GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

BUSINESS LEADERSHIP –MBA 845

GROUP 4 ASSIGNMENT

Students Names Registration Number

Chigariro Cliff R211815X
Mamvura Nyasha R141330T
Mazonde Chido C. R165620H
Nyagweta Ratidzo G R151313A
Antony Msipa R163568F

Overall Mark:………….

Lecturer’s Comments:
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In the end, the leader must bear in mind that “a decision not to speak is
more beneficial to the person’s reputation than talking a lot but saying very
little” (Bowden). Discuss. (40marks)

Introduction

In this world we are living in that is a fast-paced and information-driven world, effective
communication is crucial for leaders to establish credibility and influence. Nonetheless, there
are instances where leaders must be able to recognize the value of silence and consider the
consequences of speaking without purpose. This essay sightsees the idea that "a decision not
to speak is more beneficial to a person's reputation than talking a lot but saying very little," as
enunciated by Bowden. It explores into the implications of thoughtless communication on a
leader's reputation and the advantages of exercising restraint and selective communication.

Bowden's assertion that "a decision not to speak is more beneficial to a person's reputation
than talking a lot but saying very little" holds substantial weight in the realm of leadership.
As a leader strategic silence is an integral aspect of leadership. Strategic silence has it
potential advantages and these include fostering trust, demonstration of wisdom, enhancing
listening skills and promotes strategic decision making.

Leaders who choose prudently tend to choose silence over excessive talking can be able to
create an environment that encourages an open dialogue and active listening. A good leader
does not always dominate conversations but empowers team members in an organisation to
express their ideas and perceptions freely. This way the leader demonstrates ability to be
thoughtful in situations and dedication to reflect and carefully consider their responses, at the
end of it all it builds trust and hence those that follow the leader are happy. For example , in
Zimbabwe at Aye stock investments, the Sales Executive manager has developed a culture in
meetings whereby he picks on anyone in the floor to chair according to the agenda and the
person is able to say out their views whilst he sits like any other employee in the meeting
listening and then at the end of the meeting he concludes it all taking note of everyone ‘s
point and it has created a very workable environment for the workers and his subordinates are
not afraid to approach him even with any other issue.
Leaders who choose their words wisely, refraining from unnecessary chatter, can make a
more profound impact when they do actually speak. Silence can express confidence and self-
control for a leader, enhancing him or hers’ image as someone who is not swayed by every
passing impulse. Thoughtful pauses and deliberate silence can evoke an image of a wise
leader who possesses valuable insights and measured decision-making capabilities. An
example of a great leader who was known for a few words but a successful impact is Calvin
Coolidge (the 30 the president of the United states of America). Coolidge was distinguished
for character and his restoring of dignity and presidency when it had reached its lowest ebb in
history where was able to make United States experience a period of rapid economic growth
known as the ‘Roaring Twenties”. . He was well known for his frugality with words and he
became legendary in history.

Leaders who listen more and speak less in an organisation create an environment that fosters
diverse viewpoints and encourages innovation. Being able to actively listen to team members,
leaders can tap into the collective intelligence of their group, leading to more informed
decision-making. Listening attentively to others' ideas and feedback demonstrates respect and
encourages personal growth within the team.

Also by taking time to process information and avoiding hasty responses, leaders can make
better-informed decisions. Silence allows leaders to cautiously evaluate different options and
consider the potential consequences before making a decision. Additionally, leaders who
choose to remain silent when necessary demonstrate a sense of restraint and wisdom. They
understand that not every situation requires their input, and sometimes it is more beneficial to
let others speak or allow time for reflection and deliberation. When leaders are selective with
their words, their team members perceive them as strategic and reliable decision-makers,
fostering trust and confidence within the organization. For example when a company faces
negative feedbacks on social media from customers, a leader in the top management can
choose to respond aggressively or not but what most companies in Zimbabwe do is to
apologize and make sure the complaint has been responded to, for example companies like
DSTV Zimbabwe on their Facebook, Simbisa Brands are good examples of companies that
have leaders that are good decision makers, this being shown by them speaking less and
doing more.
Moreover, silence can be a powerful tool for leaders in certain situations. It can communicate
a sense of composure, thoughtfulness, and control, particularly during times of crisis or
conflict. By choosing not to speak impulsively or without sufficient information, leaders can
avoid making hasty or ill-informed decisions that may damage their reputation or the
organization they lead.

