21 Great Leaders: Learn Their Lessons, Improve Your Influence (9 page)

That’s a fitting description of the way Churchill waged a war of words against Hitler’s planes and bombs. Churchill’s granddaughter, Celia Sandys, once observed that both Churchill and his wartime nemesis Adolf Hitler were known for their ability to reach the emotions of the masses—but there was a huge difference between Hitler and Churchill. “Hitler could persuade you that
he
could do anything,” said Sandys, “but…Churchill could persuade you that
you
could do anything.” Her grandfather, she added, never used speechwriters but wrote all of his speeches himself.
³

The first of the Seven Sides of Leadership is vision. But the most compelling vision ever conceived is useless if you, the leader, cannot communicate your vision to your people. The ability to communicate effectively and persuasively is essential to leadership. Churchill was a great leader because he was an inspiring speaker. He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

Churchill’s reputation as an inspiring speaker is all the more amazing when you realize what he overcame. Churchill was afflicted by a speech impediment. It’s well known that Churchill had a lisp. He worked hard to overcome it, so it’s scarcely noticeable in the recorded speeches of his later years.

But there are indications that Churchill, in his early life, battled a far more serious speech impediment—a pronounced stutter. An article published online by the Churchill Centre and Churchill Museum dismisses the suggestion that Churchill stuttered, calling it a “myth.”
⁴
Yet early accounts refer to his serious speech impediment. Journalist Harold Begbie knew Churchill in his early career and wrote about his speech impediment in 1921. Though Begbie didn’t specifically refer to a stutter, his description sounds like more than a lisp:

That assessment from 1921 was confirmed twenty years later in an article by Louis J. Alber and Charles J. Rolo in the
Kansas City Star
, February 6, 1941. In a story headlined, “Churchill Has Mastered a Stutter and a Lisp to Become an Orator,” Alber and Rolo write:

Churchill was born into the aristocracy. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill, chancellor of the exchequer and a gifted public speaker; his mother was an American socialite, Jennie Jerome. Placed in the care of a nanny, Elizabeth Ann Everest, young Winston had little contact with his parents. His father rarely spoke to him.

After Lord Randolph died at age forty-five, Winston thought that he, too, would die young. So he made up his mind to make his mark on the world before his time was up.

Though extremely intelligent, Churchill earned mediocre marks in school because of a rebellious streak. He was educated at several boarding schools, including Harrow School. He often wrote to his mother, begging her to visit him, but his parents maintained a distant, even cold relationship with him. We have to wonder if Winston’s sense of abandonment might have played a role in his stuttering.

Churchill met his future wife, Clementine, at a party and proposed to her on August 10, 1908. They were married one month later on September 12.

As a young cavalry officer, Churchill experienced both the adventures and the horrors of war, seeing action in India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War in South Africa. He gained fame as a war correspondent and author. Despite his early accomplishments, Churchill felt he lived in the shadow of his father. Winston Churchill’s grandson, Nicholas Soames, offered this comparison between Lord Randolph and Sir Winston:

Though we remember Churchill for his wartime accomplishments as prime minister, he held numerous political and cabinet positions over a career that spanned half a century. Prior to World War I, while still in his thirties, Churchill held a succession of high positions in the government, including First Lord of the Admiralty (a position similar to Secretary of the Navy in the United States government).

Churchill was in command of the Gallipoli campaign, a joint British-French assault at the Dardanelles, with the goal of capturing the Ottoman Empire’s capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The Ottomans defeated the allies, resulting in thousands of deaths on both sides. The disastrous end of the Gallipoli campaign forced Churchill out of the government.

But he would return.

During the 1930s, Churchill accurately predicted the rising threat of Hitler and Nazi Germany at a time when the British government viewed Hitler as someone to be appeased. As the world stood by, Hitler annexed Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia. In September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, Churchill warned of grim days ahead but also shared his vision of a peaceful world to follow. On January 20, 1940, less than four months before becoming prime minister, Churchill delivered a radio speech called “House of Many Mansions,” predicting freedom for the nations Hitler had conquered. He said:

Churchill understood the power of an optimistic vision, even in dark times.

By the spring of 1940, it was clear that the government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had failed to grasp the enormity of the Nazi threat. On May 7, debate raged in Parliament over war in Europe. On May 10, Chamberlain resigned.

As the German war machine smashed through France, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, King George VI commissioned Winston Churchill to form a new government. Churchill became the wartime prime minister. Years earlier, diplomat Harold Nicolson had written prophetically that Churchill “is a man who leads forlorn hopes, and when the hopes of England become forlorn, he will once again be summoned to leadership.”
⁹

On May 13, 1940, Churchill delivered his first speech as prime minister before the House of Commons. Many in Parliament were skeptical of his leadership and still associated him with the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in World War I. As he rose to address the House of Commons, the reception was chilly—but as he delivered his thundering conclusion, the room was electrified:

With that speech, Winston Churchill gained the support of Parliament. Soon he would summon the resolve of the British people.

On June 4, 1940, after supervising an effort to evacuate a third of a million Allied troops from Nazi-occupied France, Churchill returned to the House of Commons and reported on the successful rescue. He acknowledged that the road ahead would be hard, but he concluded with these stirring words:

Even reading silently, you can feel the cadences, the rolling rhythms like ocean waves in a gathering storm, growing more and more powerful. Churchill knew how to infuse words with the power of stirring music.

On June 18, 1940, Churchill gave another address before the House of Commons that has come to be known as “Their Finest Hour.” Paris had fallen four days earlier. It was a dispiriting moment, and Churchill wanted to lift the fighting spirit of the British people. In this address, Churchill closed by calling on the courage of his countrymen:

Churchill delivered many more inspiring speeches throughout the war: “The Few,” honoring British airmen in the midst of the Battle of Britain (“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”); “Give Us the Tools,” an urgent appeal to the people of America, February 9, 1941 (“We shall not fail or falter…. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job”); and “Do Your Worst,” a radio address on July 14, 1941, a message of gratitude to all the emergency workers who served during the Battle of Britain—and a message of defiance to Hitler (“We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst—and we will do our best”).

One of Churchill’s speeches has become the subject of myth. The speech is called “Never Give In,” delivered at Harrow School, October 29, 1941. It’s often said that Churchill spoke just ten words: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never!” Well, those ten words were
included
in the speech, but Churchill said a good deal more than that. He spoke about the difficult first year of Great Britain’s war against Nazi Germany. He encouraged the students to face the “overwhelming might of the enemy” with perseverance.

He closed with words of hope: “These are not dark days; these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.”
¹³

Though Churchill’s speech was longer than ten words (it was 750), he was careful not to overtax his young listeners. Churchill understood that less is often more.

Churchill delivered another brief yet emotional address on May 8, 1945, following the end of the war in Europe. Vast crowds celebrated in the streets. Churchill came out on the balcony of the Ministry of Health and raised the V sign. The crowd cheered.

“God bless you all,” he said, his amplified words echoing. “This is your victory!”

The crowd shouted back, “No, it is yours!”

“It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land,” he continued. “In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their bit. Everyone has tried, none has flinched. Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attacks of the enemy, have in any way weakened the unbending resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.”
¹⁴

World War II was over in Europe. Winston Churchill had waged a war of words against airplanes and bombs—and words had prevailed.

The crowds that cheered Winston Churchill at the end of the war rejected him in the 1945 election. Out of office, Churchill became the leader of the loyal opposition. In his new role, Churchill continued to make his influence felt.