{"id":429,"date":"2011-11-27T13:02:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-27T17:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cld\/?p=429"},"modified":"2011-11-27T13:04:13","modified_gmt":"2011-11-27T17:04:13","slug":"three-minute-leadership-the-power-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/2011\/11\/three-minute-leadership-the-power-of-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Minute Leadership: The Power of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>To:\u00a0 The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning<\/p>\n

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An unknown author wrote:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe language we use to communicate with one another is like a knife. In the hands of a careful and skilled surgeon, a knife can work to do great good. But in the hands of a careless or ignorant person, a knife can cause great harm.\u201d\u00a0 In the Purplefeather Company\u2019s captivating YouTube video<\/span><\/span><\/a> filmed in Royal Exchange Square in Glasgow, Scotland, we are given a beautiful reminder of the power of words.\u00a0<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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The camera shows a man sitting quietly in the rain drenched square with a small tin can to his side.\u00a0 The sign behind the can reads: \u201cI\u2019m blind please help.\u201d\u00a0 As people pass by, there is an infrequent tinkle heard from the can.\u00a0 A young woman approaches, passes by the man and then returns.\u00a0 Standing in front of him she bends, grasps his sign and begins writing on it.\u00a0 As she is doing this the man touches her shoes as if to identify her.\u00a0 She returns the sing to its place and walks away.\u00a0 Now as people pass, the tinkle from the can is much more frequent and louder, and the man is busy collecting the coins from his can. After a while, the same young woman returns and stops in front on the man.\u00a0 She looks into the can.\u00a0 As she does this, his hands touch her shoes.\u00a0 Recognizing her he looks up and says to her:\u00a0 \u201cWhat did you do with my sign?\u201d\u00a0 Gently touching his shoulder and kneeling, she says:\u00a0 \u201cI wrote the same\u2026 indifferent words.\u201d\u00a0 He says: \u201cThank you, love\u201d as she leaves.\u00a0 The camera returns us to the sign which reads:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful day and I can\u2019t see it.\u201d\u00a0 The scene fades and leaves the viewer a message:\u00a0 \u201cChange your words.\u00a0 Change your world.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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While the content of the message on the sign remain unchanged, the words now have an emotional appeal – beyond the factual.\u00a0 They now create a connection with people.\u00a0\u00a0 Great leaders recognize this distinction and its power.\u00a0 Words need to be precise when communicating a shared understanding of goals, missions and strategies or establishing joint expectations around goals or activities.\u00a0 There are other times when words need the power of emotional content: in communicating a vision, in coaching and mentoring people to grow, in moving people to tap into their innovative and creative abilities.\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Use your magnificent power of words this week.\u00a0 Let them inspire others to greatness, to fill them with excitement and passion so that they push their perceived boundaries.\u00a0 Go beyond the casual statement of fact.\u00a0 Let your words paint pictures of possibilities that can be achieved and dreams that can be realized.\u00a0 Bring passion, excitement and hope to everyone you touch.\u00a0 Heed the counsel of Robert Southey, English poet, with your words: \u201cIt is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Have a beautiful day and a magnificent week!!!<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0To:\u00a0 The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning   An unknown author wrote:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe language we use to communicate with one another is like a knife. In… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,49,51],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-three-minute-leadership","tag-emotion","tag-language","tag-power-of-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/StillmanLeaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}