A submarine captain in the power of leadership language

[TarJak]

http://www.fastcompany.com/1843334/a-submarine-captain-on-the-power-of-leadership-language

Excellent article on how subtle changes in language can make a real difference. The book isn't a bad tome on how to turn around a poorly performing team as well.

[Jimbuna]

Could try using some of that psychology where I work.

[stoppro]

I just finished his book.It has some interesting stories. but is really a self help business model on management .I don't know if the real business world would do any of the methods he recomends. It is kind of repetitive.

[Hottentot]

Nice article. Reminded me of my current job, actually. I have learned through trial and error, that whenever there is a group of visitors on a guided tour in our museum, there is only one possible target group I can ask questions from and expect any kind of answer: children no older than 8 years old.

Anything above that is far too often riddled with the passivity that is probably learned from the school. We are so used to teacher telling us stuff from top to down and just listening that it's seen in situations like this too. I don't necessarily even need to ask anything they don't know: I can simply ask them for an opinion. In vain, more often than not. They get, like the article put it, "paralyzed" when it's even hinted that they could take a more active role in the tour. I tell them in the beginning of the tour that they can interrupt me anytime and ask questions as they like, but it just doesn't happen. There are exceptions, obviously, but this is the general impression I've got.

It feels weird that I lecture to adults and discuss with children instead of the other way around, but such is life. The whole top-down culture is something I wish we could finally get rid of.