The Power of Words

Words can change the way people think.

“So what if you don’t meet the goal?” he said. He was the millionaire, one of five partners who owned the company. He had read our plan for turning around his company. He had a right to ask.

Even my fingers hurt at hearing the question. The words were wrong. The meaning was skewed at a cellular level. A gifted man was saying exactly the wrong thing.

It appeared a reasonable question, particularly coming from the guy with the money. It was not. I don’t advocate the back door look in the best case scenario. Discussion of failure would be disastrous in this reality.

The partners had bought this company thinking it was one thing, when it was another. Their perception had caused them to think it was ready to fly higher, when it was headed into a dive. The last three years the company had lost 10%, 10% and 9%. I had arrived about six months before, and it had taken every minute of four person’s time to get people believing again. At last we were ready with the plan and the energy to move in a forward direction. His words could make or break the momentum.

He’d been invited to review our critique of the past, our plan, and the concrete upon which it was built. One hint that a miss was acceptable now would say that retreat was an option. If he took the stance of a disbeliever . . . call the game; there was no point in playing.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you mind if we edit your question?” I asked. I was lucky. He had encouraged such questions—that was a good thing because I couldn’t help asking them. I learned a lot by watching him. He asked a lot of questions himself. He knew the value of information. He earned his living by risk-adverse curiosity.

“Go ahead.” he replied. “Educate me.” All eyes turned my way. This wasn’t a contingency we had planned for when we put the meeting together.

I spoke slowly and with respect. “What you say affects how we think. How we think affects how we run your company. It makes a difference in where we direct our attention. You want us thinking about making the goal, not thinking about what we’ll do if we miss it.”

He got the point. He was quick on the uptake. He knew I’d keep talking until he let me know it. He said, “Ok Liz, no need to hit me over the head, I hear what you’re saying .” He glanced at the plan for a moment. Then started up again differently.

“Now that I’ve heard your plan,” he said, “You know the business. You know the plan. Persuade me that it’s going to work.”

The physical posture of every person in the room changed. The energy level rose by degrees. The conversation became animated. The plan attained visibility.

The company grew over 40% that year, which was 15% higher than plan, and by more than 25% for many years following. During the same years, the industry was growing at less than 3%.

That meeting was a critical moment in the company’s life, in the lives of the employees. The words that were said and heard were words that affected real people. They caught the attention of those in the room, who lead the rest of the company. In plain fact, those words were the difference between no job and job security.

The turn of a phrase turned around a company.

—me strauss Letting me be