How can the language you use facilitate enthusiastic, energetic implementation? What does it take to transmit bold new ideas to people who don’t want to hear them?
· Generate enduring enthusiasm for a common cause
· Present innovative solutions to solve significant problems
· Catalyze shifts in people’s values and ideologies
· Demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice personal interests for the greater good
· Help others get through crisis moments
· Inspire people to want to change, creating a positive energy that sustains the change
· Generate followers who will ultimately become leaders
The what of transformational leadership is reasonably clear. It’s the how that’s usually obscure.
ð How do leaders communicate complex ideas and spark others into enduringly enthusiastic action?
ð What words do they use to inspire others to become new leaders?
ð Why are some leaders able to accomplish the feat while others fail miserably?
Stephen Denning, a senior scholar at the University of Maryland’s Burns Academy of Leadership, makes the case for transformational communications in his book The Secret Language of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2007). More than anything, it’s what leaders say — and the way they say it — that generates sustained energy and exponential results.