Leader sent(i)ence

There is more leadership effectiveness wrapped up in the clarity of the simple sentence than most people appreciate.

That capital letter denoting the start of a new and discrete sentence is so important. It is a way-marker, a new starting line in the sand. The full stop/period (with the additional potential flavours of exclamation or question) rounds it out and consolidates the frame. The boundaries -- and therefore what is in and what is out -- are now clear.

The spaces used within sentences also matter a great deal. Too many of those and you get word confetti; too few and things can get very blocky and cumbersome.

The word "sentence" comes to us from the original "sense" (or Latin sensus - denoting perception, feeling, undertaking, or meaning). The additional notions of opinion and judgement came along not long after. Interestingly, the original Proto-Indo-European root is speculated to be *sent-, meaning "to go" (and also "find one's way" or "go mentally").

So as leaders we can use sentences to sense our way forward, but also create sense, or convey a sense of something.

Whatever that is, it represents a leader's sentience, the essential capacity for feeling and the exercise of sense and sensibility perception.

As a leader, your sentences matter.

Make each one count.

This is a?Leader TWIG?- the concept of (a)?growing something new?(a new awareness, skill or 'branch' to what you currently already know) but also (b) becoming equipped to 'catch on', realising or suddenly understanding something that is in fact right in front of you in the performative leadership moment (from the Gaelic 'tuig').