{"id":5231,"date":"2016-04-11T19:40:37","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T00:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=5231"},"modified":"2016-04-11T19:40:37","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T00:40:37","slug":"4-risks-that-exaggeration-poses-to-your-leadership-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/11\/4-risks-that-exaggeration-poses-to-your-leadership-3\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Risks that Exaggeration Poses to Your Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>It happened again this week. A leader in my orbit described a meeting as \u201cQuite possibly our best meeting ever.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Really?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>As soon as the words were out of his mouth the thought flashed through my mind, \u201cI need to keep watching my own communication for any signs of such exaggeration.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cThat was the best (event, class, earnings quarter, meeting) we\u2019ve ever had!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThis promises to be the best (baptism service, board retreat, youth outreach, stockholders meeting) ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cThere is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our (church, company, ministry, club)!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5232\" class=\"btn-image--openpopup figure aligncenter size-full wp-image-5232\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5232\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1.jpg\" alt=\"Fingers-Crossed\" width=\"849\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1.jpg 849w, https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Fingers-Crossed-1-433x288.jpg 433w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 849px) 100vw, 849px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\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:<\/p>\n<h2><strong>You can be seen as inauthentic<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it. Not\u00a0<em>every<\/em>\u00a0event can be the \u2018best ever\u2019. If you use this kind of language excessively people will start to see you less as a leader, and more as a \u2018pitch-man\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, you need to cast vision, not sell a Sham-Wow.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>You can lose credibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>You know that service you described as the \u2018best ever\u2019? 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<h2><strong>Young people start to tune out<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Young people today have their radar on \u2018full alert\u2019 for anything that smells like hyperbole, exaggeration or hype.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t afford to alienate this group with you communication.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>You create a culture of \u2018desperation\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\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.<\/p>\n<p>(And that, my friend, was pure hype!)<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you keep from over-hyping your communication?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It happened again this week. A leader in my orbit described a meeting as \u201cQuite possibly our best meeting ever.\u201d Really? As soon as the words were out of his mouth the thought flashed through my mind, \u201cI need to keep watching my own communication for any signs of such exaggeration.\u201d How many of these&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5226,"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":[5,738,478,7,581,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipline2","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-self-assessment","category-wisdom-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","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=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5234,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions\/5234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}