Over and over, experts remind us that passivity is a quality of poor leadership. We're trained to seek out leaders with conviction, who speak and act directly, and never hedge their responsibilities. And while you may be a leader who does all those things, it's possible that your speech pattern doesn't reflect just how assertive and deliberate you are. Passive voice is the culprit.<\/p>\n
"We're all busy trying to accomplish a million things at our jobs every day. No one has time to ask a bunch of questions just to get to the heart of the matter. Let's all just start actively speaking so we can learn from our mistakes, do a better job next time and move on," writes Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse, in an Inc. Magazine blog. <\/p>\n
In a corporate setting, a variety of moving parts can influence outcomes and decisions, and passive voice is an easy way inadvertently to deflect ownership. Imagine the cancelation of a forthcoming project review:<\/p>\n
"The review has been canceled."<\/strong><\/p>\n This sentence might sound like something a person would naturally say in conversation, or draft in an email. But think of the questions it leaves: Who canceled the review, and why? And even: Is this speaker covering for someone? Is he covering for himself? While not a bad<\/em> sentence, passive voice can make your communication style sound subtly obfuscating or limp. It's more informative to give the recipient of that information an active subject:<\/p>\n "I canceled the review."<\/strong><\/p>\n Aspiring leaders have a tendency to redirect accountability to the ether, as if disruptive news is something that just happens. And while it may be par for the course in a busy office, you're more likely to earn your coworkers' respect if the language you use to communicate responsibility doesn't mince words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may be an effective leader, but it’s possible that your speech pattern doesn’t reflect just how assertive and deliberate you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":1202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n