Appreciate the Power of Words

As business leaders we often fail to fully appreciate the ability we possess, for both good and ill, to influence people and situations through the simple choice of the words we use. Our teams are listening closely to what we say. The very best communicators select their words carefully and work hard to ensure that followers understand their meaning. This necessity to speak and write clearly is a truly basic leadership objective, but ever so difficult to consistently execute.

Last week I was honored to take a group of executives through a leadership seminar at the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania. At the end of our day-long tour of that sacred place, one of the participants read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address near the spot where Lincoln delivered it at the National Cemetery in November 1863. As she read that beautiful little speech- only 272 words long- I was reminded of the power of an idea well expressed to move people to think differently and, sometimes, change the world.

Lincoln had less than a year of formal schooling but he read constantly from an early age in an effort to educate himself. He became a master communicator whose innate yet carefully honed abilities as a story-teller and humorist enabled him to reach and teach ordinary people in unforgettable fashion. His deep study of the Holy Bible and Shakespeare influenced the lovely cadences of his speeches.

Lincoln's masterpiece, the Gettysburg Address, forever changed the way Americans think of themselves. He explained the meaning of the sacrifice of so many lives on the battlefield just a few months prior. He asserted the Declaration of Independence and its central idea- equality- as a matter of founding law. The Civil War, Lincoln told us, was the great struggle around and testing of this new principle. As historian Gary Wills said, "By accepting the Gettysburg Address, its concept of a single people dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed. Because of it, we live in a different America."

Few people, even among great historical figures, possess Abraham Lincoln's gift for language. Of speeches that compare with the Gettysburg Address, for me, only the inspirational words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, telling his countrymen: "I have a dream today…"

So what does that leave for those of us who are mere mortals? For those of us who often get tangled in our own syntax? For those of us who dread having to put our thoughts down on paper?

There is a popular historical myth that Lincoln penned the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope as he rode the train from Washington D.C. to Pennsylvania. To the contrary, the speech was carefully composed beforehand at the White House. He wrote and rewrote, revising the speech even as late as the morning of the day it was to be delivered. Lincoln was incredibly particular in his choice of words, and he worked hard to get the message just right. He knew that his followers, and even future generations, would be paying close attention. In that way, he was a teacher to all of us who would aspire to be leaders who communicate well.

With written communication, take the time to be thoughtful. Who is your intended audience? What message do you want to convey? How can you write that piece- whether a short e-mail or a full-blown speech- in the simplest, most concise way, yet still get your point across (remember Lincoln's 272 words)?

Nothing is more frustrating for a team of people than to read something their boss or colleague has produced that causes confusion. Credibility is lost and time is wasted. Proofread what you write. Better yet, have someone that you trust check your work. Be open to suggestions and make changes accordingly. Like Lincoln did, practice your writing. As with any other skill, writing ability can be developed over time with effort, repetition and feedback.

The spoken word can prove more difficult because we frequently don't have time to be as reflective as we might with a writing assignment. We are often called upon to give an opinion quickly without the benefit of all the information we need to make a judgment. Still, the best communicators are thoughtful in speech as well.

Take a pause before you speak. Collect your thoughts. Consider the audience. It's okay to acknowledge what you don't know and take time to do some research. Gather data. Ask good questions. Select your words. Deliver them well. Confirm understanding.

As always, the old saying holds true: "Talk is cheap, but whisky costs money." Words without appropriate and consistent actions to back them up are mere words. With that said, leadership begins with words. Especially in the difficult economic environment in which we all live and work, anxious business teams are keenly in tune with what leadership is saying. So take the opportunity to be thoughtful with your words. The future of your organization may depend on it.

Seek Honest Feedback

Most of us intellectually grasp the importance for success in business of giving and receiving honest feedback. Why do so few of us do it well? Because it is difficult.

Many of us are averse to hurting someone's feelings and so are reluctant to deliver the full truth as we see it. We are also generally loath to receive feedback ourselves. It can be embarrassing and unpleasant. How many people (both supervisors and employees) actually enjoy the annual review process, which is all about feedback? Not many that I have met.

With all that said, I am still struck at how often in my ten-year career in human resources I came across even very senior leaders who would not give straightforward feedback when they should have, nor were they at all interested in what anyone had to say about them either. This fundamental unwillingness to tell and/or hear the truth costs organizations dearly over time.

Meg Whitman, during her decade-long run as CEO of online trading behemoth eBay, provided a dramatic example of a leader who not only sought honest feedback, but could not function without it. She listened carefully, mostly to her customers but also to anyone else who offered a useful point of view, and used what she learned to create a unique and powerful success story.

Whitman came aboard as CEO in March of 1998. Any number of skeptics felt that she was not qualified to run eBay for lack of technical expertise. She quickly demonstrated her willingness to roll up her sleeves and learn. In mid-1999, the eBay site crashed for 22 hours, and weeks of uncertainty and instability followed. Whitman sat through endless technical discussions to get at root causes, pulled all-nighters with the team and, when she did sleep, did so on a cot in the office. The problems were fixed and Meg Whitman impressed everyone, including her detractors, by acknowledging what she did not know and working to educate herself.

Whitman was also quick to credit eBay's success to its enormous community of buyers and sellers, who in essence run the business by determining which transactions will take place, and by managing inventory and shipping. The power of the business model, said Whitman, "is in the community of users who have built eBay."

Whitman spent considerable time monitoring feedback from buyers and sellers by perusing discussion boards. She said, "The great thing about running this company is that you know immediately what your customers think." She organized annual member conferences that brought thousands of eBay customers together to swap ideas and learn how to more effectively use the site. She spent time during these events on the floor interacting with as many customers as possible.

Numerous sellers have been able to make a handsome living trading on eBay full-time, and Whitman enjoyed interacting with them. Whitman declared, "Actually, most of these sellers know more about eBay than [eBay] employees. They use it every single day. They're the experts... The businesses that have been built on this platform are remarkable."

Whitman oversaw explosive expansion at eBay. In 2002, for example, revenues rose 62% to $1.1 billion, with an earnings jump of 172% to $249 million. By the time Whitman resigned her position in 2008, eBay had 15,000 employees, just under $8 billion in revenue, and 300 million registered users.

Meg Whitman was honored as Fortune magazine's most powerful woman in business in both 2004 and 2005. Much of what she accomplished can be attributed to her desire to hear what people were telling her, learn from it, and take appropriate action based on that new knowledge.

As a leader, if you arrive at a point where you lose interest in receiving feedback- assuming you had interest in the first place- or you say you want feedback but create an environment that is clearly not safe for providing it, you cannot succeed over the long haul.

Good leaders foster a culture in which it is okay to speak up, even if the message might be painful. The very best leaders not only accept feedback but actively, even manically, seek it out. They could not function without the information they receive, virtually always from multiple sources. It is like the air they breathe. They use that data to drive change in themselves and their organizations.

Meg Whitman is a shining example of just such a leader. She constantly sifted through countless bits of information, especially from her customers, the buyers and sellers who were foundational to eBay's success. She used what she learned to create one of corporate America's all-time growth stories.

Two final questions are critical: 1) Do you have someone in your professional life- at least one person- that pushes you and provides you with genuinely honest feedback? If yes, good for you; 2) If the answer is no, why not and what will you do about it?