Watch Your Language!

Mark Twain is much in the news, thanks to the release of the first volume of his uncensored autobiography and to the well-intentioned proposal to turn Huckleberry Finn into Dick and Jane See Spot Run.  Twain was a stickler for using the right word or phrase, differentiating between "lightning" and "lightning bug."

I thought about that when the resident six-year-old asked his grandmother to shovel the cards so they could play Go Fish.  He made up for it later by helping me shuffle snow from the driveway.

Business examples abound.  The financial advisor, for example, who could guarantee increased prophets.  Hey, between MSNBC and Fox News, we've got just about all the prophets we can tolerate.  Then, there is the otherwise-respected systems house whose web site promises services that "span the gambit."  From what?  The Sicilian to Blackmar-Diemer?

Point is, in business relationships, supply chain or other, words matter.  You've got to know what they mean - and what they imply.  And, your words must be rooted in hands-on experience.  Using the latest cliche simply because it sounds elegant, and looks good in the brochure won't cut it for long.  Your language, in business and in all facets of life, needs to be authentic, reflecting your true self.  Attempting to build relationships without authenticity involves risks of: if you are skilled, being perceived as a con game; or, if you are less-practiced, being seen as a wanna-be poseur. 

Either way, the relationship potential is in jeopardy, and you lose.