{"id":3892,"date":"2014-06-05T19:39:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T00:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=3892"},"modified":"2014-06-05T19:39:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T00:39:52","slug":"4-risks-that-exaggeration-poses-to-your-leadership-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/05\/4-risks-that-exaggeration-poses-to-your-leadership-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Risks that Exaggeration Poses to Your Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><em style=\"font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;\">Updated from May 3, 2012 post<\/em><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p><em><\/em><strong>How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used in your leadership;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cThat was the best (event, earnings quarter, meeting) we\u2019ve ever had!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThis promises to be the best \u00a0(board retreat, stockholders meeting) ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThere is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our (company, church, organization)!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/fingers-crossed.jpg\" class=\"btn-image--openpopup figure aligncenter size-full wp-image-3894\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3894\" title=\"fingers crossed\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/fingers-crossed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you find that these types of hyped-up, hyperbole-filled statements are creeping into your leadership communication, watch out. Your leadership could be taking hits that you\u2019re not even aware of.<\/p>\n<p>As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, you run four significant risks:<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><strong>You can be seen as inauthentic<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it. Not\u00a0<em>every<\/em>\u00a0event can be the \u201cbest ever\u201d. If you use this kind of language excessively people will start to see you less as a leader, and more as a pitch-man.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, you need to cast vision, not sell a ShamWow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><strong>You can lose credibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know that service you described as the \u201cbest ever\u201d? Well guess what. Your people were there, and they know it\u00a0<em>wasn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0the best ever.<\/p>\n<p>When your communication creates a gap between what your people know to be true, and what you\u00a0<em>claim<\/em>\u00a0to be true, you start to lose credibility.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Young people start to tune out<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Young people today have their radar on \u201cfull alert\u201d for anything that smells like hyperbole, exaggeration or hype.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t afford to alienate this group with your communication.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><strong>You create a culture of \u201cdesperation\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a leader your words have a powerful ability to form and shape culture.<\/p>\n<p>When your communication is flavoured with constant hype you are creating a culture of desperation. For your followers it\u2019s a short walk from desperation to suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>Because of my own optimistic nature, I\u2019ve learned that I need to be vigilant to ensure that hyperbole doesn\u2019t creep into my own communication.<\/p>\n<p>And I would urge you to be just as vigilant.<\/p>\n<p>Because if you can keep away from exaggeration and hype it will be the absolutely greatest thing ever in the history of the world&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>(And that, friends, is hype).<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you keep from over-hyping your communication?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated from May 3, 2012 post How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used in your leadership; \u201cThat was the best (event, earnings quarter, meeting) we\u2019ve ever had!\u201d \u201cThis promises to be the best \u00a0(board retreat, stockholders meeting) ever!\u201d \u201cThere is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7,581],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-self-assessment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3897,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3892\/revisions\/3897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}