At the risk of adding to the noise about Donald Trump’s communication style, I think now is the perfect time for me to highlight three things I believe he did very well during rallies.
Things we can all learn from. And while I’m not going to mention the politics to avoid distracting from my message, what I will say is this:
Touting his anti-authoritarian, strong-man credentials was one key pillar to his success – and his communication style utterly sold it.
What did he do so well?
- Repetition of clear key themes. While often appearing distracted, Trump continued to return to emphasising his strengths, the economy and immigration.We were never left in any doubt about what was important. Despite the meandering off-topic, he always came back.Most of us, me included, can communicate more effectively when we remember this. (That’s assuming we know the key themes to start with!)Don’t be afraid of repetition. Yes you may need to paraphrase so you don’t annoy people – but you’re probably not doing enough of it. And sometimes repeating the exact same phrase wins (MAGA, anyone?)
- Simple language. His bold, basic, almost childlike language was perfect for his supporter base and resonated beautifully.I’m not suggesting you need to dumb down your language, and everything depends on context: of course we need to know our audience and high-level communication may be crucial.However, with that said, most of us overcomplicate things. Trump certainly didn’t do that!
- Commitment. Call it belief, call it energy – even though at times he appeared to lack exactly that energy. His underlying vibration was always high, always on.This is so important – and hard to do. And of course again it’s context dependent. Let’s face it, the quarterly update doesn’t need too much – overdone is just weird!But perhaps a stronger energy or commitment level might be helpful in many of your speaking scenarios. Sometimes people can become what I call the slug at the front without even realising it’s happening!
If you’re interested, I wrote about Trump during the 2016 election too, and believe these ideas still hold true.
And here’s an external perspective on persuasive communication, Trump vs Harris. You need a subscription, but one article should be free to read.
So to sum up: 3 key communication themes of repetition, simplicity and commitment.
Perhaps one of these is what you need to focus on right now.