In the beginning there was the Word……..


Isn't it amazing what words can do? They excite, anger, pacify, caress, demand, and do a host of other things to us humans. As Eminem sings "...words are a mother%$#@*@, they can make you hate or make you love...". They certainly do. The words of one man heralded the birth of the Civil Rights movement which was influenced by the words of another; a frail man from India whose frailty vanishes the moment he begins to speak. The powerful and guarded words of Deng Xiaoping opened the floodgates of China's modernization. Similarly a former statesman of our's is going around spewing
words of racial venom. Powerful, these words can be! Ask Obama, he knows. Hilary Clinton knows it too albeit a little too late.

My closest friends know how crazy I am about football. They also call me crazy for supporting Aston Villa FC for the last 24 years. Don’t you dare say Aston who? I follow all the major leagues and tournaments. During the last few World Cups, I turned my living room into a mini World Cup corner. I do the same for Euro and recently even for the Copa. But for this Euro……nothing much.

I realized that up to now, all my World Cups and Euros and Copas have been ‘celebrated’ with people who in one way or another are also into them. We talked, we shared…we teased…we predicted…we lamented…we commented…we defended daily about the goings on. The commonality between all these : words. They excite! They create energy and this is what that moves us to take actions.

This time around, I find there is a lack of words shared about the Euro in my social space. Hence, there is no excitement. Sure, I catch some of the more important games but the ‘celebration’ is just not there. The event is there and is grander than the previous ones but I am not as connected to it as I would like to be. I am not as 'moved' to be into it.

Now, how many managers and leaders use words to inspire and motivate their people to greater achievements? How many use words to demoralize and belittle the very people through whom they are supposed to achieve? I mean think about it, we launch a grand new idea for the company or the department but fail to inspire our people to get excited about it. Why? Our words were just not inspiring enough. We simply fail when it comes to using words to transfer the passion from our hearts to the hearts of others. Some of the best company annual dinners that I have had the privilege to attend have been those where the CEO/GM gave a passionate, honest and inspiring speech. Most times, managers expect their people to get excited on a project using their own devices. Sorry, it does not work that way. Someone has to evoke that excitement and commitment with carefully chosen words of wisdom, encouragement and motivation. Most of all they must be words of honesty and integrity.

I think it was IBM's former CEO who once said that the single most important competitive advantage of IBM is its managers' ability to coach. Now, how do managers become effective coaches? Through words. Jack Welch often spoke of inspiring people and he himself often did; through sharp no nonsense and sincere words.

So, lets choose our words carefully for they have great powers. And, since we are talking about the power of words, the following may make the point more succinctly :


A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.
He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.'
There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.
He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up.
A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were.
The boy recognized his footsteps and asked,
'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'
The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what u said but in a different way.'
What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.'
Do you think the first sign & the second sign were saying the same thing? Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?