Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership

So who's this book for? The tips and techniques presented here are aimed at managers and business leaders. Knowing how to express your ideas and what effect your words have on others is key to developing your leadership skills. But the book is accessible to anyone, because it's written in a relaxed and easy-to-read style. And learning the secrets of effective communication is something we can all use, whether it's in our business or our personal lives.

The author, Simon Lancaster, knows what he's talking about. As an experienced speechwriter, he's listened to politicians and business leaders for years and written speeches for them. He also lectures at various schools and institutions, including Cambridge University, and runs award-winning workshops on the language of leadership.

So keep listening to hear how neuroscience can help you to connect with your audience, how your breathing can project a sense of calm, and the impact of the rule of three.

Lancaster begins the book with a charming anecdote about a speech made in 2012 by the then mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to kick off the opening of the London Olympics.

While Lancaster admits he isn't a fan of Johnson, he says the speech created a feeling of joy in the crowd that was like a drug. In fact, the euphoria was indeed down to chemicals – three that were released in people's minds that day: serotonin, which makes us feel confident, strong and powerful; oxytocin, which makes us feel contented, connected and safe; and dopamine, the reward drug that's released when our expectations are met and exceeded.

Lancaster explains how great leaders use communication techniques to stimulate these chemical reactions in people. When they do, they draw us to them and make us crave their words like a drug. That's how great leaders become popular and stay on top.

The book is divided into three parts, each of which discusses a different aspect of our mind – the instinctive mind, the emotional mind, and the logical mind. Lancaster based the structure for his book on Aristotle's Rhetoric, which talks about ethos, pathos and logos, or credibility, emotion and logic.

Even though he talks a lot about the brain and science, Lancaster makes it all very clear to the reader. He uses a friendly, humorous tone that makes you feel like you're chatting to a friend. He even guides you from one section to the next by suggesting you're on a physical journey with him through time and space, traveling from the London Olympics to ancient Greece and on to a cozy pub in Wales.

The book includes lots of tables, figures and cartoons to illustrate Lancaster's points. We found these illustrations charming and funny, and they break up the text nicely. But despite the user-friendly presentation, the ideas are based on fact and backed up with solid research. The effect is an interesting and engaging read full of thought-provoking ideas and insights on how leaders can use science to connect with people.

So let's take a look at some of these secrets of science, starting with the instinctive mind.

This is the survival system of the brain. It alerts us to danger and provides rewards in the form of that brain chemical dopamine I mentioned earlier. A good leader will give us the rewards we crave and provide us with a sense of safety. If you want people to accept your leadership, Lancaster says, you need to be enthusiastic enough to trigger their dopamine systems and make them feel they're in safe hands. How do you do this? Through communication.

Our instinctive brain responds to images, so leaders who use metaphors in their speeches can plant visual ideas in people's minds to reinforce their points. We often hear people using metaphors about sports, war, gardens, and cars, for example. To be effective, metaphors need to be inspiring and emphasize safety and reward. Lancaster provides lots of creative ideas for these in the book, and ends the chapter with questions to ask yourself about which metaphors you might choose.

Communication can also be nonverbal. A physically strong person can quickly activate feelings of safety in the instinctive mind. In the same way, open and natural body language makes us feel safe.

Using humor is another way of breaking down barriers and easing tension. Lancaster even provides some good jokes you can use for your next presentation.

It's also important for leaders to project their purpose to their audience, Lancaster says. We need to feel that our leaders know what they're doing and what their goals are. This kind of vision activates our reward system and creates a connection that releases oxytocin, the drug that makes us feel warm and fuzzy.

Empathy can do the same thing. When you listen to someone speak and put yourself in his or her shoes, you're creating a feeling of connection that triggers oxytocin. It's sometimes called the "tend and befriend" chemical, because it's activated when we tend to our loved ones and look to our friends for support. In the book, Lancaster provides a useful model for how to listen with empathy.

When it comes to creating connections, you'll want your communication style to suggest confidence, Lancaster says. The secret here is in your breathing. Short, sharp breaths create a sense of anxiety, while deep, steady breaths suggest a person is calm and in control. The instinctive brain causes us to emulate others, so, when your breathing is calm, others will begin to breathe in the same way and feel calm too. Lancaster provides links to YouTube videos that illustrate this, and suggests some breathing exercises you can do, which we found very helpful.

In Part Two, Lancaster takes a look at the emotional mind. This explores how leaders can connect with people by stimulating their emotions. When you make people feel confident, connected and understood, they will trust your leadership. So let's find out what Lancaster suggests.

