Dale Carnegie famously said, "The essential quality of being a leader is to be able to stand up and speak your mind", which shows the relationship between leadership and eloquence. This famous public speaker and master of success has been devoted to helping people express themselves confidently in public. Since the first public speaking class of 19 12, countless people have followed him to learn "effective speech" and "effective communication". No one is a natural speaker, but most successful leaders have good eloquence. Explain, persuade, sell and motivate ... Almost all leadership activities are inseparable from "speaking", and whether or not "speaking" determines the effectiveness of leadership behavior. If China officials want to get rid of the gray discourse image of "can't say, dare not say", they need to do it and find ideas and methods to win by eloquence. Investigation on Eloquence and Leadership ■ Our reporter Yang Min has become an indispensable leader in the period of social transformation and prominent contradictions. Chen Yue (a pseudonym), a deputy director-level cadre of the Science and Technology Department in the central and western regions, has often been troubled recently. Not long ago, when Chen Yue reported to a leader in the State Council, she found herself in extreme panic. "The organization is not clear, and the language is not as smooth as usual. The more she talked, the more uncomfortable she became. After that, I felt very failed. " After many years in politics, Chen Yue felt insecure about his eloquence for the first time. When Chen Yue appeared in class, Fan Rongqiang, the chief trainer of Chongqing Public Speaking Training Center for Managers, was not surprised. Chen Yue is by no means the only official he has ever met who is troubled by "speaking problems". In recent years, more and more officials have entered the classroom to seek professional counseling and training. "The essential quality of a leader is to be able to stand up and speak out", a famous saying by Carnegie, an American public speaker and successful scientist, tells the relationship between leadership and eloquence. Is eloquence important to officials? In daily administrative activities, what circumstances are challenging the eloquence of leading cadres? What are the criteria for measuring the eloquence of officials? In order to solve the above problems, in May of 20 10, Decision Magazine conducted a questionnaire survey on "Eloquence and Leadership" with the help of Tianjin Party School, Qingdao Party School and Ningbo Party School. I won't say or dare to say, "How do you evaluate the overall oral expression ability of officials now?" The results of 262 valid questionnaires show that as many as 78% of the respondents think it is "average" or "the whole needs to be improved", and only 17% think it is "very good". Explaining, persuading, communicating, encouraging and leading the work are all inseparable from "saying". However, people find that "Chen Yue's embarrassment" happens every day. Many leading cadres who accepted the questionnaire survey also expressed empathy. An interviewee also summed up several common situations of officials' "aphasia" in decision-making: when speaking to a group of expectant audiences, some people stutter and incoherent; When delivering the inaugural speech, some people were sweating and their voices trembled; In the face of difficult investment negotiations, there is always no breakthrough to convince the other party; When it is necessary to lead subordinates to complete a challenging task, it is impossible to mobilize everyone's passion and strength; When dealing with emergencies and facing media cameras, I don't know how to speak appropriately ... "Eloquence is average" is the overall evaluation of leading cadres. So, from the individual's point of view, how do respondents evaluate themselves? According to the survey, only 4% of leading cadres have positive comments on their eloquence, only 10 of 262 respondents think their eloquence is "very good", and more than 90% think their oral expression ability needs to be improved urgently. Judging from the self-cognition of groups and individuals, the conclusions of the two surveys are highly consistent, which shows that the problem of officials' public speaking ability cannot be avoided. As early as two years ago, the famous diplomat Wu Jianmin hit the nail on the head and pointed out that China officials are like "jiaozi in a teapot, you can't get it out". Originally, during Wu Jianmin's tenure as ambassador, he received overseas investment delegations organized by governments at all levels every year. He found that French officials wasted precious speech time on useless communication such as rhetoric, nonsense and empty talk. "Some officials like to respect a person as soon as they take office, and they leave eight respects in three minutes. Why do our officials seldom arouse others' interest in a few words? Why do China officials have so many big words, cliches and empty words? " Big talk, rhetoric and empty talk are just the external manifestations of the image of officials' words, and their essence is both "unable to say" and "afraid to say". "Can't speak" involves technical aspects such as speaking skills and methods. Dr Qin Dejun from the General Office of Shanghai Municipal Committee has been devoted to administration and leading scientific research. In an interview with Decision, he pointed out, "Now officials' speeches are made in advance, and they may be beautifully made, but