If you’re leading people, you should be thinking about verbs. A lot.
Now it may sound ridiculous to suggest that parts of speech are a critical aspect of developing your people and building an effective team but hear me out.
To be clear, I don’t have anything against nouns, pronouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Prepositions, participles, and gerunds are fine too. To be honest, I’m guessing about gerunds because I can’t remember what those are, but I’m sure they serve a worthwhile purpose in the English language. (Coach Skillen, I know you’re reading this right now and rolling your eyes because I’m sure you taught me this, but please forgive me.)
So why do verbs deserve a business leader’s attention?
Well, a million years ago when I was in grade school, I was taught that a verb is the “doing” word.
And work is about doing things. Taking action.
When people are on a team in a business, or any type of organization for that matter, their purpose is to accomplish tasks.
Businesses are built on two things: people and verbs.
People taking action.
The better you are at using verbs, the better leader you will be.
When you clearly articulate the work you expect someone to do, they will be more successful.
To illustrate my point, here’s a story based loosely on some work I was doing recently with a client.
I’ll call him Chuck and fuzzy up the details to protect his privacy.
Chuck was preparing to hire a new team member. And I was reviewing a draft of the job posting. This is one of my favorite things to do with clients, so I was really digging into it.
Chuck’s got a small team, so adding one more person is a big deal. If he gets it right, his business will benefit greatly. But, if he makes a bad hire, the negative impact will be even bigger.
He’ll waste time and money with firing and rehiring and potentially disturb the high level of trust and cohesion he’s built within his team.
That’s why I was involved.
When I studied the first revision of the job posting Chuck shared with me, I paid close attention to the verbs he used.
I did that for two reasons.
First, I wanted to make sure that any job seeker reading the posting would immediately know if they were a good fit. If they were, they would apply. If they weren’t, they would move on and save everyone time.
Second, I wanted to help Chuck think at a deeper level about this role and communicate more clearly.
Here’s what happened.
Chuck used the verb “own” multiple times to describe the responsibilities of the person in this role.
“Own” is a good verb.
We all want people on our team who “think like an owner,” and good leaders hire people who have an owner’s mindset.
But what does “own” really mean?
That’s what Chuck and I discussed.
As we were talking, I reminded Chuck about the Working Genius principles.
Every person has only two Working Geniuses, which represent the types of tasks they enjoy doing and bring them energy and fulfillment.
And every project requires all six Working Geniuses to be applied.
Therefore, every project is best done by a team with a diverse set of Working Geniuses.
Can one person do a project all by themselves?
Sure they can. But they’re going to be frustrated and not working at their full potential most of the time.
That may be acceptable for some leaders. But it wasn’t for Chuck.
He’s committed to providing his employees with work that brings them fulfillment.
In fact, it’s one of the core values of his business.
Chuck works hard to understand his people and give them work that lights them up.
Which brings us back to the verb he was using in his job posting.
“Own.”
Chuck and I decided this verb was good, but not good enough.
Because this vague action doesn’t really capture the specific tasks Chuck has in mind for this person.
Own could mean this one employee has to personally do every task from the start of the project until it was completed. By themselves.
Since Chuck has such a small staff, this is a reasonable interpretation. But that would be a disaster waiting to happen. And it wasn’t what Chuck meant.
No one person should be expected to be good at and enjoy every aspect of a project from start to finish.
Take a minute to think about yourself. Are you wired to do all these steps well?
- Identify the need for improvement or a change.
- Generate several creative ideas and solutions.
- Evaluate them and decide which one is best.
- Get the work started and keep it moving.
- Help others who need to be involved.
- Drive the project to done.
I’m not. Neither is Chuck.
And when he used the word “own,” he didn’t mean that he expected one person to be fully responsible for all the tasks that needed to be done for the project.
But through our discussions, he realized that a potential candidate could get that impression from the job posting as he first wrote it.
Chuck knew he needed to use a different verb. Several of them actually.
For context, this is the situation he and his team were in.
Last year, they recognized a business opportunity, and the team came up with several innovative approaches they wanted to consider.
The ideation phase of this project was done.
They had also evaluated and selected the process they wanted to use. Then they developed a playbook for the team to follow.
They had a kickoff meeting and everyone was excited to get started.
Activation phase of the work: complete!
But that’s when progress stalled.
They just couldn’t seem to get this new initiative to move beyond the excitement of the initial launch. As a result, it wasn’t yet delivering the results they knew it could.
This project was stuck in the implementation phase.
That’s why Chuck was adding a person to his team. And that’s what he meant when he used the word “own.”
So, we worked together to tighten up his verbs.
Here are some of the options we discussed.
- Track deadlines
- Manage timelines
- Remove obstacles
- Drive accountability
- Facilitate collaboration
- Conduct status reviews
- Measure results after launch
- Ensure quality standards are met
That’s what Chuck really meant by “own.”
In the language of the Working Genius model, he needed someone on his team with Enablement and Tenacity.
Which, not coincidentally, is the gap his Working Genius team map highlights.
With just a short coaching conversation, Chuck was able to more clearly articulate what he was really looking for in candidates for this role before he posted it publicly.
As a result, he saved himself hours that would have been wasted interviewing candidates who could “own” parts of the project but weren’t who Chuck needed on his team.
The time he spent thinking about verbs was valuable for Chuck.
You may not be writing a job posting to hire a new person on your team, but you’re using verbs every day as you lead your team.
Do the verbs you’re using clearly communicate what you really want?
I encourage you to do what Chuck did and consider tightening up your verbs.
The more clearly you articulate your desires and intentions, the more successful your team will be.
Helping you lead with clarity and confidence,
Greg
P.S. If you’d like some help thinking through the verbs you’re using as a leader in your business, I’d love to support you. Feel free to grab a spot on my calendar using my scheduling link.
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Greg Harrod
Greg Harrod is a Business Coach and Strategic Communications Partner. Follow GregHarrod.com to learn how you can build clear communication, aligned teams, and simple rhythms so your business runs smoothly. Greg will help you learn how to go from daily firefighting to calm, confident leadership by sharing his 30+ years of experience leading teams and businesses.
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