“Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45
Communication is simply an outward expression of what is inside a person. While a person might not always be honest, the words they use to articulate their dishonest statements unintentionally sketches that person’s profile – revealing hidden insights into their heart, personality, needs and insecurities.
- The unnecessary, overusage of "I" is indicative of someone lower in status, or someone absorbed in how the world around them affects them.
- People of higher intelligence are looking out at the world so they use "I" less frequently.
- Social Psychologist James Pennebaker says “people who are lying tend to not use the word ‘I.’ They are psychologically distancing themselves. And they also avoid markers of complexity such as conjunctions and prepositions.” (source)
- Less decisive people and those wrapped up in themselves will make verbose use of the phrase “I think." It would be unproductive to hire anyone for a decision-making position that uses “I think” recurrently.
- Studies have shown people use "we" after a trauma, characteristic of their need to bond socially. This would suggest people who work best in teams use the word "we" more frequently than "I" to signify the natural connection they feel with others.
- We notice what we are most concerned with, so mistakenly using the wrong word divulges what we are thinking about.
- A person that uses words to describe someone’s appearance negatively or mocks the appearance of others is probably insecure about their own.
- People who say they do something "quickly", "hastily", or "fast" take pride in being reliable, generally making good employees because they don’t want to disappoint.
- Someone who "just did this" is more impulsive than someone who "decided to do this." A person that decides to do things weighs up their options.
- Boastful adverbs like again and another suggests a person is tooting their own horn because they need ego-stroking. "I cleaned my desk again." "I completedanother task before deadline."
- Active people use proactive language - I can, I will, I prefer.
One word can hold more power than the sentence that encases it. Take the above examples within context only, use your discrepancy because there will always be exceptions. Remember that the words we use send out there own message, so we should consciously speak with words of empathy and kindness.
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Naomi Seselja is the founder of Mode Recruitment & Career Services. Content Writer, Resume Writer and Interview Coach, her clients have included CEOs, Investors, Biologists and everything in between from each corner of the globe. For enquiries, please contact Naomi at naomi@moderecruitment.com.au
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-our-words-say-us-naomi-seselja
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