Skip to content

Our Digital Dust

Reflections on three fathers' experience and lives for our kids

August 5, 2017 The Hybperbolic Hyperbole of Language Today

admin August 5, 2017 1 Comment

Not long ago, I was at an internal gathering of all my agency’s external senior leaders. One of these mature, senior representatives of our agency and our director began talking about the challenges of our new assignments philosophy. He talked about our shift to moving people around more deliberately and strategically and how that was causing angst among our employees at his site. He said, “The employees have The Sword of Damacles hanging over them and we act like it’s no big deal.” I challenged him immediately and took umbrage with his position that his employees were not in immediate life-threatening danger and that we had worked with him and the rest of his leadership team to ensure we considered each employee’s personal and professional well-being before making any assignment decisions. Ironically, he got mad at me for calling him out on the inappropriate use of the Sword of Damacles imagery and said he was just trying to make a point. Unfortunately, I see this all too often in today’s world

Sadly, I see politicians use this approach in order to emphasize their position to their base electorate. The problem with that is everyone (including the rest of the world) hears the words that are poorly chosen or improperly used. It’s almost as if we have forgotten how to make a point without having to exaggerate our position. Does the most fantastical or grandiose argument always win the day? I don’t think so. In her book “Quiet,” Susan Cain explains that many of the leaders we see in our lives and in our world often get to positions of authority through because they are extroverts who pound their chest, wave their arms, say things loudly and use hyperbole to get and keep our attention. But Cain writes that all this attention grabbing does not a good leader make. In fact, she points out that most of the women and men who successfully led various organizations through major transformation, challenging points in history or growing a business from the ground up are introverts…people who use language sparingly and don’t’ need to distort words to make a point.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Daily Post

One Comment

  1. Bob Hale says:
    August 5, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    Yep. “Louder” does not mean “better or more correct.” It just means “Louder.” 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

August 2017
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Jul   Sep »

Recent Posts

  • Lent, Life, and Liberty
  • February 15, 2021 – Dingo Dogs, Moose, and Retirement
  • February 10, 2021 – Sweetness
  • Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before…
  • January 24, 2021 – Carpe Annos Singulos (Seize the Year!)

Recent Comments

  • ROBERT HALE on February 10, 2021 – Sweetness
  • Bob Hale on Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before…
  • June Hale on January 3, 2021 – We are back for 2021!
  • June Hale on January 3, 2021 – We are back for 2021!
  • Bob Hale on Welcome to a New Year?

Archives

  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017

Our Twitter Feed

Follow @@ourdigitaldust

Digital Dust
@ourdigitaldust

  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: Lent, Life, and Liberty https://t.co/ZaH7BcXQ2u
    about 1 week ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: February 15, 2021 – Dingo Dogs, Moose, and Retirement https://t.co/CA7u1k9ejn
    about 3 weeks ago
  • We have an updated post at #ourdigitaldust! Post Edited: February 10, 2021 – Sweetness https://t.co/mhcyfJNaNt
    about 3 weeks ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: Sweetness https://t.co/mhcyfJNaNt
    about 3 weeks ago
  • We have an updated post at #ourdigitaldust! Post Edited: Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before… https://t.co/SgIcjSPXk8
    about 1 month ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before… https://t.co/SgIcjSPXk8
    about 1 month ago
  • We have an updated post at #ourdigitaldust! Post Edited: January 24, 2021 – Carpe Annos Singulos (Seize the Year!) https://t.co/RUSFg3hOVa
    about 1 month ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: January 24, 2021 – Carpe Annos Singulos (Seize the Year!) https://t.co/RUSFg3hOVa
    about 1 month ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: A New Day https://t.co/TyMm5AMnEp
    about 1 month ago
  • We have a new post at #ourdigitaldust! New post: Welcome to a New Year? https://t.co/xdeWTPs78Q
    about 2 months ago
Copyright © 2021. Our Digital Dust
Powered By WordPress and Silver Quantum