While motivating and inspiring employees (and keeping them that way) requires a good bit of strategy, a good place to start is simply to shift your language to be more positive.

When people are constantly bombarded by negative messages, they can’t help but feel negative too. It wears on them and can even convince them that nothing they do will be right. With some simple changes, you can help to ensure that your word usage is motivating employees and making them enthusiastic about the work, not bringing them down.

So instead of saying:

  • “I can,” say “I will.”
  • “I can’t,” say “Here’s what I can do.”
  • “Yes,” say “Absolutely” or “Sure thing.”
  • “You are correct,” say “That’s exactly right.”
  • “I don’t know, so I’ll have to find out,” say “I’d be happy to find out for you.”
  • “That could work,” say “We can make that happen, if we …”
  • “That won’t work,” say “Here’s what I like about that … Now, how can we build on it.”
  • “It will take at least an hour,” say “I will send that back to you no later 1:00 p.m.”
  • “That is not my responsibility,” say “Tim is the expert on that. You can reach him at …”
  • “That isn’t a good idea,” say “Here is what you can do to make that idea work for the team.”
  • “We are going to miss our mark,” say “Here is what needs to happen to hit the goal.”
  • “You messed up,” say “You made this mistake … but here’s what we can do to correct the problem.”
  • “You are wrong,” say “This is what I know to be true.”

Some small changes can make a really big difference. However, what if negativity is already embedded in your new team? Listen to Kevin Eikenberry share his tips for dealing with negative attitudes in this short video:

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