However, it is also important to note that the decision to remain silent should not be
interpreted as a complete avoidance of communication. Effective leaders strike a balance
between speaking up when necessary. Effective leaders understand the importance of
thoughtful communication. They recognize that their words carry weight and have the
potential to influence others. Therefore, they take the time to reflect on their message,
ensuring that what they say is relevant, meaningful, and aligns with their overall vision and
goals. By doing so, they can maintain their reputation as a leader who adds value and fosters
understanding. In the dominion of leadership, effective communication is often emphasized
as an important attribute. Leaders are expected to communicate their visions, ideas, and
decisions clearly and confidently. An example of a company that failed due to poor
communication is Nokia (one of the world’s dominant mobile phone manufacturer). There
was organisational fear, which was full of a culture of temperamental leaders and frightened
middle managers that were scared of telling the truth. Things were promised to be delivered
quickly instead of a long term vision to improve the operating system required and this
resulted in Nokia being out-innovated. A leader should be able to give clear instructions. It is
the responsibility of a leader to tell people what they should be doing (one-way
communication); in issues to do with standardized operating procedures, or when working
with trainees. The leader should only convey information when they are clear on what the
person should do, how they should do it, where to do it and when to do it. The leader
provides specific directions about roles and goals and closely tracks the followers’
performance in order to provide frequent feedback on results, for example at Mimosa Mining
Company, trainees are giving daily tasks to complete while having to follow a strict
operating procedure and closely monitored by a supervisor. Here follower lacks the
knowledge and skills when it comes to performing a specific task. On the other hand, the
employee is interested, enthusiastic about the task and ready to learn it (Henkel, 2018).

A leader should know when to convey information to allow to develop an employee's or a

person's decision making skills. Leaders should know when to alternate between styles
depending on their audience. Supporting/participating style the leader and the follower make
decisions together. The role of the leader is to facilitate, listen, encourage and support the
follower (Meier, 2016). For example, when a leader is working with staff who possesses
knowledge, skill and experience to perform a task but however is lacking consistency in
motivation. The leader would be there to validate the employee's decision and make minor
adjustments if needed.

John Bowden in his book Powerful Business Speechs:How to motivate and Persuade in every
business situation, put forth the idea that a business leader should make an informed decision
on whether to speak or not to speak upon invitation to speak based on various factors
(Bowden 2002). Accordingly before deciding on whether or not to speak when an
opportunity to make a speech arises, the business leader should consider whether the needs of
his intended audience are clearly defined and or not, whether these needs can be meet or are
not achievable to address during the speech giving (Bowden, 2002). Further, other factors
that a business leader needs to consider before go ahead in preparing and delivering a speech
are making a judgement on whether it is worth it for both the business leader and their
organization to conduct the speech, whether delivering the speech is the best media for
communicating the intended message and a sound judgement on the anticipated outcome of
the speech with a preference only given to speech delivery when pointers to the outcome
show that it would definitely bring the intended outcome(Bowden ,2002).

On making a decision on whether the needs of the intended needs of the audience are
attainable, the Director Xavier Africa once decided to completely refrain from making a
speech when pressurized by his company’s rowdy striking employees to give a speech since
he judged that a speech was inappropriate in that manner. He rather choose to defer the
opportunity to speak and allow for due processes from both the executive committee and
human resources department to be completely done before addressing the striking employees.
His judgement apart from agreeing to the John Bowden’s highlighted factor on the needs of
the audience also dovetailed with Joseph Ortiz’s step of investigation on the five steps to
consider when making speech preparation (Ortiz, 2019). Joseph Ortiz proposed that the five
steps in making a speech should be –

1) Think – in this phase the writer should brainstorm the rationale for the making the
speech, thereby considering the key message the speech is supposed to deliver. There
is also need for analysis of the audience and situation to ensure that the speech is
 tailor made for both the audience and the situation at hand (situational analysis of the
speech).
2) Investigate – Before conducting a poorly planned speech the speech giver must
investigate relevant information that feeds into his/her speech to ensure it is based on
solid foundation. For example when address labour issues, the Managing Director of
CRP Botswana always ensures that he is up-to-date with the Employment Act and its
supporting regulations and other ministerial guidance notes on Labour issues before
issuing prouncements through speeches.
3) Compose – In this phase of speech preparation, the main points to be addressed are
clearly identified, presentation aids like pictures, objects or video are incorporated
having given consideration to the necessity of their impacts in delivering the message,
preparation of a captivating introduction and the final unforgettable conclusion.
Bowden also suggests that in composing a speech the presenter must be careful how
he/she chooses presentation aids and not get overshadowed by the presentation aids,
he also goes to mention that the business leader should ensure that his closing remarks
mustn’t be a weak fading off but rather highly impactful as people always remember
the final word. The Group President of the Harare based Mital Holdings, Mr. Steven
Mangunda always deliveries impactful opening and closing remarks in his marketing
presentations that lives his audience yearning to get engaged with both him and his
business.
4) Rehearse – It might be necessary for one to rehearse or practice the speech delivery
with a mock audience before facing the actual audience. Rehearsal allows one to
obtain feedback and make adjustments on issues like voice, physical body movements
and the usage of presentation aids.
5) Revise – On this stage the business leader planning to make the speech should revise
how he is going to make the presentation, and what he/she shall be presenting based
on the feedback he/she would have obtained from the mock audience. In board
meetings of Mascom it is common for Directors to make their presentation to the the
board as its intended to be, board members listening can propose which information
should be removed or added from the draft presentation having given consideration to
the issues that are at hand, for example certain unnecesarily alarming information that
may cause unneccesary panic to the audience is normally removed or toned down so
as not to create anxiety.
If a business leader has analysed the situation and various factors surrounding the potential
business speech leading him/her to go ahead with the speech, he/she should give ample time
plus resources to the speech preparation process as well as speech delivery planning to ensure
that the eventual speech he/she delivers inspires and positively influences the audiences
towards the ultimate intended speech important purpose (Bowden, 2002). The business leader
will therefore need to infuse the following factors of a clear, focused, well prepared, and
interesting in the creation and delivery of his/her speech and to this is attained by put the
following factors into consideration as well(Bowden ,2002):

