The Power of the Positive Word

So obviously true is that statement that it can be offered aphoristically, namely standing by itself without the need for explanation or defense. fence.

That said, let's take a look at two sterling examples anyway.

In November 2004, two municipalities eight miles apart from each other in affluent Bergen County, New Jersey, had open space initiatives on their ballots, et cetera.

They both had lovely homes, good schools, robust social scenes, vibrant downtown shopping districts, and ample open space.

High property tax rates, too, but that's not unrelated.

Municipality number one worded its ballot question like this.

Should the township create a municipal trust fund? for land preservation based on a tax of 1 % per $100 of assessed value.

Notice the positive words, create, trust, fund, preservation.

Municipality number two posed this question this way.

Should the village impose an additional tax levy of up to 1 % per $100 of assessed value for its municipal trust fund?

Note the negative words or tone, impose additional tax levy.

Do I need to tell you the results? in municipality number one it passed by a margin of 52 to 48 in number two it failed by oh my 52 48 and you look you can look all day long for other differentiating causal factors but you won't find any that's how similar the two were Or, conclusively, the differentiator was the influential wording of the ballot questions.

Now, there's two explanations for why that happened.

Either the leaders of each municipality got the results they wanted, one knew what they were doing and how to get it done, while those in number two didn't.

One way or the other the power of the positive word was positive results and is the only discernible differentiator in this case study on a far more vast scale John F. Kennedy knew this as well as anyone in modern history and he displayed it every day On May 25th, 1961, just four months after the historic and immeasurably positive ask not moment in his inaugural address, and still four days shy of his 44th birthday, JFK addressed a joint session of Congress.

Anticipation and optimism were running high and soaring in anticipation of the House Chamber speech that evening And as the nation was still buzzing from the feeling whenever JFK was about to speak It was there again and he did not disappoint about ourselves after nearly four years of the Soviets beating us to space with an unmanned capsule, and then a monkey, and then a cosmonaut.

But look at JFK's choice of positive words.

Believe, commit, achieving, goal, before, landing, returning, safely.

27 % of the words in that one sentence have a positive valence, even out of context.

So powerful were his positive words and so well crafted that when he warned in the very next sentence that no single space project in this period will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish, it didn't matter.

That difficult and expensive challenge became merely a requisite challenge, as the inspiration was already there. And of course, we know the positive results. Eight years and two months later, and nearly six years after his assassination, JFK's positive words were still yielding positive results.

Neil Armstrong took that one small step, that one giant leap for mankind.

It's interesting to speculate what would have happened had JFK begun with the difficult and expensive part.

Would Congress and the people of America have been as receptive? Would the speeches have been as effective? Would the results have been there?

With the influence of positive leadership sustained that long after his death. That's the power of the positive word.

And great leaders know it instinctively, but still work on it every day. It's what makes great leaders great.

All great leaders are communicators first, demonstrating what I consider to be fundamentally and eternally true, that not all good communicators can lead, but all good leaders can communicate.

Getting back to those two municipalities, because I'm sure you're curious.

Very interesting to note that four years later in 2008 municipality one where the where the initiative won by 52 to 48 repeated their open space initiative this time loaded with even more positivity activity. Should the township extend for four years its open space trust fund for the acquisition, development, maintenance, and preservation of recreational land, it passed by an overwhelming Filming, 62 to 38 margin.

Municipality number two, it never got back on the ballot.

If you're interested in knowing who they are because you're local, you'll go, oh, yeah. And if not, you'll learn a little something about Bergen County, New Jersey.

The unsuccessful municipality was Ridgewood.

A village of about 30,000 people, a fine place to live and work, but obviously with a flaw.

The victorious municipality was the township of Teaneck, another fine place.

It has to be. I live here.

But there it is. it had reverse results at the first and it had nothing doing for the second municipality for the second indeed we can say that the power of the positive word is positive results let's take a break and I'll be right back I want to take a moment to thank the people who make this show possible accessible vantage point is brought to you by steven bozer it is also brought to you by cardam consulting and by bergen volunteers thank you all of you for being our sponsors and for standing behind this work you are the reason this podcast exists and the reason we can keep doing the work of critical thinking and if you would like to learn more about them come visit my website say to Iliander.com.

Hi, everybody. I'm back with my aphorisms, as always.

More truths that I've discovered along the way of my long career and longer life.

I'm going to offer them to you as is.

I believe them. I'm not going to argue them. Take it or leave it.

They're here.

And I've got three for you today.

