3. How to Use This Book
If you have a presentation or a speech to give, there are basic rules of the road for every presentation. The following are the fundamental rules for any presentation, in addition to including power verbs. You will find different rules in other sources on how to use verbs in your sentences, but these rules are summarized from 35 years of personal experience and research:
1. Know to whom you are speaking. You have to know who will be listening to you. Who are the people, and what is their education, work history, and social and behavioral backgrounds?
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare. What you say and how you say it are both important elements. As a coach, mentor, leader, manager, or executive, your position gives you power, prestige, and elevated authority. People look up to you.
3. People read your body language and especially your nonverbal cues before your words. They begin to interpret the meaning of what you are saying before you are finished, so your nonverbal clues and language should connect with the thoughts and ideas you want to get expressed.
4. Select tone, style, pitch, rate, and time that is appropriate.
5. From the following lists, carefully select powerful verbs that add punch to your sentences.
In this book, power verbs are arranged alphabetically. You still have to put the rest of your sentences together using good grammar, style, syntax, and tense, but the power, muscle, clout, and sway of your sentences and phrases will come from your power verbs.
As previously stated in Chapter 2, it is the responsibility of managers and executives of organizations to use words in a way that makes the organization’s mission and vision clear to the stakeholders. Then the managers and executives must set the goals and objectives using words that drive the organization forward.
Leadership Styles
There are literally dozens and dozens of leadership styles that have been written about, discussed, taught, and bantered about. Without giving credence to one or another, one taxonomy has been selected for this book. It was adapted from The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Management by Alan Murray, published by HarperBusiness. In the book Primal Leadership, Daniel Goleman, who popularized the notion of “Emotional Intelligence,” describes six different styles of leadership. The most effective leaders can move among these styles, adopting the one that meets the needs of the moment. They can all become part of the leader’s repertoire.
In the book, leadership is discussed as something that is less about the needs of the leader, and more about the needs of the people and the organization being led. Leadership styles are not something to be tried on like so many suits, to see which fits. Rather, they should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved, and the particular challenges facing the organization. The six styles identified in Primal Leadership are included as a taxonomy to provide readers with a context to view and use the power verbs in this book.
Visionary
This style is most appropriate when an organization needs a new direction. Its goal is to move people toward a new set of shared dreams. “Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there—setting people free to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks,” wrote Mr. Goleman and his coauthors.
Coaching
This one-on-one style focuses on developing individuals, showing them how to improve their performance, and helping to connect their goals to the goals of the organization. Coaching works best, Mr. Goleman writes, “with employees who show initiative and want more professional development.” But it can backfire if it’s perceived as “micromanaging” an employee and undermines his or her self-confidence.
Affiliative
This style emphasizes the importance of teamwork and creates harmony in a group by connecting people to each other. Mr. Goleman argues this approach is particularly valuable “when trying to heighten team harmony, increase morale, improve communication or repair broken trust in an organization.” But he warns against using it alone because its emphasis on group praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected. “Employees may perceive,” he writes, “that mediocrity is tolerated.”
Democratic
This style draws on people’s knowledge and skills and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals. It works best when the direction the organization should take is unclear, and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the group. Mr. Goleman warns that this consensus-building approach can be disastrous in times of crisis, when urgent events demand quick decisions.
Commanding
This is a classic model of “military” style leadership—probably the most often used, but the least often effective. Because it rarely involves praise and frequently employs criticism, it undercuts morale and job satisfaction. Mr. Goleman argues it is only effective in a crisis, when an urgent turnaround is needed. Even the modern military has come to recognize its limited usefulness.
The more than 450 power verbs in this book are listed in straight alphabetical order and the six leadership categories of Posner are just a way to demonstrate how the power verbs can be used by any leaders using any leadership style under any circumstance in any condition.
In most cases, the power verbs have examples of the specific word in actual use. These examples include the power verb used in sentences, in famous speeches, in quotations, and in newspaper and magazine articles. Some power verbs have a list of words that collocate or have a tendency to be found to be grouped or chunked with that power verb.
