The Power of Being Articulate: The Thoughtful Leader's Model for Wealth and Happiness

By Pete Geissler

Start with this thought: Your success in your professional, financial, and personal life depends to a great extent on your ability to articulate. I first learned the truth and power behind that statement when I lived in a grimy coal-mining and steel-making town in Pennsylvania, where it was clear that articulate professionals were more successful than the less articulate miners and mill workers. My education continued years later at the top levels of government, business, and academe where I observed power brokers and decision-makers use their considerable skills with language to think clearly, arrive at logical decisions, and convey those decisions clearly to others. And over the years, I saw that my happiest friends and associates were able to communicate clearly with spouses and others with whom they enjoy close relationships. "In short, my intuition told me that language is the root cause of a more fulfilled life. Along came Pete and this book." - John Yasinsky, Former CEO, GenCorp

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Expressive Press
• Release date: Apr 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514630044

Pete Geissler

Pete Geissler is an outspoken advocate of good communications and behavior. His eight books, and hundreds of articles, speeches, and classes examine why and how to be articulate, to write well, and to treat people respectfully and ethically. His accomplishments include authorship of a publisher's best seller and a finalist in best books 2014, and writing more than three million words that have been published or spoken in formal settings. Pete is founder and CEO of The Expressive Press, a publisher of books in several genre. He also teaches and coaches engineers, scientists, and business persons how to write and to use writing to boost their productivity, value, and careers. He serves on the Board of Directors, Opera Theater Pittsburgh, and chairs its planned giving committee.

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Foreword

CAUTION: This book can help make you wealthy and happy, or, depending on your situation, wealthier and happier. But only if you approach it with an open mind.

Start with this thought: Your success in your professional, financial, and personal life depends to a great extent on your ability to articulate.

I first learned the truth and power behind that statement when I lived in a grimy coal-mining and steel-making town in Pennsylvania, where it was clear that articulate professionals were more successful than the less articulate miners and mill workers. My education continued years later at the top levels of government, business, and academe where I observed power brokers and decision-makers use their considerable skills with language to think clearly, arrive at logical decisions, and convey those decisions clearly to others. And over the years, I saw that my happiest friends and associates were able to communicate clearly with spouses and others with whom they enjoy close relationships.

In short, my intuition told me that language is the root cause of a more fulfilled life. Along came Pete and this book.

He explained the premise in his own articulate way, converting my intuition to reality such that I agreed to be profiled in a chapter and now the forwarder.

Throughout recorded history, many thinkers have noted the importance of being articulate and the power of words; you'll find a few of their comments in the book. Pete, however, goes a giant step further by connecting articulation to wealth and happiness, and to the clear thinking and better decisions that thwart mediocrity. He quite correctly points out that we think in words, and we need more words to think with as the issues we need to resolve become more complex, as they do as we rise in any organization and as our close relationships mature.

Pete has successfully and clearly connected wealth, happiness, and words with compelling evidence. Now you can make the same connections, and you can follow his succinct guidelines and become a true Articulate.

CAUTION #2: This book isn't a cure-all for those who are dissatisfied with their professional, financial, and personal lives. No book is. But this a good start.

John Yasinsky

John Yasinsky is a former Group Vice President, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, CEO of GenCorp., and CEO of OMNOVA Solutions. He currently is Executive Advisory Partner at Windpoint Partners, a leading private equity firm, and a Director of CMS Energy, A. Schulman, and Tri State Capital Bank.

Preface: The Launching Pad

The clear sequence from vocabulary to winning, no matter how it is defined.

We all want to be wealthier and happier; it's the global way. We all can be simply by understanding and living the WinAgon:

I started to develop the WinAgon a number of years ago when I ran across a decades-long study that links vocabulary to success in business so tightly that I was startled. I also felt that the leap from vocabulary to success was too big to be credible; surely some intermediate steps are missing.

There were, and the intermediate steps are expressed briefly in the WinAgon on the facing page and more fully in this book. In essence, the WinAgon asserts that a larger vocabulary is the launching pad for wealth and happiness in all relationships; it allows its possessor to clearly connect ideas, better understand the situation, make better decisions, and communicate to others more clearly and persuasively. Those of you who own a bigger and better vocabulary think more clearly and logically, and you are less likely to be plagued by the bad decisions that can derail careers and lives.

I have labeled you ―The Articulates.

Uncovering the missing steps led to another unexpected and delightful discovery: Winning is far more than success in business, and far more than promotions and money. Applying the WinAgon can translate quite nicely to the happiness that comes from an enriched and fulfilled life—a life in which talents and interests are used productively and creatively, enabling the person to reach his or her full potential for financial and social success.

