Language reference

The following phrases are based on the leadership ideas in the article and can help you to express yourself better in leadership roles.

Communicating the big picture

Our strategic goal is to…

What we’re aiming to achieve is… The big picture is…

Making the case for change

If you look at how the market is going, it’s clear that… This change will allow us to…

If we don’t change, then…

Using ethics and morality to inspire people

Ethically, I think the right thing to do is…

The moral argument here is that…

If we want to be fair/democratic/honest, then we have to…

Pushing people beyond self-interest

The organization needs you/us to… We need to stop thinking in silos because… Put yourself in the shoes of ... for a moment.

Delegating to others

Would you be able to take on… ?

Can I leave it to you to finalize this?

Could you follow up on this for me?

I think it would be good if you handled this because…

Stressing the need for agility

What can we do to satisfy/meet the needs of the customers? How quickly can we… ?

I think that next time, we can optimize…

Directing others

We just need to get this done end of story. This is nonnegotiable because…

Please have this finished by…

So, how do you see the problem? What do you think would work best? When do you think you can… ?