The idea of language being a game tells us that we can play with the words we use and how we use them in order to win or succeed as leaders. Using language as a tool to “manage meaning” creates a frame within our targeted audience that supports our agenda or goal, making our message effective and making us effective as leaders.
It is a game because it takes skill, timing and strategy. Language is a challenging competition with ethical rules to play by. And often times there are winners and losers. An effective leader must communicate well to play. He or she must be able to take the message of his or her organization and shape in in such a way that he or she may achieve their desired reaction. A leader, as the organization’s messenger, must be a talented player. It, often times, is not what you say, but how you say it. How a message is delivered is the determining factor in achieving a desired reaction.
This is known as the process of “managing meaning.” An effective leader must recognize opportunity to determine when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use the tactics that accomplish “meaning management.” More important to a leader than the event or situation, is the makeup of his or her reality. Without a conscious understanding of the events, experiences, culture and knowledge that makes up one’s own framework or frame one may never succeed in re-framing another’s. When managing change, conflict, image or selling an issue or product, a leader must arouse interest and control, bend, and even manipulate the view point of its employees or public in a manner that would garner the desired reaction that would support the goal.
The content and style of communication influences this language game because how a message is structured and delivered paints a portrait of meaning. The goal of a leader is to deliver a message that embodies words and tone that will creatively relay it or paint is so it will be viewed and perceived in a way that is complementary to the desire of its artist or messenger. Certain words and nonverbal behaviors within cultures communicate different images and feelings and can produce specific, predictable reactions when used creatively and appropriately in this language game.
The use of language in framing can involve a variety of communicative tools to help others see our message the way we intend for them to see it. Leaders use these techniques to help build and manage relationships with those around them. Framing a message means taking a message and giving it meaning or new meaning through the use of metaphors, jargon, contrast, spin and stories. These techniques can help make a subject familiar, more realistic, enhance its meaning, positively or negatively, make it compelling, understandable, strong or weak, and attract attention to it by highlighting or downplaying its attributes. Controlling how a message is received or framed by your targeted audience makes you the frontrunner in the competitive game of language.
It is our ability to use language as a tool to communicate effectively as leaders in an organization that can propel or launch our position to a level that benefits us. Leaders pay attention to the rules and tools of the game. To play the game you need to know the makeup of your own frame and the framework of your audience to identify with them and understand how to frame the message appropriately for them. What we say and how we say it is powerful. Language can rework or reframe the perception in which our target audience receives our message, enhancing it to a level unachievable without attention to out use of language.
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