Lessons from Obama Inaugural Speech
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

It is hard to imagine what Barack Obama was thinking and feeling as he prepared to deliver his inaugural address.  With well over one million people in Washington D.C. and millions more watching on TV all across the country and the world, there were high expectations, in fact unrealistic expectations, for this historic Obama speech.   

Communicating under pressure is never easy.  President Barack Obama is a passionate and persuasive communicator.  It is clear that his communication skills are one of the biggest reasons he has become our 44th president.  Yet, regardless of our position or profession, what lessons can we take from President Obama’s inaugural address?

--Brevity matters.  President Obama spoke for only 18 minutes.  He had a clear theme focused around personal sacrifice and no longer doing business in the same way.  Being brief also mattered to all the people standing in the freezing cold in D.C.  Obama clearly could have talked longer and few would have complained.  But great communicators understand the moment and their circumstances and adapt their message and their style accordingly.  Remember that Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address lasted just over two minutes, while the speaker before him droned on for nearly 2 hours.  Whose speech do we remember?  Never confuse quantity with quality when it comes to communication.

--Be Generous.  Obama was generous and gracious to others, particularly his predecessor George Bush.  This is not about politics or campaigns, it is about understanding that being a strong leader and a compelling communicator requires that you be complimentary.  It requires that you not talk solely about yourself, but acknowledge the contributions of others, even if you have disagreed with these people in the past.  As a communicator, Obama has the ability to disagree with you on an issue or a point while not being disagreeable. 

--Challenge Your Audience.  Obama’s inaugural speech also challenged his audience instead of just telling them what they wanted to hear.  Simply talking about “change” wasn’t going to get it done.  Rather, Obama asked more of his audience and talked about personal responsibility.  In a speech leading up to the inauguration, Obama emphasized a theme comparable to JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you…” by saying; “Government can only do so much ... And if we're just waiting around for somebody else to do it for us…it never gets done.”  Challenging people to look inward is a critically important leadership and communication trait.  As communicators, we must do more than simply make the audience feel good. 

--Own Your Content.  One of the biggest lessons we can take from Barack Obama’s inaugural speech is that it was largely his.  He owned it and believed it deeply.  Many leaders, particularly in the corporate world, have their public relations and communications “experts” write them a speech and then work to memorize it or read it verbatim.  Instead, Obama crafted his message and helped shape the anecdotes, examples and quotations in it.  Therefore, when it came time to present, he felt confident knowing he was speaking from his heart and not from a script. 

--Confidence and Strength.  For a communicator, and more importantly for us as human beings, confidence and strength comes from within.  So ask yourself, “What inspires me?   What do I care deeply about?  What do I want to share with others?”  By asking these questions you build a powerful foundation from which to communicate and share with others.

Steve Adubato coaches and speaks on communication and leadership and is author of the new book "What Were They Thinking? Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad and the Totally Clueless" (Rutgers University Press). Write to him at The Star-Ledger, 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 07102, visit his Web site at www.stand-deliver.com, or e-mail him at sadubato@aol.com.

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