[November 6, 2016] I’ve said in the past that when leaders speak and take action, it’s imperative that it be done in a clear, concise, and vigorous manner. Good leaders leave no room for misunderstandings or for distortions. Reality is, however, different. Leaders will occasionally send unintended messages regardless of how careful or precise they may be.
“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” – Old Adage in various forms
My grandmother was fond of telling her grandchildren to keep their mouths’ shut or we just might convince the adults we were dunderheads when we said something we didn’t mean. She personified the wise men of lore who dispensed great advice to all who would listen. We had no choice but to hear her out and fortunately, she was right. And she was big on avoiding unintentional messages; especially the negative ones.
Leaders may unintentionally give the opposite impression of what they mean, or that they are willing to tolerate a behavior when they are not, or support something of which they don’t really approve. I could list examples here all day but it’s the best leader who has developed the skill set to both build a reputation for avoiding giving out the wrong signals and for great clarity in speech.
The 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, once said that, “If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.’” No matter what he could do or should have said or done, there will always be the possibility, nay the probability that unintended messages will be there and someone will be there to be in the center of it.
I’ve been listening to the on-going U.S. presidential debates, interviews of the candidates, speeches, etc., and I’m amazed at what each candidate has said the other said. The distortions are breathtaking; nearly at the level President Johnson spoke about in his quote. Often what was really said and meant is completely different than what I heard the next day by someone else.
What can be done by a leader to overcome this? The biggest step is by continually emphasizing the positive and being proactive in what kind of message we do want to send. Then we can drive our own actions, to include the policies and practices of our organizations that push negative unintentional messages.
Leadership means being proactive in identifying what negative messages we don’t want to send and acting on ways that might accidently send them.
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