Rhetorical Leadership

Author and master trainer Vidar Top and Dr. Isaksen discuss how you can create a powerful connection with individuals and audiences so they can change for the better. (more from Vidar Top at www.linkedin.com/in/evtop and http://vidartop.com ). 

The topos of the tyrant was a rhetorical weapon to defend democracy. The current "authoritarian moment" calls for a renaissance of this rhetorical exercise. A speaker can use "the topos of a tyrant" by recounting and elaborating on "the six vices of a tyrant": suspicion, cruelty, savagery, arrogance, immorality, and avarice. As Cicero stated, "when it comes to preserving the people's freedom, no o...

Debate champion and communication consultant Daniël Schut joins Dr. Isaksen to discuss how he coaches his clients for debates and speeches, the ethical issues in communication consulting, how some scientific research and theories on persuasion may be destroying the basis for democracy, and how that can be countered. (more from Schut at https://adrem-debatstrategie.nl ) 

Dr. Isaksen explains how to anticipate counterarguments in your speeches, using Barack Obama's "We the people" speech as an example of what to do, and Brutus' speech in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" as an example of what not to do.

Dr. Isaksen uses examples from Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, and Christopher Titus to explain the high, medium, and low rhetorical styles, and how and when these are best used."