stand out from the crowd. You’ll have the vocabulary of a leader.

      3. Gain command of the idiom

      Cultivate the nuances of your language and show them off. This is a process, not a goal. Whenever possible, incorporate colorful and vivid idiomatic phrases and terms – a “New York minute,” “punch drunk love” – into your spoken shorthand (being careful to avoid clichés, of course). This will make your communications that much more memorable and persuasive.

      4. Delegate your communications whenever possible

      The higher leaders get in the organizational food chain, the more risk they assume. Much more is riding on every communication than when they were, say, working in the mail room or as a minion on the sales team. Their words can create a cascade of positive effects or get them crushed as flat as a flounder. They can make the top story on the evening news or the front page of a scandal rag. Their words can create comfort or bring despair. The impact of what they say increases exponentially with their visibility, which is why many corporate and political leaders delegate many of their external communications to their PR handlers. If you can do this, by all means take advantage of it.