Martin Luther King: Masterful Listener

As we remember the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday, his "I have a dream" oratory still rings in our ears. But few of us know that King was also a consummate listener; and that in fact his speech made history only once he let go of his scripted remarks, allowed himself to "listen to the listening," and gave voice to his audience's innermost desires. That makes for transcendent leadership.

Martin Luther King's last words of his 1963 speech at the Washington Mall, in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln's statue, before some 250,000 people, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last," are still among the most powerful expressions of unleashing the human spirit almost half a century later.

The oratory of Dr. King ranks with the great speeches in history, alongside Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" during the Great Depression, and Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" inaugural address.

There is a moment in King's speech, halfway through, where according to communications professor Margaret Zulick at Wake Forest University, King completely abandoned his prepared text and never referred to it again.

"There's a spot where there's actually an incomplete sentence, which is very rare for King," Professor Zulick notes on Voice of America. "And he misses a beat:  'I say to you today, my friends – so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow . . . '"

If you have 18 minutes, watch this video of King's "I have a dream" speech. You will see the moment where King moves away from his script and starts "dancing" with the audience.



It may well be King's listening, at least as much as his speaking, that made him a transcendent leader who altered the course of history. 

King had learned early on to read audiences of every composition.

Again and again, he was able to stand in the shoes of others, whether it was his church congregation or the AFL-CIO or John F. Kennedy, see the world from their point of view, and address what they needed to hear to mobilize for decisive action.

And that, my friends, is leadership of the highest order.

What do you think? What do you learn from Martin Luther King? What is your own dream? And how could you apply his listening practice to your own leadership? I look forward to reading you on http://thomaszweifel.blogspot.com/.

P.S. To learn more about Martin Luther King and effective listening, check out "Communicate or Die: Getting Results Through Speaking and Listening."