The Articulates profiled in this book are successful businesspersons as well as successful human beings.

Then, more recently, I asked myself, ―If words can enrich our individual lives, why can't they do the same for families, communities, organizations, even countries? The answer, of course, is that they can. Any group can enjoy the significant advantages of a larger vocabulary, clearer connections of ideas, better decisions, and lucid communications.

If that seems like another leap of faith, I recommend that you examine the profiles of practicing Articulates in Part Three. John Yasinsky, in Chapter Three, turned around a huge but shrinking company by first making sure that each employee, from his staff to the plant workers, understood his mission and expectations. Joe D, in Chapter Six, breathed new life into an ailing division of a large company by insisting—some might say too forcefully—on clear, concise communications that satisfied, not alienated, customers. Georgia Berner, in Chapter Eight, put the need to be articulate in her company's mission statement, and placed the statement in every plant and office. You'll find many similar examples throughout the book.

I found the many statistical, anecdotal, and historical incentives for being an Articulate to be powerfully compelling. You'll find the statistical incentives in Part One, the anecdotal in Parts Two and Three, and the historical throughout.

The Promise of the Premise. A Note on Research

This book is founded on one premise that appears simple at first blush, but on closer examination isn't so simple at all—that vocabulary leads to wealth and happiness. Thoughtful readers will ask if the premise is indeed fact—if it is so well grounded that it transcends hypothesis and theory. It does, which, of course, is a blatant statement that is made less blatant and more believable by three types of evidence.

Statistical, or just examining the numbers that are published by the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation. These statistics are based on studies that go back to the 1930s and are verified by others in the field. Their conclusions are so clear-cut that they are startling, indisputable, and supported by empirical evidence.

Empirical, or just looking around at the folks in the corner offices and in happy homes. They're almost always attentive listeners, careful writers, and articulate speakers. In short, they have a good handle on the language, and they know its power to persuade and inform. There are exceptions, of course, but in my experience, and I'd wager in yours, the exceptions are few and far between. Suggestion: read this book and then look around with a more analytical eye. For you who think that looking around isn't scientific, empiricism, by definition, is labeled by some of our deepest and most respected philosophers as the source of all knowledge. Perhaps empiricism is the most reliable evidence of all that this book's premise is fact.

Anecdotal, or just listening to practitioners, seven of whom are profiled in this book. They all point to articulation as the one skill that separates them from the pack of Also- Rans—those folks who are stuck in dead-end jobs and shallow relationships, complain relentlessly about their fate, and cannot or will not understand the underlying reasons. In essence, Articulates know that, other skills being equal, articulation is the tiebreaker in the race for wealth and happiness.

Enjoy. Experience. Win.

Part One: Your Words Can Make You Wealthy (Or Poor)

Thirty minutes to motivation, inspiration, and behaviors that work

Chapter One: What's In It For You?

THE CLEAR SEQUENCE FROM VOCABULARY TO WINNING, NO MATTER HOW WINNING IS DEFINED

Knowledge is power.

This simple and short aphorism is so universally accepted that it's embedded in our everyday thinking and speech.

But it's only half right.[1] In fact, it's a dangerous half-truth and surely an exaggeration.

Here's why: knowledge without the ability to express it is a toothless, useless, sleeping tiger; knowledge by itself is powerless. The same is true for creativity, innovation, inventiveness, and other desirable and valued characteristics of Man.

It is a luxury to be understood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Astute managers of every stripe, persuasion, and level— and others in any walk of life—know that being understood is a luxury beyond price; it is a fundamental necessity for their social and financial success, and the viability of their organizations. They share one trait.

All live the WinAgon; they understand the indelible line between using vocabulary to connect thoughts, understand the situation, make beneficial decisions, communicate clearly, and winning in all parts of their lives. All are happy articulates. Together, they are The Articulates.

Articulates own that rare ability to express ideas, thoughts, policies, directives, and so on coherently, clearly, distinctly, and succinctly. Readers and listeners know the purposes of the communiqués and how to react. They are not misled.

Articulates also encompasses those rare and inseparable abilities to compartmentalize, listen, and understand as prerequisites to expression. Some pundits would say that they are the rarest of all talents in business, and, in truth, in all human interactions. You can read more about them and the input/output nature of articulation in Chapter 2.

Note: My intent in this book is to confine articulation to expression and thinking via words: speaking and writing to others and ourselves, the media used most often in business and other human endeavors. I do not deny that articulate applies to other media such as sculptures, paintings, and music—and even body language, as pantomimes the world over demonstrate so eloquently. We can all agree that Mozart, for example, expressed his ideas, thoughts, and feelings with sublime articulation through his music; Picasso expressed his ideas, and, with an equal sublimity, through his paintings; Homer through his poetry, or Chaplin with his rubbery face and dramatic gestures. I could cite countless other examples, as could you.

