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

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The “decision-makers” should not be the “decision-evaluators.” This avoids over-attachment to a decision, known as escalation of commitment (pp. 155, 156). Organisations can undertake various activities to enhance an individual's leadership capabilities. Our management development factsheet explains how to identify development needs and how to develop leaders and managers. Effective leaders must be clear from the start about company policies, including disciplinary policies, so employees understand what they can or can’t do – and what consequences will occur if they break the rules. Each of these plays hinges on specific use of language, and I’ll explain in detail how to execute them in the chapters to come.

Leadership Is Language Book - David Marquet

Psychological safety is key to an organization’s success, it’s generated by actively encouraging uncomfortable perspectives and soliciting input. Leaders can consciously talk less, so that others talk more. They can admit when they don’t know things so that others can do the same. And they can exhibit vulnerability, which makes it easier for people to speak up without fear. Losing El Faro. Communication records from a sunken container ship, El Faro, show that collaboration and communication were not fostered onboard. The crew’s concerns – which could have saved the vessel had they been heeded – were never given serious consideration. The tragedy is Exhibit A of the strictly top-down leadership style that needs to be retired in many arenas today. David Marquet is the bestselling author of the 2013 book, Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders and the new book, Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don’t, which comes out on February 4th.

Make a pause possible – to allow for questioning, confusion, or vulnerability. Leaders should not preempt a pause by making it challenging for individuals to question a decision. Making a pause possible sounds like: “We have time to do this right, not twice” (p. 84).

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

This is not my opinion, this is exactly what they personally shared with me (I interviewed over 140 CEOs)… and now you get to learn directly from their experiences and insights. You’ve just engaged in the two primary modes of human activity: thinking and doing. You thought about where you wanted to go, and then you went. In your private life, you switch between these modes several times a day. Everybody does. But in the working world, most of us are categorized as either thinkers or doers. That’s because most companies are still run according to models developed in the Industrial Age. David was in the Navy for 28 years and he was ultimately selected to be captain of a nuclear submarine. And it was during his time as a captain of the USS Santa Fe that he changed his leadership style and that change led to him writing his first book. Chunk work for frequent completes early, few completes late – because the beginning of a project involves more significant uncertainty and requires more time for bluework. As the project becomes more defined, longer periods of redwork will increase production (p. 169).Some of our core company values are ‘grit’ and ‘simplicity,’ [so] I use phrases without a lot of fluff to motivate team members – phrases like, ‘Let’s do this,’ ‘Keep doing what you’re doing,’ and ‘We are laser-focused on XYZ,'” he said. The way you discuss an employee’s performance and engagement is critical, according to Vip Sandhir, founder and CEO of employee engagement platform HighGround. These discussions can impact the way your employee views the company, your leadership, and their role on your team. Your direct communication affects them, and so do your reactions or responses to their questions or concerns. What if things had things gone differently for El Faro? Here is the story, retold as if Marquet’sNew Playbook had been in operation. Aboard the El Faro: Language makes the division between redwork and bluework evident. Redwork says things like, “Make it happen. Bluework says things like, “How do you see it?” (p. 45). People professionals used to rely on "best practices" to develop people management strategies. However, best practices become soon irrelevant in an ever-changing world of work.

Leadership Language How to Develop an Effective Leadership Language

Marquet defines redwork and bluework as the two types of work. Redwork involves doing, executing, and reducing variability (p. 43). Bluework involves thinking, decision-making, and embracing variability (p. 43). Commit, don’t comply–Rather than expect your team to comply with specific directions, explain your overall goals, and get their commitment to achieving it one piece at a time. and learn the MINDSETS & SKILLS the CEOs of companies like MasterCard, Best Buy, KPMG, Audi, Unilever, Oracle, Domino’s Pizza, Kaiser, and many more use to lead their companies to the highest peaks of success! The right balance of doing and thinking keeps an organization adaptive and agile, innovative and entrepreneurial. It gives the people in the organization a sense of purpose and progress, which helps drive continuous improvement. In short, the right balance of doing and thinking drives learning. It keeps the company relevant and solvent. It keeps employees happy. It leads to happy customers, too. 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.Performance management is going through a renaissance,” Sandhir told Business News Daily. “The importance of that conversation and how it’s done [is changing]. It was typically one-sided, judging individuals based on numbers. But neuroscience research on how the brain reacts to conversations shows that [this communication style] can trigger a threat response.” What does a book published in 1911 about steel mill management have to do with the 2017 Academy Awards fiasco? Why are so many airplane crashes ultimately attributed to poor communications between pilot and copilot? Sue is a hardworking executive at a technology company across the street. Prone to contemplation, rumination, even depression, she struggles to make decisions. Everything seems like a big commitment. It’s overwhelming. Sue has a good sense of what she wants each project to look like at the end, but is often paralyzed in figuring out where to start. While the company founder urges her to “fail fast” and “break things” she isn’t exactly sure what those things mean to her. When she does make decisions, she feels like she gets second-guessed a lot. Balance redwork and bluework. More bluework might be necessary at the beginning of the project; whereas more extended periods of redwork are acceptable toward the end. Above all, the promise of this book is to reveal not only the new plays appropriate for today’s challenges but also their underlying structure, the logic behind them, and how to use them with your team. Once you understand not only what to say but why and how, you will be able to find the right language for any situation. This will help establish a more effective working environment, leading to better outcomes across the board and a more satisfying and meaningful work experience for everyone in the organization.

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

But humans, unlike burgers or car parts, are variable. We can’t be divided neatly into the doers and the thinkers. Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management needs a revamp. The doing self is fully present in the moment, acting upon the world and reacting to stimuli dynamically. | The thinking self observes and reflects upon the doing self from a detached and levelheaded perspective. Commit, don't comply: Rather than expect your team to comply with specific directions, explain your overall goals, and get their commitment to achieving it one piece at a time. Flatten the power gradient – to create a culture in which people feel safe enough to dissent, to be confused, and to admit mistakes. The power gradient is “the amount of social distance there is between one person and another” (p. 220) and manifests through the censoring of information.The chapter is about the power of our programmed language. It’s rooted in the Industrial Age playbook. It’s the same language you may be using now during COVID19, when your business depends on you using a whole new playbook and language. El Faro is worth discussing because we have records of the actual words spoken and the actual actions taken by the captain and crew. Marquet uses the transcript to provide an unparalleled glimpse into the language a team used when faced with life-and-death decisions. 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. Let’s imagine an alternate reality in which the crew of El Faro felt psychologically safe enough to question the captain’s decision. In this scenario, the captain took the time to meet with his first mate before departure. “I’m excited you’re on the team,” he told her. “Our differences in age and gender probably mean we’ll bring different perspectives to the table. I encourage you to share your opinions, and I commit to listening to what you have to say.”