I have, on occasions, alluded to the relevance of enhancing our language abilities. After all, humans possess the ability for higher order language. As is widely attributed to Albert Mehrabian, face-to-face communication comprises body language (55%), words (38%) and tone (7%). This certainly applies to Social Media 2.0 like Skype and video-conferencing.
A few days ago, management guru Tom Peters posted a short piece on Language Excellence. He touted the improvement of words by adding key words. He thoughtfully suggests that we use energetic words if you want an energetic pace. In the study of linguistics, this process is known as semantic density. I am sure that it will annoyingly stimulate your thoughts, and perhaps have you review your impeccable impact on others through your speech and writing.
To wit, I add that we can enormously empower our language with suitable tones (of voice). Emotional words can only be fully appreciated when we feel them first-hand. When you are happy, your spoken word ‘happy’ will resonate with different shades of your happiness. When you show empathy, empathise with similar emotions. Share your sympathetic shoulder to cry on.
Leaders influence with their control of total communication. Lose your control and you lose your audience, and therefore your leadership. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Choose your words carefully: mean, or demean.
Have an insanely awesome week ahead!
Afterthoughts: I had a wildly gorgeous evening at the Air Supply 35th Anniversary Concert at the Resort World on Sentosa Island. The original duo -of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock - was backed up by an energetic band. I grew up with the band’s music in my teens, with the band’s first concert in Singapore in 1981. Air Supply is enjoying its first top-20 hit from its new album; talk about resounding resilience!
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