John Wooden
I found out about John Wooden mainly from the self-help sort of books I've been exploring previously and I know only that he was an UCLA coach for basketball and that he offered great leadership lessons and stories for people to write about. I was keen on finding more about him only to discover that he spoke on TED before!. I found his talk on 'True Success' both intriguing and extremely poetic. I've never felt so interested in poetry before and after listening to his poetic style of speech I was immediately drawn to the use of poetry to convey messages and convince people of useful lessons.
His style is definitely different from Dan Gilbert but way more useful in the humble convincing sense. One feels that John Wooden respects you as an individual as he speaks and also finds him speaking with authority in his humble tone. To me, it's just amazing to be able to make people feel that way. I'll definitely consider reading some of his books on leadership and personal development.