The language we use in business and leading people matters! Much as we have evolved with the way people work, with flexibility and remote working and the way business dress codes have evolved, so too should we evolve the language us, achieving a deeper level of understanding around the psychology of language and how this impacts performance.
As we now engage across multi generational employee mixes, it is important to recognise how we use language to connect, create understanding and impact outcomes, in a way that resonates and inspires.
Ask the vast majority of people what they hear when you say KPI’s and you will hear a variety of responses, typically with rolling eyes, expressions such as sighs and ‘Urgh’, people switching off completely or visible retracted body language. This is because KPI’s are largely associated with micro management, low trust from employers, non strategic or lacking purpose, spreadsheet management technique and highly transactional.
Try talking about goals, destination and the road to get there and then build in milestones to be celebrated along the way and see the difference in how this lands with people, how they respond and very importantly – how they feel about the change in language.
Why Does the Language you use Matter ?
People no longer want to work within organisations who measure outcomes through data measurements and based on only the bottom line, although no one is arguing that these matter and rather that they should be a part of the whole sum and not the basis of every conversation we have with employees.
There is an art to linking business goals to individual’s performance goals and these should also include a link to individual’s personal aspirations and ‘genuine purpose’ for both the individual and organisation. ‘Failure to connect individual’s to purpose and shared goals within a business will result in performance failure and/ dis engagement’.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/psychology-of-language-communicate-more-effectively
Observation , Self Reflection & Check in’s:
When was the last time you stopped to think about the language you use with your team?
When did you check how this lands with your team/ really stop to observe body language and understand how people are responding to the words you use?
Is the Psychology of Language part of your emerging leaders programmes/ something your organisation and you invest in for yourself and others?
Taking time to really listen, observe and adapt your language will absolutely pay dividends and you may find that the engagement and responsiveness of your people changes as a result, with minimal effort required. Self development in this space is often under rates and yet language is the cornerstone of communication and key to all of our relationships and interactions so perhaps we should all spend more time, energy and care developing ourselves and others in this space and setting up our leaders for the future, to be agile, constantly evolving and adapting to our environments and meeting the needs of a changing world of work.