the fatal problem is stylization, lack of sense of presence, and failure to take into account the feelings of the audience." In his view, the language must be flexible, and only by improvising on the spot can the information be true, vivid and convincing. It is precisely because of the "off-site" speech that officials will inevitably have poor oral expression skills. Wen Ruohe, the leader of the research group on public speaking and communication in Peking University, put forward two viewpoints from a professional point of view: First, there is a lack of correct understanding, and many grassroots leading cadres do not have a clear understanding of the role of eloquence in their work, thinking that eloquence has nothing to do with their work and their future. They think that as long as they are willing to work and listen to their superiors, there will be no mistakes in their work; Second, there is a lack of systematic practice. The traditional education mode, there is no special speech training, and there is no official after work. Few officials can take the initiative to learn and practice speaking, and naturally they can't speak well. Experts have different opinions. How did the officials themselves answer the same question? According to the results of the questionnaire survey, 5 1% of the respondents pointed out that the speaking ability of officials is related to personal factors such as their own knowledge and experience. There are also 26% people who think it is because of "lack of relevant systematic training". If "can't say" is related to ideas and experiences, then "dare not say" is more restricted by environmental factors such as system and culture. According to the statistics of "Decision News" reporters, there are still 15% and 8% respondents who believe that the low oral ability of officials is related to factors such as the selection system of officials and cultural traditions. Yu Guoming, a professor at the School of Journalism of Renmin University of China, attributed the officials' "dare not speak" to the asymmetric responsibility system. In his view, although China has the "Regulations on the Openness of Government Information", which explicitly requires enhancing information transparency, it is said to be responsible; Under the institutional framework of "no talking, no responsibility", officials find that "no talking" and "less talking" may be safer and more appropriate. Persuade the sales force that "it is safe not to talk", but in the social environment with increasing civic awareness and active media opinion, officials will be pushed to the "crater" carelessly. "Which of the following situations do you think can best test the eloquence of officials?" When answering this question, the answers given by the interviewed officials are: dealing with emergencies, facing the news media (63%), speaking publicly (24%), solving interpersonal conflicts within the organization (8%) and reporting to superiors (5%). It can be seen that in daily leadership activities, the factors that challenge officials' eloquence can be divided into two categories, one is persuasion ability and the other is sales promotion ability. Among the four options involved in the questionnaire, dealing with emergencies, speaking to the media and solving internal contradictions in the organization belong to the former; Public speaking and reporting belong to the latter. I don't know how to explain and persuade, which makes more and more officials suffer greatly, such as "Who are you speaking for" and "Which unit are you from". Such officials' words are exposed by the Internet, which also makes these officials bear great pressure from public opinion because of "not speaking freely". In today's China society, many social contradictions are often caused by "unconvincing". Some officials follow the "bulldozer-like" administrative thinking, make closed decisions and push hard, and regard any objection as an infringement of their power. Some experts believe that the governance model of "not seeking persuasion" has become the harm of some local politics and needs to be reflected and changed. Many leading cadres at the grassroots level admitted in an interview with the reporter of Decision News that it is a "headache" to deal with emergencies and guide public opinion. In the face of public space policy debates and surging online public opinion, officials must learn to explain and persuade; Learn to face contradictions and calmly present facts and truths. Only in this way can we gain knowledge and recognition. "Good eloquence is the most effective way to persuade anyone." Professor Zhou Guangfan of China Pudong Cadre Management College commented on this in an interview with Decision. It is true that learning to persuade is a sign that society is moving towards civilization; Reasoning is the external embodiment of ruling civilization. However, the learning process is long, and the public must have enough patience. Fortunately, many local governments have realized the important role of cultivating officials' persuasion ability in administrative efficiency. In 2009, Chongqing organized a debate competition for officials, and the media paid more attention to the debate skills of officials. But the essence of the debate is to be reasonable. The victory or defeat depends not only on whose "skill" is high, but on who is the most convincing. The cultivation of officials' persuasion ability, no matter what form it takes, is a kind of conceptual progress that cannot be ignored, because in