04 Apr Spelling, origin and why this can make or break your leadership message
Spelling, origin and why this can make or break your leadership message
Simon Wallace | 3rd April 2019
I sat with a friend recently and he told me about the origins of the word spelling and how this can make or break any message.
This friend is in sales leadership, he told me that he encourages his sales people to cast a spell on their customers, clearly spelling out their value proposition so that the buyer wonders about the many benefits of doing business with their company.
He told me that:
Spelling comes from spell, to cast a spell on someone ..
I later looked this up …
Old English spell “story, saying, tale, history, narrative, fable; discourse, command, … From c. 1200 as “an utterance, something said, a statement, remark;” meaning “set of words with supposed magical or occult powers, incantation, charm” first recorded 1570s
This insightful tale reinforces the significance of words in something said anytime.
Communication has 3 elements not just words. Mehrabian demonstrated that only 7% of what we communicate consists of the literal content of the message. The use of your voice, such as tone, intonation and volume, take up 38% and as much as 55% of communication consists of body language.
So what does this tell us about your spelling …
Pay attention to your spelling, something said as well as the way you spell it, critically remark with clear voice and positive body language for impact and the very best magic possible.
Beware utterance of spelling that casts bad magic as this will very possibly break your leadership message.
How effective is your leadership spelling?
What a great story John. Thank you for sharing this with me, I love it.
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References
Photo by Amanda Jone
About the Author
Simon Wallace is founder of The Whole Thing Group and passionate about performance improvement. Creative entrepreneur and trusted advisor to some great companies that are achieving great things.
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