Rhetorical nogoes for leaders

Communication is a powerful instrument to lead, motivate and bind people to the company. If you use rhetoric incorrectly, you unintentionally encounter enormous problems. Experience 5 rhetoric flops for leaders.

Flop 1: Funny is not equal to smart

An executive never jokes at the expense of others. Irony, sarcasm and comedy are absolutely out of place. Don’t let yourself be carried away by supposedly humorous jokes about customers, colleagues, the company, the market or any employees. You never know how your counterparts will perceive, understand or process it. Every joke contains a grain of truth and a stressed colleague with low self-confidence takes it a grain personally, although!! he laughs. And your „best friends“ forget your integrity when it comes to earning points in a team. So please avoid it at all costs.

Flop 2: Knowing isn’t always effective

Suppose you, as a manager, understand on a psychological level why an employee exhibits a certain behavior. Either because he is insecure, afraid, ashamed, guilty or not integrated into the team. You are welcome to recognize these backgrounds and use them in a positive way, but you can never address them in the presence of several colleagues, not even in subordinate clauses, such as… „You really don’t need to feel guilty or ashamed…“, „Don’t be afraid…“, „Don’t put your light under a bushel…“, „Don’t get so excited/ don’t pull yourself together/ Slow down/ Come down/ Stay calm/ Don’t get upset etc.“. You show a person negative very fast. Either he interprets it as unprofessionality or his colleagues. The shot usually goes off to the back.

Flop 3: Celebrating does not mean that everything is allowed.

You celebrate after a meeting, sit at dinner with colleagues or otherwise find yourselve in an informal environment. It’s easy to make stupid remarks or the team is in a joke flow. You must never take part, neither with words, nor with facial expressions or gestures, when it comes to people or their company. Always remain neutral and impartial. Even if you „actually“ want to join in, let off steam or believe that you can be relaxed now. You are always on duty, even after the 3rd cocktail.

Flop 4: No intention is no oversight

A colleague tells you something in the presence of others or alone. You are not mentally involved in the matter and dismiss his statement with a succinct reply. Evil foul, if what the other person told you was important. You probably don’t even remember what you said and feel completely offended when the rumor mill or your internal ambassadors report back what you did. The motto is: If you listen, always do it 100 percent or, if in doubt, postpone a conversation friendly with the truth. „Would you mind if we talked about it at xx o’clock? Your request is important to me and I can’t really listen to you well because I’m thinking about xyz. Is that okay for you?“

Flop 5: Employees are not friends

Are you on the same wavelength as certain employees? No problem. As long as you distribute your attention equally. Both in private meetings, you have to be careful not to use double standards, and in the acceptance of requests to speak, suggestions for improvement, salary aspirations, distribution of tasks, etcetera. You are constantly monitored! And if you now think that you are just a human being, then I tell you that you also have to endure the consequences. Business is business and liquor is liquor, a good friend and entrepreneur once told me. If you create a good separation, the success with your team is higher.

Basically, I want to give you a tip that has always helped me well: Pay attention to the positive aspects of your employees and talk about them, evenly distributed among everyone of course. Live a positive rhetoric in dealing with people, problems, topics, setbacks and mistakes. You will get it back 1000 times over. Good luck!

#communication #leadership #motivation #surfyourlife #mindfulness #rhetoric #management #personneldevelopment #speaker #malaikaloher