1) Focusing on the desired outcome of the speech

The speech’s central theme should the intended outcome or result and the business
leader preparing and delivering the speech should make a conscious decision not to
deviate away from this in order to achieve the intended goal of the specific theme.
The Sales Manager of Old Mutual has mastered the art of preparing and delivering
inspirational speeches at quarterly meeting for the Life insurance financial advisors
team by making sure that he continually reads books that are motivational especially
industry specific books that are intended to motivate Insurance Sales agents to boost
sales.

2) Analysing the audience

Just as Joseph Ortiz put across under the think phase as already spelt out, the
business leader preparing to make a speech must analyse his/her audience to ensure
he/she makes the right decision on the best way to put across what the audience
actually needs. The business must therefore seek to understand the knowledge level,
expectation and composition of his/her upcoming audience (Bowden, 2002). In his
book How to give a Speech, Gary Genard shared similar sentiments when he said that
the first position is that one need to understand his audience and NOT the topic
(Genard, 2007). He further stated that this understanding of the audience can be
achieved by answering the following three questions in order to prepare an
appropriate message

A) Who is the audience?

b) What information or type of persuasion will they respond to?

c) What is the best method of giving that to them (Genard, 2007).

 Bowden states that a leader must appreciate that a business speech must move
outwardly from the current status of the audience to the wider scene and not inwardly
from where the speech is (Bowden 2002), a sentiment equally shared by Genard who
said you must start with the audience and NOT the topic otherwise it would be a case
of putting the cart before the horse (Genard, 2007). The Managing Director of First
Sun Alliance Insurance Brokers, Mr Paul Chitate, an accomplished Financial Advisor
in his own right and a great speech giver has mastered the art of analysing his
audience as he has often delivered speech to various groups from different professions
and backgrounds like professional Doctors Associations, engineers, farmers,
corporates boards and in all his speeches he makes sure he builds the speech from the
worldview,norms, values and body of knowledge of those in attendance which easily
gets him an easy buy-in of those in attendance.

3) Relating the Intended Outcome to the audience

The delivery of the speech should be done in a manner that result oriented by being
both audience and outcome centred (Bowden, 2002). To achieve this the speaker
ought to ensure his/her speech is both relevant and comfortable to the audience’s state
of mind frame to allow for easy absorption and assimilation of the information being
shared. The speaker should accept the diversity in the audience and seek to use
different media sources like slides, audio and visual aid without demanding
participation from the attendees but allow for voluntarism (Bowden, 2002). Genard
states that the speaker should show the audience goodwill by giving a clear acceptable
and concerned impression that you are speaking for the benefit of the audience and
not for self-fulfilment (Genard, 2007). He went further to state that a good speaker
avoids being a speaker who enjoys listening to their own voice at the expense of not
relaying the intended message. A speech delivered by the Managing Director of
Coronation Solutions (Private) Limited, Ms. Wadzanayi B Phiri in August 2019 titled
“Disruptive thinking for the Insurance Industry” and the accompanying PowerPoint
slides clearly showed that the presenter had taken time to ensure that her presentation
related clearly the intended message to the various stakeholders it was meant for
which were the insurance industry Regulator, both Short Term & Long Term Insurers,
Insurance Brokers, Agents and Pension Funds (Phiri 2019)
 Bowden also advises that adding humor to the speech helps in relaxing people and
creates a memorable visual image in the listener’s mind allowing your audience to
keep reflecting on the message for a long time after the speech delivery day. Jeff
Fleming once wrote in the Professional Speaker, the journal of the National Speakers
Association in the United States of America “Humor makes an audience more
receptive to your message, improves retention of points made, reduces tension,
improves creativity and provides entertainment value to any presentation.”
Accomplished Zimbabwean Gospel preacher and business man, Prophet Emmanuel
Makandiwa is one person who has mastered the art of infusing humorous jokes to
messages both in the business or spiritual sphere.

