I’ve often said that great public speakers are made, not born. John F. Kennedy was no exception.
In the new book, JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, Pulitzer prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall traces Kennedy’s transformation from a shy, awkward speaker into an orator who captivated the world with his “magnetic leadership and inspirational rhetoric.”
Logevall cites a recently discovered audio recording of a 20-year-old JFK in a public-speaking class at Harvard.
The year was 1937. For the class, Kennedy had chosen a topic about a Supreme Court nominee.
According to the New York Times, “The speech starts off strong. He speaks clearly and with vigor. But after about 25 seconds, Kennedy loses his momentum. He gets nervous or distracted. He trips over a word, utters an “uh” as he tries to recover. He stammers and hesitates through the rest of the recording.”
Kennedy received a C+ in the course.
It’s remarkable to think about. The leader who would go on to deliver one of the greatest speeches of the century just two decades later barely passed his first public speaking class.
“Kennedy was not originally an effective public speaker,” Logevall told me.
“In fact, he was quite fearful of the prospect. It was not something that came naturally to him. He trained himself to be able to address small groups and then larger groups.”
Kennedy’s transformation offers lessons for any leader who wants to move people to action.
Reading, ‘The Instrument of Knowledge’
Kennedy was a voracious reader of biographies, history, and adventure stories. According to Logevall, Kennedy adopted his mother’s mantra that reading was “the most important instrument of knowledge.”
“He was the family reader, the daydreamer…the one who relished words and their meaning,” says Logevall.
Kennedy loved poetry, too.
In a 1956 Harvard commencement speech Kennedy said, “If more politicians knew poetry and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a much a little better place in which to live.”
Kennedy also paid a lot of attention to great speakers like Winston Churchill. While Kennedy’s father, Joe Sr., was ambassador to Great Britain, Kennedy attended some of Churchill’s speeches in person. He was “transfixed” at Churchill’s ability to rally his country to defend itself against the Nazi threat.
From his extensive reading and careful listening, Kennedy recognized that a leader’s role is to use the language of empathy to weave a narrative that unites people around a common dream. He realized that great writing and great speechmaking is a tool to “speak to society’s highest aspirations.”
Communication is a Team Effort
JFK also recognized that good communication is a team effort.
In his book, Logevall reveals Jackie’s influence on her husband’s speaking skills as he rose in politics. Jackie helped transform Kennedy into a better public speaker, and he was very receptive to her advice.
Jackie “coaxed him to abandon his high, nasal twang in favor of deeper, more sonorous tones.” She also coached Kennedy to slow his delivery, modulate his pitch, fidget less on stage, and use his hands to punctuate key points.
Although the changes took time to show, Kennedy worked on his technique to become “a self-composed, authentic communicator who employed the rhythms and language of powerful rhetoric.”
Kennedy also relied on speechwriter, Ted Sorensen. He hired Sorensen because the young assistant wrote in clear and understandable language. Together, their collaboration resulted in some of the greatest speeches of the twentieth century.
Since he had spent so much time reading books and listening to speeches, Kennedy became an effective editor in his collaboration with Sorensen.
In 1956, then Senator Kennedy delivered the nominating speech for Adlai Stevenson at the Democratic National Convention. According to Logevall, Stevenson’s aides gave Kennedy a speech they had written. “He thought it terrible…a wordy, corny, lackluster committee product.”
With less than 12 hours to go Kennedy gave Sorensen ideas for sentences, ideas, and broad themes, and instructed Sorensen to re-write it. After Sorensen worked on it throughout the night, a secretary typed it up and handed it to Kennedy.
“The senator looked it over, rewrote some of it, cut out some things and added a few paragraphs, and by then it was so chopped up that we had to have it retyped,” Sorensen recalled.
Kennedy’s stirring performance set him apart as a rising star in the Democratic party.
The poet Robert Frost said that Kennedy’s election heralded “a golden age of poetry and power.” Kennedy’s rhetoric did, indeed, inspire people to do the impossible. And now we know that Kennedy’s public-speaking skills didn’t come naturally. He worked at it and we’re all the better for it.