For weeks, I have been writing about how the words we use make a difference in our leadership persona and the culture we create. As you can probably tell from my posts, I really believe this stuff.
I have to admit I was stunned and disappointed with the outcome of the United States presidential election. Among a myriad of issues I have with the president-elect, I found his discourse during the campaign particularly troubling. Words matter. I have written several posts about how words can unite and engender collaboration, or they can divide and create organizational finger pointing. The same is true in the political world. We experienced a very divisive campaign, and we can anticipate even more divisiveness going forward.
In parallel, I have also written about how important it is for a leader to speak the truth and have an open and honest discourse with their team. Honesty breeds trust, and great cultures are built on trust. Unfortunately, this was an election built on non-stop untruths and outright lies. Truthfulness just did not matter, and it appears as though many in the electorate believed the lies. The conspiracy theories and untruths amplified and supported a narrative the electorate wanted to believe. A leader’s role should be to help us find the truth and bring forth our better selves, not support and amplify the worst in us. Unfortunately that was not the behavior of our elected leader.
In the absence of unifying discourse and honest communication, I fear we are headed down a very dark path as a nation. My general policy is to avoid any political commentary in my public posts, but to be honest, this election really rattled me. I hope for the best, but I truly fear the worst, so it felt important to pause my typical business-focused posts and acknowledge the anxiety I feel about our future. If you read this far, thank you for indulging me. Words matter.