the period of social transformation and prominent contradictions, the persuasion ability of grassroots cadres has become an indispensable leadership. As important as persuasion is the ability of leading cadres to "sell". From the perspective of leadership science, the essence of leadership activities is the process of winning follow-up and gaining support. If "public speaking" is a kind of "sales promotion", then reporting is an upward "sales promotion". However, in China officialdom, leading cadres are cautious about the word "sales promotion". Fan Rongqiang pointed out, "A person who can speak in public is likely to be considered flashy; On the contrary, a person who is not good at words and does not brag is considered to be simple and diligent. " Between "saying" and "doing", it is not easy for officials to get this degree right. Take Chen Yue as an example. This leader, who has always been regarded as a glib talker by his subordinates, failed in "selling" not only because of his expressive ability, but also because he hesitated a little about how to grasp the "degree", so that he could not successfully "sell" his own works. In China officialdom, which is more important, "well said" or "well done"? According to the questionnaire survey of Decision magazine, 74% of the respondents believe that people who are good at "doing things" and "singing" are easy to get promoted. China officials, who have always emphasized "hard work", are increasingly aware of the importance of "singing". Answering "Do you think eloquence is important to leading cadres?" Of the 262 survey samples, 8 1% thought it was very important, 17% thought it was generally important, and only 2% thought it was unimportant. Stand and eloquence. So, what is the standard of good eloquence? Leading cadres who accepted the questionnaire paid such attention. They believe that good eloquence is first manifested in "infectivity", followed by "conciseness", then "humor and vividness" and "watertight". An infectious eloquence is first and foremost audience-centered. Zhou Guangfan said, "officials should not focus on the speaker, but on the audience and give them the information they expect." With the awakening of civic awareness, the public has put forward new requirements for the responsiveness of the government and officials. Leading cadres must be responsible for the upper and lower levels. " Qin Dejun believes that there are three criteria for the "good eloquence" of leading cadres: low, medium and high. As far as low standards are concerned, it is a low-level "speaking" without rhetoric and empty talk. Being able to respond flexibly, smoothly and tactfully on the spot and effectively convince the audience is a middle-level "talking"; A charismatic leader who can attract, control and motivate his followers is a high-level "talker". Churchill once said, "How many people can a person talk to, how great is his achievement". This sentence means that a person's speaking ability is positively related to his management scope. Then, from another perspective, do you have different eloquence requirements for leading cadres of different positions and levels? When answering "Do you think eloquence has something to do with work", 85% of the respondents think that "any position needs good eloquence"; There are also 8% people who think that "only the main leaders need good eloquence, and ordinary cadres don't need it"; 7% people think that "positions with more foreign contacts need good eloquence, but other positions don't". Since most people think that any position needs good eloquence, how do leaders at different levels evaluate themselves? The reporter of Decision Newspaper found a very interesting phenomenon when sorting out the questionnaire. In the sample of 23 department-level cadres, half of the leaders thought their eloquence was "very good", while in the sample of 239 department-level and department-level cadres, none of them gave their eloquence a "very good" evaluation. Another noteworthy statistical result is that 17% of the samples that give a "good" evaluation of officials' oral expression ability are all concentrated at the level of department-level cadres. The results of two surveys show that the higher the level of officials, the more confident they are in their eloquence. Wen Ruohe, who has many years of eloquence training experience, also believes that in real life, some leading cadres with high positions are indeed more eloquent than those with low positions. "This is related to the large amount of information, well-informed and experienced leading cadres in high positions. More importantly, the higher the position of leading cadres, the more opportunities to speak, and practice makes perfect. Over time, the ability of oral expression has naturally improved accordingly, "Wen Ruohe told Decision. The position level is directly proportional to the eloquence level, which proves to some extent that "good eloquence is practiced". Since good eloquence can be acquired through practice the day after tomorrow, what is the attitude of officials towards participating in eloquence training? According to the questionnaire of "Decision", 77% of leading cadres think it is "very necessary" to train officials and civil servants in eloquence, and 8 1% of them clearly indicate that they will actively participate in eloquence training if there is training opportunity. According to this, the next step for China officials is to find "Carnegie", not only to find the goal, but also to find ideas, paths and methods.