Power Tools

Tools, takeaways, and tweaks. That’s what people want from leadership programs these days. Simple practices that can position them to move forward in their careers and become more influential.?

The most effective quick tool I know is being more intentional about our vocabulary. I like to collect words I find especially useful. Let me share two of them.

The first word is information. Because it’s simple and neutral-sounding, speaking in terms of information gives us an excellent way to talk about our successes without sounding as if we’re bragging. The fear of being perceived as self-centered routinely holds people– especially women– back from talking explicitly about their successes. Their reluctance almost guarantees that their best efforts will be overlooked.?

But framing our achievements as information, both to ourselves and to others, offers a graceful way to move past this dilemma.

Bridging Workplace Divides

Say a client compliments us on our insight into a problem they’ve been wrestling with for months. We come away from the meeting feeling great. We want to shout the news to our boss and our team but don’t want to come off as a self-serving jerk. So we either hint around, or keep the good news to ourselves, perhaps hoping the client will sing our praises to the people who matter.?

We start by asking ourselves who might find the client’s remarks useful. Not in a general way, but specifically, in a situation they face as well. Then we use the frame to let that person or group know exactly what a client said, presenting it as information that could be useful to them.?

For example, “I know you’ll be meeting with Jamal next week and wanted to share some information that might be helpful. I got a very positive response from him yesterday when I suggested his team look at doing a few media buys in the X market, which I know they hadn’t been considering. I thought it would make sense given the demographic shift taking place in that region. He was excited.”?

Essentially, what you’ve managed to do by presenting your client experience with Jamal as information is to rebrand your own success as an act of generosity to a colleague. Now, thanks to your insight, your colleague can go into their meeting with an advantage they didn’t have before.

Inclusive Leadership

Contribution is another remarkably useful word. It enables us to identify ourselves as strong team players while being clear about the value we provide. Rather than talking about our achievements, which we fear may be perceived as self-aggrandizing, we speak of our achievements in the context of a common effort.

Contribution also provides a neat way of avoiding the common either/or conundrum of whether to talk about what we did or to praise our team. We simply note, “Our team achieved a big success with our expansion into the northern European market. As a result, we’re on track to increase sales by 15% next year. My contribution to this effort was…”?

The language of contribution is both graceful and accurate. Your team scored big, but you are part of the team. So it makes no sense to leave yourself out.

The language of contribution can be contagious. For example, I spoke about it recently while delivering an in-person workshop for high potentials at a financial services firm. The following week, I got a note from one of the senior executives who sponsored the event. He wrote, “I wanted to let you know that your comments about ‘contribution’ are having an impact on our entire unit. It’s given us a way to show more generosity toward one another. That makes us more of a team.”

As his note made clear, vocabulary can be a superpower.?

That’s because when we intentionally use powerful words, we are planting the seeds of positive change. And if we use these words consistently, other people will start using them as well. Over time, our vocabulary will influence our entire culture, organically reshaping how the organization defines itself. This will serve us, and the people we work with.?

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