You’ve heard the “Popeye” speech, right? That’s when someone essentially says, “I yam what I yam! I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. I don’t need to think about HOW to say something!” In this episode, Kathy explains why that point of view is a mistake if you want to advance your ideas, advance your career, or simply become a better leader. She also gives you 3 reasons why words and communication are such an important tool in the leadership tool box.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
Well, hello everyone! Welcome back to another episode of Words and Power.
This episode is one of our introductory ones where we will be talking about a foundational concept—the concept of “words”.
Now if you listened to our previous introductory episode called “What You Can Expect”, you’ll know that generally our episodes are short and pragmatic, with some easy-to-execute tips and strategies on the skills of influence, persuasion and presence.
We take that approach because my goal is to see you move into action…..for this information actually help grow your own influence and power.
However, as we also discussed in our previous episode, occasionally we’ll look at our mindsets around some fundamental leadership concepts.
It’s when we develop some powerful mindsets that we also see some of those big “a-ha” moments……when something shifts a little for us and we suddenly start seeing something in a new way. Those are the moments that can take our game to a whole new level and accelerate the growth of our skills.
In this episode we’ll be looking at one of the concepts in the title of this podcast. Why is it called Words and Power? And in particular, why is the concept of “Words” so important that it’s in the title of this show?
Often this question comes up when I start working with a senior leader as his coach.
I sometimes run into those great very blunt leaders who wants to know why using our words intentionally is so important.
Usually, he or she will give me some variation of the “Popeye speech”. You know what I mean by the Popeye speech, right? It’s when someone who says “I yam who I yam. I say what I mean—I mean what I say. I don’t need to know or think about anything else related to communication.” I’m always looking around their office for the pipe and the can of spinach when they say that.
Well, technically that person is right. You don’t HAVE to invest time in becoming a better communicator.
But if you’re planning to advance your ideas, advance your career, or simply become a better leader, you better think twice.
Words and communication are an incredibly important tool in the leadership tool box, and most of us instinctively know that…..even if we haven’t yet thought about how we use that tool. So in this episode, let me give you 3 very compelling reasons why this is so.
Reason # 1: Words are the primary way we DO our jobs. In fact, you could say that talking and writing IS your job.
For many of us, if you were to record all of your activities during the day, the biggest category by far would be talking, writing, and listening. You’d be on the phone, in meetings, having one-on-ones with colleagues, customers, consultants, shareholders. Or you’d be writing memos, reports, analyses, and presentations.
And the higher up you go in a organization—particularly a large organization—the more of your day is spent using words…… or generating ideas and using words to get others to support those ideas.
Think about that. The majority of our work life is an activity that we often do without a clear plan, without considering what works and what doesn’t work, and without any intention of getting better.
Imagine an athlete showing up for a game without intentional training and practice. Pretty ludicrous, right? And yet to a large extent, that’s what many of us do in our work life.
BUT there’s a big silver lining in this for you, my friends! Let’s continue to imagine a sports world where athletes just show up for a game, where they don’t bother to intentional train and practice. Got that image in your head?
Now let’s imagine one crazy athlete who says “Hey, wait a minute! Maybe I can spend some of my free time learning and practicing a few new skills for the game.” And she goes off and does just that.
How does that athlete start showing up in her sport? She starts performing better, faster, stronger.
That’s what happens when you start working on an important skill, particularly when no one else. Suddenly you take your game to a new level and start outperforming your peers. You have new credibility and can accomplish new things that were beyond your grasp before.
So what does that mean for you?
In a work world that doesn’t pay much attention to how powerful words and language can be, be that crazy athlete.
Be the person that invests a little time to learn new influence and persuasion skills, when no one else is doing that.
Over time….and sometime even immediately…the return on your investment will astonish you.
OK, Reason #2 why working on our words and language is so important? It can actually grow your insight, judgment and skills in other areas of leadership.
Whaaat?! This is such a cool and very powerful dynamic, my friends, one that’s been observed for years and that studies in neuroscience have confirmed.
How does it work? Well most of you probably already know, that the neural pathways in our brains can be affected both positively and negatively by a variety of inputs---our experiences, our injuries, even our body chemistry and hormonal balance.
Often those inputs are not easily in our control, so our ability to hack our brains…..to take intentional action to actually grow and strengthen our neural pathways is somewhat limited and can even be risky.
But that’s not so with words and language.
Words and language are something we can intentionally control, and our brains are wired to be highly responsive to them.
This is something that leadership coaches are aware of and use to help our clients grow new or stronger capacities.
We know if we can encourage them to use new patterns of speech, they will start to develop new patterns of thought.
And if they develop new patterns of thought, they will start strengthening or growing new neural pathways.
For example, when I’m working with a leader who wants to be more of a strategic thinker, I show him or her some cool language techniques that are typical of the way strategic thinkers talk. If my client practices TALKING that way, he or she eventually starts to THINK that way.
In other words, that client has used language to change his or her brain. That same ability to transform and grow your brain is available to you…..and it’s as simple as investing a little time in how you use words and language.
You know, I’ve been using the lens of neuroscience and specifically the lens of brain plasticity to discuss this concept about how our use of language can actually change our brains.
But the Persian poet Hafez also talked about this concept, and of course he said more succinctly and gracefully than I just have.
He said, “ The words you speak become the house you live in.”
“The words you speak become the house you live in.”
What kind of house do you want to live in? A house where you reach you full potential and have the influence and power to accomplish meaningful things? Then invest some time in thinking about the words and language you’re using to a achieve your goals.
And finally, the last reason I have for you today as to why working on words and language is so important is this…………it’s pretty darn easy.
When you’re a busy and talented executive in a leadership role, “easy” can be a godsend.
There’s always a lot to learn........and not a lot of time to do it in. You have to make wise choices as to where you invest our time.
You’re always asking yourself: “What aspect of leadership will give me the highest ROI. What can be mastered quickly? What can produce game-changing results?”
When working with my C-suite clients, the answer to those questions is to focus part of our work together on the effective use of words and language.
It’s low-hanging fruit. It’s relatively easy to learn and implement nifty language tricks, and it’s fun to see the immediate and positive impact it has on the organization.
Not only that, but the energy we get from those quick wins can motivate us to tackle some of the other tougher leadership goals we have set.
There’s a lesson in there for all of us……if you want to take significant strides in growing yourself as a leader, try working on some easy and simple language techniques first. You’ll start to experience some quick wins and it will energize you to grow yourself even more.
OK, my friends—that’s it for our episode today. I’ll see you in our next introductory episode where we talk about the concept of Power. Oooooh, that’s a good one, isn’t it? One of those words that provoke strong feelings, right? Let’s have some fun with that in the next episode……or if you prefer, you can skip ahead to one of more tips and tricks episode to start trying a few things out.
In any event, hope to see you soon!