Some colleagues—business associates and friends not profiled in this book—with whom I tested the title and premise of this book found it difficult to agree with it, but perhaps their cynicism interfered. All scoffed at the preposterous idea of Articulates in our society, including business. Perhaps they are colored by the appalling, ear- screeching, mind-bending lack of articulation that we are bombarded with every time we turn on the TV or open a newspaper, and point to egregious errors in grammar and thinking in advertisements, articles, interviews, and just plain conversation. Inarticulation runs rampant, and it seems, sadly, to still be accepted.

My colleagues are right, of course, but only up to a point. Managers who are already at the top, near it, or on the rise to it are a different breed; they can decry the rape and slaughter of English in the popular media (and even in their organizations), and do not become part of the problem or promote people who are.

The bottom line is that articulation is still revered and rewarded in business, government, and other organizations, as the people you'll meet later in this book demonstrate clearly. They'll explain how being articulate was a key driver (not the only, but certainly a key) behind their rise up the organization's ladder, and an important reason behind their satisfaction with their personal lives—that elusive and desirable feeling called happiness.

Careful readers will ask, at this point, why, if these managers are so wonderfully articulate, do they retain a writer to prepare their speeches and so on. One reason: most managers are articulate speakers; however, only a few are articulate writers as well. They struggle (a euphemism for investing an inordinate amount of time and sweat) with the mechanics of writing. While they are absolutely certain of the main points they want to convey, they tend to be unsure of grammar, syntax, semantics, tone and the like, and they prefer to let someone else fight those hard-won battles. They also know that their time is better spent at what they do best—manage—and part of management is delegating to specialists who can complete certain tasks more quickly and inexpensively than they as managers can.

A mighty thing is eloquence...nothing so much rules the world.

Pope Pius II (1405-1464)

Communications in any organization has been defined as the glue that holds the organization (or organizations) together or, for that matter, any endeavor by humans or animals, and, for all we know, plants (Culture has also been defined as the glue that holds an organization together. But, can an organization have culture without communications? Which comes first?). A friend who happens to be a professor of business—a technologist, not a linguist—perhaps best answered that question: clear communication enables business to exist, and without it, there wouldn't be such a thing as business at all. We can legitimately expand business to any organization or to all society.

Richard Weaver's marvelous book Ideas Have Consequences, 1946, is as supremely relevant today as it was then. Weaver noted that all metaphysical community depends on the ability of men to understand one another. Business is included, of course, and perhaps to a greater extent than we imagine. Businesses succeed when they communicate clearly to all stakeholders: employees, customers, shareholders, communities, and governments.

Consider: if metaphysical means abstract, general reasoning or excessively subtle or theoretical, then the business community is the most metaphysical of all communities. Why? Because despite the best efforts of number-crunchers to reduce decisions to mathematical certainty—witness the Whiz Kids of the seventies and the cliché if you can't measure it, you can't manage it of today—most decisions are still made by connecting abstract facts and drawing conclusions. We label that intuition.

Managers I know would agree. They understand at some intuitive level that the very existence of their means of livelihood depends on communication; however, they probably do not understand that communication is the means to their personal success, as well as the success of their organization.

The ancients believed that there is a certain divinity in language, that individuals with the power over language are able to influence and control others (Does that sound like management?). Such individuals were or are either revered, feared, or both. Regardless, they are bestowed, rightly or wrongly, with superior insight into the way things actually, or should, work.

Jesus is perhaps the most obvious example of an Articulate who was—and still is—both revered and feared; others of lesser but still formidable authority spring immediately to mind. Among them is Socrates and his judicial murder for articulately speaking his thoughts on politics and society— words that were later immortalized in writing by Plato in his Symposium. And Abraham Lincoln, who won the presidency by being more articulate than his more experienced and supposedly more articulate opponent—how many people remember Stephan A. Douglas?—during public debates, and probably won The Articulate of the Millennium award at Gettysburg (I want to note here that Jesus and Socrates never wrote a word and are still revered and feared today. Others, some known to us and some who will be unknown forever, took on that daunting task, for which we can only offer our deepest thanks.).

A personal experience, one that I repeat often, confirms my point that individuals who hold power over language are revered in today's society. I am approached regularly at parties and other gatherings, usually by a stranger, who opens the conversation with an admiring look and says, I hear that you are a writer. When I admit that I am, the stranger says something along these lines: I always wanted to write, but I'm not smart enough, which automatically endows me with reverence based on intelligence and insight that is at least superior to his or hers. That's