How we choose to use words has a profound impact on those around us, especially those we are supposed to lead. For evidence, look no further than your nearest blowhard or sphinx.
You know them well. The blowhard is the foremost expert on everything and sucks the air out of the room with their filibuster delivery of word after word. Just when you think you have the opportunity to offer an opinion, they either talk right over you or move on to their next area of expert enlightenment.
The sphinx sits in stoney silence carefully assessing whether they have anything to add to the conversation or whether it merits their involvement. Mostly, the answer is no. If you find yourself in a one-on-one conversation with a sphinx, you cannot help but become something of a mini-blowhard, just to make the conversation work.
Mostly, the blowhard and sphinx constitute a minor annoyance. Unless they are your boss, at which point they become something more insidious. I call them minimizers.
All leaders need followers. Followers need to be guided, motivated and inspired by their leaders. It is the raison d’etre of leadership. But if the leader is a blowhard who never listens, they can never really understand the state of play because they are unavailable to any thoughts that are not their own. As a result, their people get minimized. Likewise, if the sphinx is leading in absolute silence, their people are left to their own ideas, inclinations and self-imposed direction. Because they do not enjoy the vantage point of the leader, they often get it wrong and also get, you guessed it, minimized.
If you are a blowhard or a sphinx, and lucky enough to be aware of it, the implications are obvious. You need to change your relationship to the spoken word, starting right now. Find yourself a honest and courageous feedback provider who can tell you when you are straying off course. Listen to them. Make the adjustments necessary to engage your people in an ongoing and robust two-way dialogue. If you do not, you run the risk of minimizing yourself out of a job.