4) Remaining on the message

This basically means commencing by clearing stating the message you intend to pass
on and supporting the message with supporting facts and must never be done from the
supporting facts first(Bowden 2002). Genard says a business speaker should stay cool,
focused on the message by being abundantly clear on the one vital message he needs
to put across and keeping the supporting evidence to a critical minimum and being
very alert not to take too long a time in delivering it since people tend to loss focus of
losing overtime(Genard 2007). The speaker should deliberately repeat the core
message of his/her speech through the speech to ensure that the message sticks in the
mind of the listeners and were possible condense the message into an easy to
memorise sentence or phrase that the audience will not forget after the speech has
been delivered(Bowden 2002). A speech giver should be very clear of his/her key
message which is the cornerstone that the speech is built upon and which must
ultimately ensure those in the audience are invoked to make a positive change (Evans
2015). Both Bowden and Evans agree that the key message should be repeated
throughout the message with further emphasising that the key message should be
magnified both in the opening and closing of the speech.

The President and CEO of Berkshire Hathway, US Billionaire Warren Buffet, has
mastered the art of ensuring his speeches are key on his messages and he always
ensures that his audience, be it members of the press, investors or corporate
 executives do not struggle to glean out his message whenever he makes speech but
clearly highlights his vital message whether it be risk on stocks, expected growth in
certain investments or the results on past performance and the impacts on the future
business outlook. Similarly, the Group Chief Executive Officer at First Mutual
Holdings, Douglas Hoto, has proven to be a distinguished leader who is able to
deliver impactful messages during his meetings with executives leading the key
strategic business units in the group by being clear on the key vital message particular
to a given SBU.

5) Putting the right slant to the message

It is fundamentally important to pick the appropriate tone and length to a specific

subject matter and group of listeners in the audience (Bowden 2002). Depending on
how formal the meeting is, the composition of the audience, the issue to be addressed
the Speaker should weigh all these various factors and pick the most appropriate tone
and message slant suitable in the situation. The Managing Director of Sirius Insurance
Brokers is a fiercely seasoned marketing guru in his own right and address various
audience varying from formal engagement with company executives of potential and
existing clients to informal marketing presentations on the golf course on golf days.
He has mastered to use relaxed, informal language in his presentation on the golf
course to an audience of executives who have come to relax but swiftly turns to being
very formal when making boardroom presentations to corporate executive in a formal
meeting settings.

An effective business leader must be able to prepare and present speeches which
inspire, motivate, innovate, influence and move the audience. When one crafts a
speech he or she must think like a listener. People always remember when their minds
are stimulated rightly. The brain can be stimulated by use of pictures, audio visuals
and even storytelling. This then helps to keep ones ‘audience captivated. At the end of
the speech, your audience must be left challenged or with much thought to what
would have been delivered.
In conclusion, the quote emphasizes that leaders should carefully consider their words and
recognize the value of thoughtful communication. Choosing not to speak when it adds little
substance can protect a leader's reputation and credibility. Choosing not to speak at times can
speak volumes about a leader's character, reinforcing their reputation and influence. In an era
where noise and information overload prevail, the leader who appreciates the value of silence
possesses a distinct advantage in leaving a lasting positive impression on their team and
stakeholders. By thoughtfully selecting their words, actively listening, and knowing when to
remain silent, leaders can create a positive impact, inspire trust, and effectively guide their
teams towards success.
References
Bowden, J (2002) Powerful Business Speechs: How to motivate and persuade in every
business situation, 2nd edn, UBS Publishers
Ortiz, J (2019) A Five-Step Model for Speech Preparation, viewed 01 June
2023https://community.macmillanlearning.com/t5/communication-blog/a-five-step-model-
for-speech-preparation/ba-p/5229#
Fleming, J (2005), “Observational Humour: Seeing What Others Are Thinking,”Professional
Speaker, November 2005.

Meier, D., (2016). Situational leadership theory as a foundation for a blended learning
framework. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(10), pp.25-30.

Henkel, T. and Bourdeau, D., (2018). A field study: An examination of managers’ situational
leadership styles. Journal of Diversity Management (JDM), 13(2), pp.7-14.

Genard, G (2007) “HOW TO GIVE A SPEECH” Cedar & Maitland Press, Arlington.

Evans, L (2015) “Whats the point? Ensure your speech has a key message” viewed on 04
June 2023 <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-point-ensure-your-speech-has-key-
message-lisa-evans/>