Effective Alliteration with HBR Article on 4C’s of Leadership

I was on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) website reading an article on leadership. The fun and also illustrative image below first caught my eye. Then the article title grabbed my attention — “Great Leaders Are Confident, Connected, Committed, and Courageous.”

“What a great example of alliteration,” I thought to myself.

If you were on the HBR site, would you have noticed the image? Would the image alone inspire you to click on the article?

What about the title?  Would you have noticed the 4 C’s of [C]onfident, [C]onnected, [C]ommitted, and [C]ourageous? Would you have noticed it was repetition, specifically alliteration? Would the title alone inspire you to click on the article?

How about seeing the image and the title together? Would they inspire you to click on the article?

In my travels, people often do not realize what words they use when speaking. They do realize what words they use when writing. In addition, people do not realize the power of repetition and in this case, alliteration. Repetition is one of the easiest and best ways to increase the impact of what you say, write, and post online.

Did you notice the various uses of repetition in this blog post?

Directly below, you will find links to several figures of speech, most of them repetition. I strongly encourage you to include (more) these in:

1. What you say – team meetings, public speaking, training, sales/outreach, stories (e.g., workplace, business, organization)
2. What you write – emails, blogs, literature, brochures, case studies, past performance, and website
3. What you post online – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram

REPETITION FIGURES OF SPEECH WITH EXAMPLES

• Anadiplosis (repetition)
• Anaphora (easy to use, powerful form of repetition)
• Epiphora (repetition)
• Epizeuxis (easy to use, high impact repetition)
• Onomatopoeia (using sounds to make your communication more compelling)

FURTHER READING ON LANGUAGE AND WORDS

• Avoid the Word “Anxious”
• Avoid the Word “Believe”
• Leave Your “But” Behind – Strengthen Your Communication
• Avoid the Words “In Short”
• Avoid the Word “Strive” – Reduces Your Effectiveness