Very powerful but it’s only words
I’ve been hearing a lot of speeches and conversations lately particularly from leaders of companies, organizations, and political candidates. They all got me thinking about language and what a powerful influence for good, bad, or indifferent words can have, how they can stick or simply slide away.
I recently published my eBook on the topic of communicating in today’s market and I must say that I have learned a few revealing truths during the process. I also changed the format a few times. Writing about words and how they should or should not be used can get, for lack of a better word, wordy.
We’ve all heard that it’s not what you say but how you say it and choosing words carefully for best effect can be more productive; best to be succinct and get to the point. This can be easier said than done, particularly when what we say is often linked to our egos, fear, expectations, and past experiences. It’s also interesting to note the statistical fact that 55%-80% of all human interactions are nonverbal. This means that our gestures and movements, no matter how subtle, can provide more impact than a spoken word.
They can also reveal whether we’re lying or not. Having knowledge of body language and being a keen observer can save a lot of wasted time and heartache but, being the emotional addicts that we are, we tend to have selective hearing and choose to believe what we need to at any given time.
Words can make us cry, laugh, make us angry, upset our world and change our lives. They trigger our psyches for better or worse and how we respond is usually based on the past, our fear of failure, our need for acceptance. If we allow them in, words can fool us, diminish our accomplishments, humiliate, and cause great stress. They can also lift us to new heights, provide hope, motivate us, reinvent our attitudes, and create great possibility.