One of which comes straight out of the text of my talk, that not all great communicators can lead, but all great leaders can communicate.

I get this most directly from my own career, part of which involved 15 years of teaching a graduate course at Fairleigh Dickinson University called Executive Communication and Leadership.

So I'm going to say it to you one more time. Not all great communicators can lead, but all great leaders can communicate.

Thinking about the long haul, why we're in all this, I am thoroughly convinced that the most important thing you can do with your life is something that will outlast you.

And the third is quite a bit more sardonic but this is as good a time as any because the election campaign has kicked in judging by recent politics one is tempted to challenge Darwin's theory of evolution a thought from a great mind and a little comment on it Abraham Maslow who I believe taught us more about rethinking the way human beings develop you will either step forward into growth or fall backward into safety a terse comment on that I believe that falling backward is what has happened over the last 10-20 years and why we're making no progress in our schools, our education systems, our social services, et cetera.

Those people who resist the teaching of controversial books, or not even controversial, but just challenging books. Those people who want to have parents in charge of boards of education instead of having professionals run it.

Those people who are afraid to move forward.

Throughout history, we have stepped forward into growth and backward into safety.

I decided not long ago that we were going to put together an effort to do something about it. And that is what you're listening to today. day.

I hope if you're listening to this, you'll spread the word and have more people listen to it. And then you'll do whatever you can, along with all of us on keeping the effort to move forward going and convincing people that moving that falling backward is not the way to go.

Abraham Maslow also said this in his pledge of his support of the human being.

He said that human beings have wonderful possibilities and inscrutable depths.

There's nothing, in other words, that we can't accomplish.

We just have to do it if you'd like to know why Abraham Maslow is high on my list of people I'd like to have over for a dinner party that should answer your question and now I want to ask you a what if question and I'm going to leave the question hanging and we'll see what we come up with On June 6, 1944, Dwight Eisenhower launched D-Day, Operation Overlord, the invasion of the continent of Europe that would ultimately lead 11 months later to the ending of World War II.

Facing him He was the son of England Facing him Was A frightening Military force Of Germany Of the Nazis And leading that Force Was maybe the most accomplished General in the world At that time Edwin Rommel the invasion took place before and through dawn on the five beaches Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juneau and Sword Beach and you've all seen Save the Private Ryan, you know how gory it was but as bloody as it was it was a successful day But it shouldn't have been because Rommel had everything he needed to defeat us.

But he didn't.

Because the leaders of the Allied forces, FDR Winston Churchill George Marshall and the King of England had all the faith in the world in Eisenhower and gave him full command of the battle Rommel who deserved all the confidence in the world from Hitler was not given that leeway and when Rommel was informed at 6 o 'clock in the morning that the sun was coming up and so were 5,000 allied ships he had 30 kilometers away a battalion of panzer tanks with air backup up in trains with ammunition and everything else.

And he did not have the authority to activate it.

He had to ask his boss, von Rundstedt, for permission to release the troops.

And if he had gotten to von Rundstedt, it wouldn't have mattered because von Rundstedt was in Paris buying shoes for his wife for her birthday.

So von Rundstedt couldn't say yes. And von Rundstedt could not go to Hitler because Hitler was sleeping. He had a very long day the day before and he needed to sleep and he had instructions given to his guards not to wake him until noon.

By noon, the Allied invasion was underway for six hours.

It wasn't until 11 o 'clock at night that Hitler signed the order to release the troops, at which point the troops that had been on the bluffs of Normandy overlooking the Channel could fight nobly and with a relative amount of success, but it wasn't enough.

The objectives that Eisenhower set, which were not to get all the way to Berlin, they were to get 50 yards inland to the first crossroads that they found, to a barn.

They got their positions. They made their positions.

Eisenhower was given all the authority that he needed, and Rommel, none.

The what if is what if that was in the reverse, because it very easily could have been.

Kick it around a little bit, do a little reading, do a little research. It's a fascinating story.

I was blown away as I stood on the battlefields of Normandy on the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 and tried to comprehend something that large.

But the whole free world was the whole free world as a result of it. And I'm going to ask you to think about it critically.

What would have happened if this decision or that decision or the other decision had been made would have probably been a vastly different story.

And that brings me to the end of our podcast episode for the day.

With a promise that coming up in the next few weeks, we'll take an entirely new look at hiring and team building I'm going to tell you the story of Ascending Everest another fascinating story in human leadership and I'm going to ask and try to answer the question where do ideas come from that's it thanks for being with me see you next time until then keep questioning keep learning and keep thinking critically