blog 2 (12-6-11)

Pericles was asked to give a speech at a commemoration of a death of a soldier in the Athenian battle, and his speech was an example of how he was an effective leader. What he did first in his speech was both relate to the audience, and get them on their side. An effective way to do that in a speech is explain how you understand them and empathize for them, and truly why they should follow you. Pericles mentioned how speaking at event like that was a lose-lose situation, because you either underwhelm the audience, or overwhelm them; it is always impossible to find a balance. He further explained how just because someone is an eloquent speaker, does not mean they have the right intentions or the right ideas. On the reverse, just because someone is not a fantastic public speaker, does not mean they care any less for a person, or are intending to insult anyone. Pericles then continued to speak about why being proud about our ancestors is beneficial in all aspects of leading, and also how they are all united. In order to motivate his followers, he convinced them to be proud about their history and past, in order to pursue and go forward on things. An important element to being a leader is to give a reason why your people should continue and battle onward. Another vital component to being a leader is to enforce how everyone is together, and the leader is not much higher than an ordinary person. Pericles implemented in his people that they should want to fight because their ancestors had a proud past, and they should continue that tradition in order to motivate themselves and their comrades. Pericles was an effective leader because he gave humane and smart  reasons behind all his intentions, and for everything he asked his people to do. To continue, Pericles then convinced his audience that they are just great. He enforced that they should protect themselves because they are just so fantastic and fragile. I think this is both and good and a bad tactic. He went into explaining how his form of governing is one that everyone else uses as an example and admires, and others base their government off of his. This is important because it proves he is confident in himself and his leadership, and he does not follow other people, yet other people follow him because he is just that brilliant. He thinks/knows that he is fair, and excellent, and he strongly believes he is not the one to start the wars, he is the one to defend and let people come to him. I know his intentions were not to get cocky, although if you are an over confident leader, than your followers will go into a situation thinking they will succeed, and if they fail they might blame it on you. They might put the blame on you because you told them how great they were, and then when put into a real situation, they were not as great as you told them. However, I think that Pericles was an effective and intelligent leader, and his positive governing tactics overwhelm the things he needed to improve on, and that is not easily true for lots of leaders. Overall, Pericles was an exceptional persuader, had rational intentions, and he motivated his people.