A Rhetorical Analysis Of Simon Sinek's TED Talk

Simon Sinek conducted a TED Talk titled “How great leaders inspire action” in May 2010. Sinek was able to engage the audience’s attention towards his main idea of what made past leaders or current effective. Sinek maintains a great amount of eye contact with his audience and uses great vocal variety. He creates a conversational tone which is stern and serious, yet motivational and inspiring. Sinek’s body language showed excitement and confidence while speaking on his topic regarding leadership. His delivery method look manuscript and well prepared. He did have a microphone issue, but with a moment of switching, he continued effortlessly. He lacked sharing personal experiences, but was still able to prove his points by using other resources

By starting with a comparative idea, he is able to develop a mental connection with his audience. He then creates credibility by sharing and explaining his theory. Sinek uses current and past events to explain why people make decision and choice. He does not state the sources of the facts or stories he uses, but tries to use information in which his target audience of future leaders can relate or understand. He explains the biological reason of why people follow or do something by using verbal imagery and his whiteboard. He uses the examples of Apple’s iPhone purchases and its advertising. That reinforced the idea of why people follow Apple because people believe in Apple’s company mission of why they create great products, not the what. In Sinek’s closing, he explains why people travel from far places to be apart of the Civil Right Movement and that belief in the cause was the motivation. Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader just helped supply that belief like a great leader does. Sinek did not ask for anything from the audience, but did imply that the audience takes in his words if they want followers to believe in what they do. His closing note was really inspirational, but not came somewhat without a