First, he says, we need to tell stories. People don't connect with you emotionally when you just deliver facts. It's through stories that we learn about others and about ourselves. And we find out just how much we have in common.

Brain scans show people are actively involved when they're listening to stories – even more so than when they're talking to one another. This means your listeners will not only hear, but experience, what you're saying when you tell stories, and will develop a connection to you.

The secret to telling great stories is the way they make us feel. When we identify with a character, our brain releases oxytocin. When we feel the stress of a story's climax, we get a hit of cortisol. And when the story reaches a resolution, we feel the rush of dopamine. In this section of the book, Lancaster offers some thought-provoking stories of his own, so readers can experience those chemical reactions for themselves.

But those feel-good chemicals will only be triggered by certain words and ideas. So you need to tell your stories using language that will connect with people and stimulate their emotions. Lancaster provides word clouds of commonly used words in Beatles' songs and compares them with word clouds from a business report, and we could clearly see how the words that popped out changed the way we felt.

How we use these emotive words also has an impact. Lancaster recommends using repetition, because it suggests passion. Think of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's World War Two speech, "We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the hills." Repetition triggers the release of dopamine because we expect to hear those words again and when they come, we feel satisfied. And because we've heard these words before, their familiarity also makes them more believable.

Lancaster points out that great leaders reflect people's values. Inspiring speakers connect those values to a purpose. He offers the example of Henry Ford, whose purpose, to enable everyone to have a car, matched his values, that hard work should be rewarded.

We can also connect with people by offering them praise. Serotonin is released in the brain when we receive praise and when we give it, making us feel confident, uplifted and keen to give back. When we live and work in stressful environments, our serotonin levels are low, which leads to anger and aggression. A leader who can stimulate positive feelings in people by creating a supportive environment can increase serotonin levels and generate a loyal following.

So now we'll look at the third and final part of the book, about the logical mind. Many of us believe we're using our logical mind all the time when we interact with others. But the reality is, we're not as logical as we might think. Neuroscience tells us that we actually use our analytical mind very little, which is why the two previous sections of the book are so important. But, says Lancaster, we can create the appearance of logic.

Our logical minds love patterns, so when we speak in ways that convey sense and structure, listeners interpret our arguments as logical. How do you do this? One way is to use the "rule of three," one of the secrets from the language of leadership. When you repeat a word three times, it will trigger a pattern in the logical mind which sounds decisive, complete and final. Think of "location, location, location" or "snap, crackle and pop." Lancaster provides plenty more examples in the book.

Numbers can also be used to create patterns and rhythms in language. Instead of just relaying statistics, good leaders use numbers to create impressions of growth and power. Similarly, rhymes can make your arguments sound more believable. Although we associate them with childishness, we're more likely to believe rhyming statements, probably because they remind us of our childhood, when we believed what our parents told us.

Another way of communicating logic is through balance. According to Lancaster, when you weigh up both sides of an argument and come to a conclusion, you give the impression of seeing the big picture, which makes you seem intelligent and knowledgeable. Lancaster offers some examples of a balanced argument structure as well as balanced sentences, which are very helpful.

Finally, Lancaster talks about the importance of perspective. When you're trying to get people to agree with your point of view, you need to consider their perspective. People don't like looking inconsistent or unprincipled, so you should tread carefully. The best way to get them on your side is to ask questions, rather than state facts.

This book is full of interesting ideas and stories – you may have heard some of them before, while others are a bit more unusual. For instance, Lancaster says people are more likely to think about the future when they're physically moving forward, even if that's only in line at the grocery store. So if you want to persuade people to think about your vision of the future, get them moving.

In his conclusion, Lancaster says that at a basic level, people want to feel connected. So if you want to be a great leader, give your team what it needs – offer people security and safety, and let them know you care. If you do this, they'll give you what you need – their support – and more besides.

While the suggestions in this book are not necessarily secrets, they are all useful, practical tips for communicating as a leader. And Lancaster certainly delivers on his promise to share that knowledge. The book is packed with information, facts, statistics, and anecdotes that read like an insider's guide to becoming a great leader.

As you've heard, the book is written in a friendly, convivial style that feels more like a conversation with an old friend than a how-to business book. So even if you're not thinking of becoming president or your organization's CEO, we think you'll find this a thoroughly informative and entertaining read.

"Winning Minds: Secrets from the Language of Leadership" by Simon Lancaster is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.