{"id":6914,"date":"2020-07-23T20:54:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T01:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2020-07-23T20:54:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T01:54:53","slug":"4-ways-that-exaggeration-can-damage-your-leadership-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/23\/4-ways-that-exaggeration-can-damage-your-leadership-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways That Exaggeration Can Damage Your Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, your leadership is facing&nbsp;significant risks.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recently, a\u00a0leader in my orbit described a meeting as \u201cQuite possibly our best meeting ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Right away,\u00a0the thought flashed through my mind, \u201cI need to keep watching my own communication for any signs of such exaggeration.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>\u201cThat was the best (event, class, earnings quarter, meeting) we\u2019ve ever had!\u201d<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>\u201cThis promises to be the best (board retreat, youth outreach, stockholders meeting) ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>\u201cThere is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our (church, company, ministry, club)!\u201d<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\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\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>You can be seen as inauthentic<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s face it. Not&nbsp;<em>every<\/em>&nbsp;event 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\n\n\n<p>Remember, you need to cast vision, not sell a Sham-Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>You can lose credibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You know that event you described as the \u2018best ever\u2019? Well guess what. Your people were there, and they know it&nbsp;<em>wasn\u2019t<\/em>&nbsp;the best ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When your communication creates a gap between what your people know to be true, and what you&nbsp;<em>claim<\/em>&nbsp;to be true, you start to lose credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Young people start to tune out<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Young people today have their radar on \u2018full alert\u2019 for anything that smells like hyperbole, exaggeration or hype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can\u2019t afford to alienate this group with you communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>You create a culture of desperation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a leader your words have a powerful ability to form and shape culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When your communication is flavored with constant hype you are creating a culture of desperation. For your followers it\u2019s a short walk from desperation to suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\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\n\n\n<p>And I would urge you to be just as vigilant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because what you lose in \u2018hype\u2019 you\u2019ll more than make up for in authenticity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, your leadership is facing&nbsp;significant risks. Recently, a\u00a0leader in my orbit described a meeting as \u201cQuite possibly our best meeting ever!\u201d Right away,\u00a0the thought flashed through my mind, \u201cI need to keep watching my own communication for any signs of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6590,"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":[1017,478,1016,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-featured","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","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=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6915,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/6915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}