Evaluating FDR's Leadership

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to this day, is considered on of the greatest leaders to come into the Presidency. He truly knew his audience, the American People, and what their pains were during the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt pioneered the way Presidents talk to their constituency. FDR gave what would be called "Fireside Chats", in which Mr.Roosevelt sat in front of a fire place in the White House and address the American public through radio.


Here is the first Fireside Chat given by FDR talking about the topics in the last post:

	Franklin Delano Roosevelt - First Fireside Chat .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

The reason FDR was able to effectively leade the American People out of the Great Depression was because of his ability to understand his audience. In the Fireside Chats, “Eighty percent of the words” in the chats “were among the 1000 most commonly used words in the English vocabulary” and used “stories, anecdotes, and analogies to explain the complex issues facing the country” (“70th Anniversary of FDR's Fireside Chats”).
 A good leader is someone who truly understands the audience and their problems and tries to connect with the audience in basic terms. FDR did not attempt to put on airs and talk down to the American People but rather used words that everyone knew so that his message was clear

Source:
The Museum of Broadcast Communications article on the 70th Anniversary of FDR's Fireside Chats