Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say--and What You Don't

Wow! Leadership is Language brilliantly highlights that true leadership hinges on our connections with others! The author energetically points out that the best leaders excel by perfecting their communication skills, artfully choosing their words to uplift and empower those they lead. It’s such an amazing resource for anyone looking to boost their leadership abilities! The book provides us with six ‘plays’ that we can use to lead effectively and improve our team's performance, all of which come together to elevate morale, trust, and overall success.

Great book overall with excellent content. Good insights into how the art of management started out as a "science" devoid of true leadership, which provides the backdrop for the "move forward" actions outlined. The book is essentially a playbook to modify your approach to reach new heights of organizational success. The concepts are extremely applicable in the multi-generational workforce of today. Fundamentally, management comes down to people, but people come with habits and biases that get in the way of reaching a shared goal. Therein lies the opportunity to apply the plays/actions and become a leader for your team, not just a manager. My one negative is that the book runs a little long and got repetitive on the examples. Still, very much worth the read.

While this book gets somewhat theoretical in parts, it does a great job outlining what "good" looks like and how anyone can do it. Definitely recommend it.

When I was young, I could never put my finger on what exactly made a good leader. Personality, knowledge, trust worthiness? A combination of all of these? Maybe. So how do you become a better leader? Learn more, work to improve your personality, and convince people to trust you? There's an easier way and all you have to do is change what you say. In Leadership Is Language, David makes it so simple to go from using what he calls the Industrial Age playbook where bosses used controlling, coercive language to get their people to comply (not think) and continue work for as long as they deemed necessary, to using the New Playbook for Leaders. In the New Playbook, he walks us through the 6 plays: Control the Clock, Collaborate, Commit, Complete, Improve, and Connect. Every play is set up with "say this not that" to help you change the words you use and replace them with language that helps people speak up when they see something, when they think differently than the leader, and how to share anonymously in groups. I can only imagine David was considering the reader as he structured the layout of Leadership is Language, it's so user friendly!! He has so many real life examples of companies and people. Because of reading Leadership is Language, I have better conversations with my 14 year old son, my husband and my coworkers. If you've ever wanted to be a better leader, parent, friend, or spouse, then reading this book will give you the tools to improve.

David Marquet’s first book, Turn the Ship Around, is a well-written account of the successes he had in changing the culture of the USS Sante Fe by empowering his crew – and one of my favorite books. In Leadership is Language, Mr.Marquet has done a thorough job in not only showing the many misconceptions that leaders are burdened with, but also in taking the time to explain how the seemingly simple actions of a leader can hinder the engagement and growth of those that they lead. I have read the book and listened to the audiobook (both are great), and Leadership is Language has now become my favorite book of this genre! David Marquet breaks down his book into “plays” to counteract the common errors of leadership, while dovetailing in actual transcripts of real-world issues, academic studies, and conceptual exercises. This book is enjoyable to read and will be the first one that I now recommend to people.

Great book reminding leaders that their words matter. Getting better outcomes can be made possible by including diversity of thought.

Leadership is Language is a great follow up to David’s first book Turn the Ship Around. What I like about all of David’s work is that it gives concrete things that you can do, say this not that kind of thing. It really pointed out the things that I do everyday that could be affecting the way my team works. I ask poor questions too often; “Does that make sense?” instead of “What would you like to hear more about?” subtle but powerful. Redwork and Bluework was very powerful for me, we always think we train our teams to speak up and think but if you don’t build that into your work rhythm you are really missing out. We think our problems are unique but this can help in so many ways.

If you recognize the significant power gap between officers and the enlisted -- or that of a senior leader in a company compared to an individual contributor (non- or lower mgt) -- then it's an ok book. If you're not a very senior leader, good luck with his recommendations. Senior leaders would do well to read this book.

Este libro da una orientación para entender la interacción de las etapas de planear y ejecutar, y provee herramientas para poder involucrar a los diferentes integrantes de los equipos en la toma de decisiones logrando un compromiso genuino.

Muy útil para los tiempos modernos

No leader should be without this book in my humble opinion.

I appreciate David's ability to explain the new improved way of leading and communicating with our teams. This would be beneficial for all new managers of people.

Goes one layer deeper than Turn the Ship Around. There would hardly be anyone better to explain and implement leadership anywhere. Psychology, organisation, work balance... It covers everything through one prism, language.