1. Consequences: n. The phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon.
2. Impact: n. A forceful consequence; causes listeners to assume they will see and feel a measurable difference. It is no longer good enough to speak about potential solutions or best effort; people want results.
Impact: v. To have an effect upon; causes listeners to assume they will see and feel a measurable difference. It is no longer good enough to speak about potential solutions or best effort; people want results.
3. Diplomacy: n. Subtle, skillful, peaceful, nondramatic solution to problems. People are tired of drama, anxiety, and tension; they want leadership in diplomacy.
4. Dialogue: n. Dialogue is the discussion of diplomatic issues.
5. Reliability: n. The quality of being dependable in a way that was expected or better.
6. Mission: n. An authentic and genuine purpose.
7. Commitment: n. Dedication to what one promised.
In addition to these aids, where possible and appropriate, examples of using the power verb in more vivid language phrasing and form are included. These include the following:
• Alliteration—The repetition of the consonant sound of close or adjoining words. An example of alliteration is “Step forward, Tin Man. You dare to come to me for a heart, do you? You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk...And you, Scarecrow, have the effrontery to ask for a brain! You billowing bale of bovine fodder!”—delivered by Frank “Wizard of Oz” Morgan (from the movie The Wizard of Oz).
• Antithesis—The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas frequently in parallel structure. Examples might include “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” (John F. Kennedy) or “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible” (T. E. Lawrence).
• Metaphor—An implicit comparison between things that are essentially different yet have something in common. It is different from the simile because the metaphor does not contain words such as like or as. Examples of metaphors might include the following: The same sun warms rich and poor; “great managers manage by chess, good managers manage by checkers” (Marcus Buckinghame); “life is a journey, travel it well” (United Airlines); or “life is a zoo in a jungle” (Peter De Vries).
• Parallelism—A pair or series of related words, phrases, or sentences. An example of parallelism might include “We defeated communism. We defeated fascism. We defeated them on the field of battle, and we defeated them on the field of ideas” (Colin Powell).
• Repetition—Repeating the same word or set of words at the beginning or end of successive sentences, phrases, or clauses. Repetition usually results in parallelism and builds a strong cadence in the speaker’s delivery. Examples of repetition are “We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail” (George W. Bush). “The ever important murmur, dramatize it, dramatize it!” (Henry James, American expatriate writer, 1843–1916).
• Similes—An explicit comparison between things that are essentially different yet have something in common and always includes word such as like or as. Examples of similes might include busy as a bee, hungry as a tiger, or light as a feather. It is important to note that overuse of similes creates clichés and diminishes the vivid impression you were trying to create.
• Vivid Imagery—The use of vivid, figurative, expressive, or evocative language to represent themes, objects, actions, or ideas.
Here are some examples from the book:
(2) succeed in doing something
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.”
—Denis Waitley
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Alliteration—If you help others accomplish their goals and attain their objectives, you will achieve your dreams.
• Parallelism—“Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them” (Joseph Heller).
• Repetition—If you want to achieve, you have to rise early; if you want to achieve, you have to work hard every day; if you want to achieve, you have to accomplish something every day before you go to sleep.
(2) to set to work on; take the initiative and go on the offensive
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Alliteration—“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others” (Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian writer and statesman, Florentine patriot, author of The Prince, 1469–1527).
• Antithesis—“Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack” (Sun Tzu, Chinese general and author, 500 BC).
• Metaphor—“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” (President Franklin Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor address to the nation, Washington, D.C., 12/08/1941).
• Repetition—“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more” (General George S. Patton, American general in World War I and II, 1885–1945).
• Repetition—“Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island” (President Franklin Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor address to the nation, Washington, D.C., 12/08/1941).
• Simile—Attack as viciously as a lioness attacking a gazelle in search of a meal for her cubs.
The list of power verbs that follow are displayed in alphabetical order. The list includes the power verb, several synonyms, an abbreviated definition, examples of the power verb used in sentences and quotes, and for many power verbs, words that the verbs collocates with.