Words have power.
They can energise and motivate.
They can harm and crush.
They can reject and criticise.
They can be loving and giving.
The words we say to others. And the words we say to ourselves.
There are a lot of words out there at our disposal.
Which ones are you choosing to use and why?
Are they words you’ll regret using, or will they be words that reflect and honour your values?
Words are made even more powerful when accompanied by tone, intent and body-language.
And if you then also throw in role rank and privilege, e.g. a CEO, a politician, a news anchor, actor or community leader, where you also may have a platform for your words to have greater influence, then the power of your chosen words significantly increases.
Developing self-awareness and exercising our personal leadership in our choice of words and tone we use is something we should all be working on, every day, because it’s easy for runaway emotions, biases and egos to make our choices for us.
As leaders and colleagues, as friends, as family, as neighbours and community members, our choice of words have an impact.
And remember to use kind words on yourself too. If you wouldn’t say it to someone else because it would be unkind, insulting, critical, or undermining, try not to say it to yourself.
Let’s all do our best not to abuse the power of our words.
