Page 114 - Getting to the Heart of High Performance

People don’t have to hear you say anything to get a posi-

tive message from you.

Of course, words do matter. A recent study involving 800

high-level executives found they use positive words four times
as often as negative words. 14 But you don’t have to be elo-
quent. You can express positive attention in very common,
everyday language.

For example, we all warm to the compliments that come
our way, or to a word of thanks from someone else. We
feel a positive uptick in our emotions when a person asks
our opinion, or when we receive words of encourage-

ment and appreciation. Even something as mundane as
hearing another person call us by name can give us a
good feeling.

Do you think these behaviors are too trivial to count for much?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number
one reason people quit their jobs is because they don’t

98 DEEP STRENGTHS