Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don't

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Here is the key difference: Thinking benefits from embracing variability. Doing benefits from reducing variability. In his book David gives six plays that all leaders should use to improve how their teams operate. He says a big problem with leaders today is that they are trapped in an industrial-age playbook. In the industrial age leaders gave commands and employees followed, and that was it. But that way of leading is no longer effective, it is outdated. In a complex, fast-changing world, long-term survival is more about adaptation than achievement” (p. 287). The red-blue operating system gives organizations and leaders the tools to adapt. The Strategic Discipline Blog focuses on midsize business owners with a ravenous appetite to improve his or her leadership skills and business results. The book's title initially threw me off, and I assumed that it would stress more about being sympathetic and empathetic. But this was so much more than that. It's about the words you use to make a subtle difference which can do wonders later on.

Language Sunk the El Faro – Leadership is Language How Language Sunk the El Faro – Leadership is Language

The transcription from the conversations between crew members serves as an example of the failure of language. The organizational culture failed the crew members and led to their demise. “Encouraging people to speak up, or even ‘empowering’ them with statements like ‘don’t hesitate to change course’ in an environment of top-down decision-making, simply does not work” (p. 25). The situation steadily worsened, but El Faro had committed to the exposed Atlantic side of the Bahamas eighteen hours earlier. It would have only one more chance to seek shelter on the other side of the Bahamas, at 1:00 Thursday morning. This was fast approaching. About two hours prior to reaching this point, the third mate, on watch, called the captain with a report of the storm’s location and a suggestion: turn south. Here are the words from the third mate to the captain over the internal phone at 11:05 p.m.: Saving El Faro. Had they been enabled by “the power of connection,” the crew and captain of El Faro would have used language more effectively and constructively, and the outcome would have been entirely different.

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The New Playbook. In a playbook that changes the language and approach of how we work together, all the team members work together in both decision-making and doing. Discussion is open, and workers are involved in evaluating and guiding goals and processes alongside leaders. For the book’s purposes: bluework is defined as decision-making work, and redwork is defined as “doing” work. Connect, don't conform: Flatten hierarchies in your organization and connect with your people to encourage them to contribute to decision-making.

Leadership in the Workplace | Factsheets | CIPD Leadership in the Workplace | Factsheets | CIPD

When an organization repeatedly enforces the idea that people should do as they're told without question or suffer consequences, they learn to be absolutely certain that each action is correct before taking it.The story is compelling today because of the disastrous consequences of continuing to use industrial age language (red work) when now, we need to focus on innovating and thinking (blue work) differently Considering the distinction between individual leaders' styles and leadership as a process, two types of activities are required: The El Faro and many workplaces operate with a playbook left over from the Industrial Age, which focuses on coercion, doing (not thinking), reducing variability, complying, and conforming to roles. Let's say you decide you no longer want to eat sweets, vet at the end of a long day you are faced with a bowl of sweets. You can consider two options for self-talk. You can tell yourself you can't eat sweets or that you don't The End of Redwork: Complete. Your language should center around reaching the goal, not endlessly slogging along the conveyor belt as is, even if things are not working. As the work continues – and options diminish – there will be less bluework and more redwork. “Rest and celebrate” when a goal is achieved.

Leadership Is Language – Admired Leadership Leadership Is Language – Admired Leadership

The book has some solid concepts around how people use language and how that affects people around them. A lot of it is centered around the idea of moving away from Industrial-euro ways of operating where doing the work is separate from thinking about the work. Marquet defines seven areas of work that need to shift, both on the doing and thinking side. And he provides plenty of examples to help picture the range of possibilities. Words are important,” said Isaac Oates, CEO of Justworks, an HR, benefits and payroll platform. “It’s through our words that we communicate our intentions.” he's kind of collecting the verses/ideas/best practices here and there. Then he puts them together but does not have a flow between them.If someone else had to take over this project, what would you say tot hem to make it even more successful?