Better Leadership Through Proper Grammar
Words matter. Our words matter to our people, and our people make the mission happen. Our words can inspire greatness, or they can leave our workforce uncertain and fearful. So shouldn't we make sure we understand the power of our words...and proper grammar? In an earlier blog post I described the “deep dark place” that our workforce often goes when we introduce a new idea, and suggested some things we could do to change the negativity to positivity. A year later I heard an interesting TEDx Talk that explained why that deep dark place exists. The talk is titled, “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” by Phuc Tran. In this talk, Tran compares and contrasts the psychological impact of two linguistic moods: the subjunctive (expressions of possibility) and the indicative (statements of fact). Tran’s story is an insightful example of how his mastery of the English language—with its subjunctive mood—gave Tran the ...