Secondary schools across the country often reach out to us: to train their Student Councils. Somewhat, during the training and tutelage, we take student leaders through the integral role they play in deft management of secondary schools. We do delve deep on areas such as general roles, convening effective meetings, leadership challenges, disaster management, forms of discipline, principles of punishment, emotional intelligence, people skills, school safety and qualities of effective student leaders. We point out grievous goofs they should shun while dispensing duties. We explore leadership skills and styles. We guide them on how they can strike a beautiful balance between academics and leadership. Then, more importantly, we steer clear on effective communication and deft delivery of speeches.
Ideally, Dr. John C. Maxwell, a luminary in the glorious agora of leadership, posits, leadership is influence: Nothing more, nothing less. Everything rises and falls on leadership. Then, leadership rises and falls on communication. No wonder, student leaders should attain mastery of communication as a soft skill. Again, they should know how to deliver speeches and announcements. This in turn, will help them influence other students through the intriguing tools of rhetoric, which Aristotle, the Athenian thinker, summarised as — logos (truth), ethos (ethics) and pathos (emotions). In a larger sense, student leaders should use tact and diplomacy to govern their peers in school. They should be serious, skillful and sensitive.
Ostensibly, student leaders, sometimes, face opposition from their peers. Impertinent students heckle, boo, or refuse to attend to duties allocated to them. In such instances, student leaders should rely on comely communication skills plus proper persuasion. In other words, my pen is postulating that student leaders who are eloquent and articulate: command respect from their peers.
For instance, when we see students going on strike or razing down schools, it means that leaders are poor at persuasion. Again, in a school set up, student leaders command power and influence when they pay homage to the instruction of rhetors — orators or teachers of rhetoric. Meaning, they can always find ways to sway the impressionable minds of their peers who may decide to gang up when they feel chagrined by school administration in moments of leadership lapse.
Moreover, when we look at the world as a whole, both in the distant and recent past, we see classic cases of leaders who relied on effective communication and powerful presentation of speeches: to inspire people and repair the despair of followers. Winston Churchill, the former premier of Britain, is an excellent example. Through the gift of the gab, he stilled the nerves of British soldiers to wage war with bravery and bravado during the Second World War (1939-1945). Likewise, in 1963, Martin Luther King planted hope in the hearts of African-Americans who suffered due to racial segregation. In I Have a Dream speech, MLK envisioned an America, where his four little children would not suffer discrimination due to the colour of their skins, but the content of their character.
No wonder, our secondary schools should strive to groom student leaders with silver tongues like men and women who kissed blarney stones. There is the exigence of raising leaders who can be objective, informative and educative. Actually, I am concerned about young leaders who should be trained on canons of rhetoric — invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. In order to be the sage on stage, both knowledge, language and logic: should lead.
In a broader sense, speaking in public is not simple as some people think. There is the exigence of training student leaders on how to prepare and present phenomenal speeches. This oscillates around adequate preparation, settling on the best éclat of delivery, knowing, involving and maintaining a cordial relationship with the audience. Finest orators focus on audibility and clarity. They check on their personal appearance before they go lyrical. Then, they dodge the erroneous advice of fake it until you make it. Instead, they remain natural and lively. Right poise and posture are worth putting into critical consideration. Carefully-crafted speeches behoove presenters to pay meticulous attention to paralinguistic features — both verbal and non-verbal cues. Body movements should match what someone is saying. There should be the right vocal delivery. Meaning, volume, pace and pronunciation — are key elements in speech delivery. Every speech should focus on novelty, memorability and emotionality.
Finally, student leaders who have mastered mechanics of elocution are skillful in overcoming stage fright. How do they do it? First, they accept that it is normal to be nervous. Therefore, they put premium on practice as they make good use of available time allotted. They present facts interestingly: they pepper presentations with serious humour. Then, they employ different types of pauses such as sense, dramatic, emphatic and sentence-completion pauses.
The writer trains student leaders.
By Victor Ochieng’
