Why We Need More Precision in the Language of Leadership and Change

As we mature, so too does our use of language. What begins as simple, vague expressions in childhood gradually transforms into increasingly specific and nuanced language in adulthood. This linguistic progression enables us to communicate more effectively, ensuring that others understand not just what we say, but what we mean.

But while we demand such precision in our everyday conversations, we often fail to uphold the same standards when it comes to the language we use in business, particularly when discussing functional issues, leadership and change.

In an era where neuroscience can provide clearer and more accurate descriptions, why do we continue to rely on subjective, ambiguous terms?

The Evolution of Language: From Child to Adult

Consider how our language changes as we grow. A young child might say, “I feel bad,” offering little insight into what they’re actually experiencing. A teenager, having acquired more specific emotional language, might say, “I’m frustrated because things aren’t going my way.” By adulthood, we expect even more accuracy: “I’m experiencing anxiety due to the uncertainty of the situation.”

This progression is not only expected but essential. It allows us to communicate more effectively, conveying not just emotion but the underlying reasons, nuances, and causes of the position we take, and opinions we express, over different subjects. The more accurate our language becomes, the fewer misunderstandings we encounter, and the better we are able to collaborate and problem solve.

Yet this demand for precision often goes unmet in business settings, via models and methods shared as 'best practice'.

Business Language: Why Do We Settle for Less?

In business, vague language remains pervasive, particularly in the realms of leadership and change management. We talk about needing to “embrace change”, "intrinsic motivation" and about being a “good leader,” but what do these phrases really mean? They lack the precision that we expect from other areas of our lives.

Let’s draw a parallel. Imagine if we spoke about change in business with the same level of specificity we expect in our everyday language as adults. Consider these examples of how business language might mature:

- Childish business language: “We need to change.”

- Teenage business language: “We need to be more agile and embrace innovation.”

- Adult business language: “We must establish a structured approach to change management, leveraging Lean principles to reduce waste and increase efficiency.”

The first example is vague, telling us almost nothing about what needs to be done. The second is more specific but still lacks the actionable clarity that business leaders require. The third example, using adult-level business language, leaves no room for ambiguity. It not only specifies the need for change but the method by which it will be achieved.

The Case for Neurological Language: More Accurate, Less Ambiguous

What if we went a step further and applied the precision of neuroscience to our business conversations about leadership and change? Neurological language offers us a way to describe human behavior with more accuracy, reducing the subjectivity that often clouds these discussions.

We can add a line to the previous example:

- Neurological business language: Change happens in brains via neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, our approach to change must be cognoscente of this and how best to affect it in ourselves and others, if we're to maximise the rate of change we can expect to make to principles (like lean) and process and have such change sustain over time.

Another example, consider how we might describe leadership:

- Vague: “A good leader must motivate.”

- Neurological: “Effective leadership stimulates the brain’s reward centers, activating dopamine pathways. This is what we mean when we say we must enhance intrinsic motivation.”

The first statement is subjective and open to interpretation. What does “motivate” mean, and how does a “good leader” achieve this? The neurological description, however, is grounded in science, acknowledging a leaders conduct will become the inbound sensory stimulus to another brain, which influences specific mechanisms which drive behavior. It provides clarity where the first example does not.

Similarly, change management can benefit from this level of specificity. Instead of simply saying, “We need to embrace change,” we can describe how change is processed by the brain, explaining the cognitive biases and neurological responses that stop people from 'embracing' something new, i.e. the root cause issues which make change difficult, and, more importantly, how to overcome them.

Why Do We Settle for Less in Business?

Here’s the crux of the issue: if we expect our language to become more precise as we mature, why don’t we hold ourselves to the same standard in business? Why do we tolerate vague, subjective terms when discussing critical areas like leadership and change?

In manufacturing and other industries, where precision and clarity fall under the 'Quality' banner and are understood to be essential to success, it’s puzzling that we allow ourselves to be so imprecise in the way we discuss the most important aspects of business - including the people piece and how brains function (e.g. how we find comfort in assumption and inferred meaning where we need, and benefit greatly, from clarity in this regard).

Let's face it, leadership and change aren’t abstract concepts. They have real, measurable impacts on our teams, our processes, and our outcomes. The language we use to describe them should reflect that.

Imagine the gains we could achieve if we applied the same standards of clarity to our leadership discussions as we do to technical processes. By adopting more precise, neuroscience-backed language, we can create clearer, more actionable strategies, tht consider, accommodate and serve the human [brain] part of our organisations. The simple fact is, we can remove the ambiguity that so often leads to miscommunication, delays, stagnation and in the worst cases, project failure.

A Call to Action: Time to Mature Our Business Language

It’s time to demand more of ourselves. As leaders, we owe it to our teams and our organisations to communicate with the same level of specificity that we expect in everyday language. Neuroscience and psychology provide us with the tools to describe leadership and change in precise, measurable terms. It’s up to us to use them.

So, I'd like you to consider this question: If we expect increasing precision in everyday language as we mature, and precision in process language (materials technology for example) to enhance quality, why do we not hold ourselves to the same standard when discussing the most crucial aspects of business?

Final words:

The Neuroscience Lens: Precision Over Subjectivity:

• Neuroscience gives us a lexicon that provides clearer understanding: neurotransmitters, neural networks, action potential.
• Words like “pleasure” and “motivation” become measurable events in the brain, not vague emotional terms.
• We are in a new era, where new ways of describing human behavior are rooted in measurable, biological phenomena: speaking of dopamine, serotonin, (neurotransmitters) and neural pathways can replace all prior subjective terms to more accurately explain cause and effect, between leadership, reactions/response and outcomes.

BTFA Framework as a New Paradigm:

• BTFA: Believe, Think, Feel, Act is grounded in neuroscience, offering clearer, more objective ways to understand and predict human behavior, relations and methods of change / adaptation.
• How BTFA improves upon traditional models: Less subjectivity: Neuroscience data replaces personal experience. More clarity: Understanding the biological basis for beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions leads to more actionable insights, enabling leaders to consider other subjective terms and activities like Developing a high performance culture, leading effective strategy deployment and executing change, from a significantly informed position based on facts.

Conclusion:

• By replacing ambiguous psychological language with neuroscience-based terms, we offer CEOs, their SLT's and whole leadership teams a more accurate understanding of human behavior, resulting in better decision-making, problem solving, engagement, innovation, critical thinking, alignment, collaboration and ultimately, a better culture, improved performance and profit.