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

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Improve outcomes rather than prove ability (Reflect openly with your team how your actions might have been better. Encourage curiosity from everyone: How can we make it better?) The New Playbook. In a playbook that changes the language and approach of how we work together, all the team members work together in both decision-making and doing. Discussion is open, and workers are involved in evaluating and guiding goals and processes alongside leaders. For the book’s purposes: bluework is defined as decision-making work, and redwork is defined as “doing” work.

In a fast-paced age of innovation, we need new leadership strategies, starting with language. “After all, what is leadership but language?” When I read a leadership development book I normally ask myself two questions. Firstly, how can I apply what I’ve learned from this book when embodying the Army Leadership Code behaviours? Secondly, how can I use what I’ve learned from this book to better support the principles of Mission Command? Leadership is Language delivers genuinely striking responses to these questions. It is in fact hard to see how a leader’s well-considered language does not directly compliment the two frameworks. Completing the Cycle: Improve. Improvement “comes from egoless scrutiny of past actions, and deep reflective thinking about what could be better” (p. 189). 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. Let's say you decide you no longer want to eat sweets, vet at the end of a long day you are faced with a bowl of sweets. You can consider two options for self-talk. You can tell yourself you can't eat sweets or that you don't

Based on what you are telling me, it sounds like you need four to six hours in the next two weeks. I can commit to three hours next week, and three the week after that. The rest of my time is already committed to other projects, and after that, I have full-time commitments to other projects, so if your project carries over, you will have to find another set designer. How well does that work for you?" That way, if Andy does commit, it will be on his terms, not his colleague's.

The key message here is: In the traditional approach to management, people are divided into two categories – deciders and doers. If someone else had to take over this project, what would you say to them to make it even more successful?"Outward, not inward – requires focusing on others to avoid protective behaviors. Ask: “What could we do to better serve our customers?” or “What changes would the board want us to make here?” (p. 204). Power Gradient. The hierarchical distance between people. Steep power gradients can stifle creativity, communication, share of voice, and variability. Complete defined goals instead of continuing work indefinitely (View work in discrete elements or every hour, every day will feel the same. Pause to celebrate.). Trust first – because people will work better, harder, and longer when they feel trusted. Create a culture where dissent is acceptable (pp. 234-235). The language of the old approach to leadership is deterministic and binary – all about doing, not about thinking.

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. Example: “Are you sure it’s right to go?” versus the cognitively taxing (but better) “How sure are you it’s right to go?” On the process, not on the person – because focusing on the process prevents defensiveness about past behaviors and personal characteristics. Ask: “What improvements could we make to the process?” (p. 205). We replaced a reactive language of convince, coerce, comply and conform with a proactive language of intent and commitment to action. Bluework is thinking. Bluework is cognitive work. It’s about creativity, decision-making, and it’s harder to measure. It’s an improve-and-learn mindset. Variability is an ally. This is Kahneman’s System 2 “Thinking Slow”.Leaders need to be looing at the room: Who is being quiet? It's likely they think something but do not feel welcome to express it. The terms "leadership" and "management" are linked and used interchangeably because early leadership research focused on senior managers. Leadership is often defined as developing an initial vision and inspiring others to achieve it. Management involves translating the vision into reality by guiding team actions and behaviours. Both aspects play a role in achieving organisational objectives. It's time to ditch the industrial age playbook of leadership. In Leadership is Language, you'll learn how choosing your words can dramatically improve decision-making and execution on your team. Marquet outlines six plays for all leaders, anchored in how you use language: Vote first, then discuss – to increase variability, which enables innovation and better decision- making. Psychological safety refers to how safe individuals feel to share their thoughts and feelings without judgment. This “vote first, then discuss” approach requires individuals to feel safe enough to dissent. LEARMONTH, M. and MORRELL, K. (2019) Critical perspectives on leadership: the language of corporate power.London: Routledge.

Share of voice. The proportion of words that each person in a conversation speaks. Marquet argues that leaders should say the least in conversations, and talk last. Share of Voice is “the proportion of words attributed to each person in a conversation and is an excellent indicator of the power gradient within an organization” (p. 32). Share of voice can be indicated using a tool called the Team Language Coefficient (TLC). With this tool, individual contributions in team conversations are measurable and observable. The TLC can provide data to help a team achieve a balanced share of voice, resulting in “more team thinking and better decision outcomes” (p. 33). Connect, don’t conform. Demonstrate vulnerability and admit to not knowing. Care about what people think, how they feel, and their personal goals. ‘Connect is love’, trust is the outcome. Even individuals with great leadership skills can fail if the organisation doesn't support them through effective structure, processes and policies, as explained in the report Leadership – easier said than done. But there’s no single magic phrase that will continuously inspire your team to achieve its best; motivational leadership comes from an authentic emotional connection with your team, explained James Rohrbach, president and chairman of language school Fluent City.Why you should vote first, then discuss, when deciding on a plan with your team, rather than voting after discussion When teams are prone to continuing, plan a pause and run The Complete Play. This will allow teams to switch to bluework. They can assess their redwork and decide to continue or not (pp. 252-254). Leadership Is a Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don't" by L. David Marquet is an insightful and thought-provoking book that challenges traditional leadership communication practices and offers a fresh perspective on how language shapes organizational culture and employee engagement. Drawing from his experience as a nuclear submarine captain, Marquet presents practical strategies and real-life examples to help leaders enhance their communication skills and create environments that foster collaboration, autonomy, and high performance. Since workers tend to default to executing, you must purposefully promote collaboration and experimentation. You can do this by breaking down obstacles that prevent people from voicing their diverse ideas and perspectives. Let’s look at four steps for structuring more collaboration and experimentation into your team’s workflow. In these blinks, you’ll learn to identify outdated formulations you’re probably still using – and to develop new ones better suited to the workplace of today.