Effective leadership and strong executive presence come from more than a strong business plan or deft resource allocation. They also grow from your ability to connect, inspire, and galvanize a team to move the company forward. The words you choose have incredible power to either engage or alienate, so being conscious of your language and its effect is critical.
Take a moment to read the following sentences:
Today, I will begin with a 30,000-foot view of leadership language before drilling down to reveal the power of word choice to either enhance or disenhance executive presence. There are times when the words we use are really harmful to the message being delivered and, therefore, lead to a disconnect between the speaker or writer and audience, vis-à-vis the intended effect.
These may not be too far off from what you’ve heard in presentations or read in emails. The language alienates the reader by committing four Leadership Language Blunders:
1. Jargon. Use of jargon such as “30,000-foot view” and “deep dive” or created words like “disenhance,” while convenient, can immediately alienate the listener, signaling that they are listening to business-speak that may not require their full attention. In many cases, jargon is the business language equivalent of a teenager inserting “like” or “umm” between every other word. Next time you catch yourself relying on jargon or catchphrases as fillers, challenge yourself to find a different way to convey the idea. You will engage, and even surprise, the listener or reader.
2. Lack of specificity. Use of words such as “really,” “a lot,” or even “many” can indicate that you are glossing over a gap in data or information. Challenge yourself to go a bit deeper. In the sentences above, how can words be “really” harmful to the message? What does that look and feel like? The more specific your language, the more powerful your message will be.
3. Complexity. One of the greatest challenges in leadership communication is expressing complex ideas in a simple, comprehensible way. The sentences above demonstrate the converse of that by muddying a simple idea with convoluted sentence structure. Words like “vis-à-vis” or “therefore” are almost never necessary. See how economical you can be with your phrasing and notice how much stronger your statements become.
4. Focus on the speaker. Inspiring language is always focused on the reader or listener. By starting with “I,” the first sentence indicates to the reader that the writer is more concerned with their message than its importance to the reader. Look through your next email and compare the number of times “I” appears to the number of times “you” appears. If “I” appears more often, see if you can refocus the communication on the listener and why your message is relevant to them. How does it affect them and how can they get involved?
Leadership language engages by expressing complex business ideas in simple human terms without sacrificing specificity. It is personal, plainspoken and passionate. Steve Jobs mastered this art as did Lee Iacocca as he worked to turn Chrysler around. Both leaders delivered their messages simply and powerfully in a way that engaged the listener and made complicated ideas or plans accessible and relatable. They made it look effortless, but that level of communication comes from a strong awareness of language’s power to inspire or alienate and from constant practice.
For a great example of clear, specific language, we love Lee Iacocca’s introduction of the Ford Mustang in 1964. And Steve Jobs’ introduction of the first iPhone is a master class in how to engage the audience by keeping complicated ideas simple.