I love words.  I love twisting them and enjoying the nuances of language.  I like the way it invites us to look at things from a new perspective.  Lately I have been collecting words the help me to rethink how I see leadership, organizations, and consulting with those leaders and teams. So, just for the fun of it here are some words-=and how I see the connection--that hopefully will stretch you and make you think . . . 

Leaderchipped: the state or effect of wear and tear on people in managerial positions. Leaders tend to get burned out, "used up," or even traumatized in their roles.  They're "Leaderchipped."

Connexus: being together with a central point or important place; a process of being together with two or more intersecting points; making interactive relationships among people. From the Latin con to "be with" and nexus this is the heart of working with organizations and leaders. Consultants need to join with and be in the central "nerve center" of the organization to have an effect. They need "connects."

LeadHer, Guydance, DirectHer, ManagHer: the act of leading, guiding, directing or managing from a gender-specific viewpoint. Are there words to emphasize the differences and similarities experienced by leaders from different genders?  I don't know. I haven't found a good one yet.

ExSample: a process of demonstrating the effect of having an outside viewpoint.  In Consulting the data-gathering process (interviews in our process) often occurs before leaders recognize the value of having the outside perspective.  In a sense the data-collection is an "ExSample" of how the outside perspective adds value to the organization. 

OrganIzation: term used to demonstrate that the individual contribution, the I in organization, is an important consideration. As opposed to the adage "their is no I in Team" this emphasizes that the organization is, by necessity, made up of a multitude of individuals, and the auction of each "I" is critical to the organization as a whole. 

Hegemony/Harmony: a dichotomy placing necessary command and control functions of management agains the desire for peace and avoiding conflict. Leaders and followers must navigate the tensions of structure/regulations/processes/people in ways that value the need for good practice and humane treatment.  It is a challenging dichotomy to maintain.

A-sin-dency (Ascendency): attitude that projects ill-will or intent on people who desire to progress or succeed especially if that success appears driven by a financial or power/influence motive. For those, like myself, who have come out of the human services world there can be this attitude that makes entrepreneurial, business-owner, concepts an uncomfortable role.  We must transcend the "money is evil" mindset.

Ampliflowcation; the process of increasing the amount of communication within a team or organization. Individuals within teams often avoid communicating, do not communicate enough, or begin to "scream out' their frustrations when there is a crisis.  Ampliflowcation is often needed to begin to address the issues and find a new path--the communication needs to increase and be changed into something usable by the team.

Look, I didn't say I was good at playing with words. Just that I like playing with words. The most important part to me is that it is a tool to think about common experiences in ways that stretch my thinking.  Now, those of you who are good at playing with words . . . what do you got?

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