10 English Power Words | The Language of Leadership

118,432 views ・ 2021-11-17

Speak Confident English


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Whether you're in a management position,
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you've recently been tasked to lead a project or you're working to develop your
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career,
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fine-tuned leadership skills are essential to success.
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These are the skills you use to organize people,
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to reach a shared goal, or when you need to motivate others to complete a task.
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Knowing the vocabulary and understanding the definitions of various
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leadership skills in English can help when you're aiming to interview
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for a job in English,
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write a resume or identify opportunities for personal and
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professional growth. So in this lesson today,
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I'd love to invite you to join me in exploring 10 English power
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words on leadership.
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If you don't already know I'm Annemarie was Speak Confident English,
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everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence for your life
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and work in English. Before we get too deep into this lesson,
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I want to pause for a moment and talk about what exactly do I need by
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power words. If you're a student in my Confident Job Interviews course,
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then you're definitely familiar with this. But if it's new to you,
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a power word is a word that creates an emotional response.
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A power word can create an emotion such as a sense of pride or
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accomplishment, a feeling of relief or even excitement.
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And when I say that a power word also creates a response.
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What I mean is that it might inspire someone else to take a specific action.
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On top of all of that power words,
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help us to be precise with our meaning.
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One of the reasons I love helping my students develop their vocabulary,
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particularly with advanced level words and power words is
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again,
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it allows you to make choices about the words you're going to use and
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be precise as you express yourself.
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Does that mean you should use power words all the time? No,
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that's the beautiful thing about English. We love variety.
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We love to combine the simple and the complex,
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the basic and advanced.
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So by adding these words to your vocabulary today,
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you're giving yourself options.
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You can choose which words are most appropriate for the situation you're in,
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which words will allow you to be the most precise.
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As we explore these 10 English power words,
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I will share concrete examples with you along the way so that you always know
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exactly how to use them when you choose to do so. All right,
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I hope you've got your pen or pencil and your notebook ready to go because we're
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going to get started right away with power word number one.
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In the process of talking about what we are able to do,
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we sometimes forget to take ownership of all the hard work
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involved in attaining a result.
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Achieve is a powerful word that communicates your ability
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to attain your goals.
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Not just the ability to do something. For example,
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you could say my team and I were able to meet our
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goals,
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or you could say my team and I achieved our goals and met expectations.
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It is a small change, but when it's appropriate,
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it adds that additional layer of emotion.
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And it's more powerful again,
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because you're highlighting your ability to go above and beyond basic
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abilities. And now power word, number two, delegate.
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When talking about your role as a leader,
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you may also need to talk about your style of management in doing so.
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It's important to choose words that demonstrate your strengths in managing
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teams and projects,
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rather than use words such as assigned gave and
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told you can replace those with delegated.
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When you delegate a task, not only does it imply your authority,
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but it also communicates your ability to identify and encourage
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talents in your team members.
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Here's an example of how you might use it in a sentence as the public relations
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manager.
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I often delegated digital outreach to our newest team members as a way to
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help them learn about our clients, power word, number three,
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deliver when you're working in a fast paced competitive environment,
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employers and coworkers want to know if you're able to meet
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expectations and provide results in doing so.
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You could say I attained the desired results and met expectations,
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or we could make a slight change to that.
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With I delivered the desired results and met expectations.
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The verb deliver showcases your professionalism and your leadership.
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Moreover, it implies you're the kind of person who is capable of
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consistently bringing results to the table. And now power word,
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number four, facilitate as a leader,
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you're often required to find routes for smooth transitions or to make a
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process easier. When describing these experiences,
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you might use words such as aided, helped and assisted.
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However, when it's appropriate,
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you can opt for the word facilitated facilitate,
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not only communicates your involvement in something,
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but it also communicates that your assistance allowed
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something to progress forward. For example,
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I facilitated opportunities for employees to maintain better
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work-life balance by introducing a four day work week.
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The fifth English power word on leadership on our list today is implement.
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Implement is a great verb choice to use when you want to show that you were able
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to successfully and practically carry out an action.
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Rather than say that you introduced,
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tried or use different strategies.
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You could say I regularly reviewed and implemented
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strategies for better client outreach, power word,
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number six is improve.
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Sometimes we downplay our ability to make things better by using
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words such as changed, altered, or updated.
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But when you want to showcase your leadership and your experience,
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you can replace those words with improved. For example,
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if someone asks you about your contribution to the workplace,
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you could say I improved the legacy code for the company's client
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management database. Number seven on our list. Mentor.
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Nothing says leadership,
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like the ability to train and mentor a new team member.
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Every workplace relies on someone who's great at their job to help
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guide others,
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to highlight your ability to lead and train others.
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You could say something like I mentored new colleagues and guided them
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through the training process during their first month on the job with us power
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word. Number eight is one of my favorites on this list today.
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And the word is resolve. As a leader.
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There are times when you have to make strong decisions.
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Resolve is a great verb choice for highlighting the determination
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and authority that go hand in hand with decision-making.
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When you're explaining the solution to a problem,
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particularly if the solution or the decision were not easy to implement,
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rather than use the language,
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came to the conclusion or made the decision, you could say,
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I resolved that the team would require strict deadlines to avoid
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further delays. All right, how are you doing so far?
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I know there's a lot of new words to get familiar with,
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and hopefully you've already found a favorite on this list,
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but we do have two more to go. So let's get into power word. Number nine,
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spearhead.
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Spearheaded is an empowering verb to talk about your achievements with
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confidence. It's the epitome of leadership,
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and it means that you can lead a team or a workplace in an endeavor.
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It also means that you took the initiative to take the lead.
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Perhaps there was a project without a clear leader.
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So you took the opportunity to take on that role.
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The next time you have the opportunity to talk about your leadership role
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in improving your company's services or products, you could say,
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I spearheaded new projects to expand our outreach.
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And finally,
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our last power word on the topic of leadership is specialize.
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Specialize is a straightforward,
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strong verb that can be used to emphasize your expertise,
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experience, and education.
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It means that you offer something special or specific.
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So the next time you have an opportunity to highlight your past experience or
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your mastery of a specific skill. You could say,
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I specialize in, for example,
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I specialize in SEO optimization and data
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analytics. And with that,
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you have 10 English power words on leadership that you can again use the
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next time you're interviewing for a job in English,
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writing a resume or identifying areas where you want to grow
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personally and professionally to finish.
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I have three opportunities for you to practice. Number one,
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what was your favorite word on this list today?
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Share it with me in your own example, sentence. Number two.
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Is there a word on the list today that perfectly describes something
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you are able to do? If so, again,
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try using it in your own example sentence,
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and you can share that with me in the comments below.
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And finally question number three of all the words that you've learned
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today,
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which three do you think are the most important skills for a
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leader to have? There's no right or wrong answer to this question.
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It's purely your opinion. And I'd love to know what you think again,
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share your comments or questions in the comment section below.
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If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know.
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And you can tell me in one very simple way,
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give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube and subscribe to my Speak Confident
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English channel. So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.
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Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.
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