It’s well documented that
successful business leader’s lead by example. By modelling the types of
behaviour they want their employees to live by, better known as, “Walking the
talk.” They create the environment and build a culture within the business that
leads to success. Sometimes though, it is not just about the actions the leader
takes; it is also about the language they use and we should never underestimate
the power of words and the negative effect that words can sometimes have.
The key to making business
growth less stressful, more successful and sustainable is to grow the people within
the business so that are able to play their part in growing the business. In
other words, by empowering the people to reach their goals they become more committed,
engaged and productive and that will lead to the business achieving its goals.
So Mind
your language!
Here are some seemingly
harmless statements that can become barriers to employee engagement and empowerment:
·
Can’t
you see I’m busy? You have all these balls to
juggle and you have your plan for the day and someone turns up with, “I have a
problem, have you got a minute?” It is (at best) an inconvenience and very
rarely takes just a minute. Problem is that when you say you are 'too busy' to
deal with that now, that person will be hearing, “I am too busy for YOU!” These
situations occur normally because they are not planned for. What time of the
day do you have scheduled for your team to knock on your door? Have you trained
your team to think through a problem before they present it to you for
instance: “When you come to speak to me about an issue bring along at least
three solutions that you have for that particular issue.” This will give the
team member time to think it through and better formulate their thoughts or maybe
even drop the subject if it’s not important.
·
Let
me do it. Sometimes, as leaders, it
is easy to have a Superman Complex; no one can do it as well as me, so I might
as well do it myself. There are several challenges with this thought. It is not
your job to do your employees job. Worse though, it may send the message, “I
don’t think you’re capable of doing it.”
Every time you do it you are educating your employees to continue
disturbing you and not think for themselves. You are seriously getting in their
way of them learning for themselves. You are also in danger of seriously
stunting the growth of your business because you can’t do it all!
·
It's
above your pay grade. Normally said when a leader
is having a challenge finding a solution to a problem. Sometimes though, a
different perspective will provide a solution. When we are ‘in the problem,’ it
is sometimes difficult to see outside the problem. A fresh pair of eyes will see
things we may not be able too, because they are looking at it from a different
angle. Consider coming at this from the point of view of “None of us is as
smart as all of us.” However, if the problem truly is above their pay grade, it
may be better to say, “I’m still thinking this through.”
·
You’re
not very good at your job. There
may be a great deal of truth in the statement, but it doesn’t really help
anyone. At some level the employee will know they are not performing well
enough. So the statement should be about performance and not aimed at shaming
them. Better to have non emotional fact based metric for instance: your goal
was to produce z by y and you’re only at x. Then it’s a case of looking at ways
of improving performance or allowing them to become successful for one of your
competitors because they are not a good fit for your company.
So
what are you going to do this week to mind your language?
Thoughts:
“Communication works for those who
work at it”…John Powell
“The biggest communication problem
is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply”…Unknown
“People may hear your words but
they feel your attitude”…John Maxwell
“Communication – the human
connection is the key to personal and career success”…Paul
J. Meyer
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