THE POWER OF WORDS (OR NOT)
"Do or do not…..there is no try" Master Jedi Yoda said in one of the great Star Wars movies. I saw the quote on my Stepdaughter’s MySpace page the other day and have been thinking about how easily we make statements and how difficult it is to find people who do what they say they are going to do. There’s way too much "I’ll try to make it over there this afternoon". All that means is "I don’t want to say no, so I’ll say I’ll try".
Have you ever said to someone "I’ll call you" and fogotten all about it? I know I have. Ashamedly so, I’ve probably forgotten more casual promises like that than I’ve kept. I’m going to work on not saying that anymore.
Here’s a familiar one: "Let’s do lunch sometime". Groan. Why bother? We’ve been talking about having lunch for a year now, and haven’t done it yet. Let’s just stop saying it.
We are all guilty of being too casual with our lips. Casual statements that become broken promises turn those who heard our promises into cynics. The value of the words we say has been lost. When we speak, generation Y hears "BLA BLA BLA BLA". And we wonder why.
How many times have you heard the word "Integrity". That used to be a very powerful word. When I hear it now, it’s like Samson with his hair cut off. The word has no power. Why is that? Maybe because it’s overused. Maybe because we just don’t do what we say anymore.
Somewhere in the book of Matthew it says "Let your YES be YES and your NO be NO." Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change? I know some Quakers who are very sparse with their words, and when they speak, it can cut like a knife, but you know exactly what they are saying. (It is the polar opposite of what I hear from political candidates during campaigns: sounds good, but what’d they say? I think they promised me something, but what?)
It is now cliche to say "Underpromise and OverDeliver", but it is an excellent rule to live by! Let’s not say it, let’s just do it. (I think it’s okay to DO cliches, just not great to SAY them!!
Author Thomas Friedman ("The World is Flat") says that corporations used to live in glass houses; now they live on glass microscope slides. It is more critical now, than ever, to keep our promises. Let’s watch our words. After all, we are being watched by our customers, our employees, and, most importantly, our next generation.
Something to think about………Coach Julia
Tags: Best Practices, Management, MasterMind, Sales, Self Development
