Those who have worked with and for me over the years know that I insert colloquialisms often into my speech (aka “folksy analogies” or something like that). Some get adopted by others too, which is kind of fun for me to hear them use my phrases back at me at times. I do this to explain my perspective on something, or to invoke certain imagery, be humorous or try to project my displeasure about something that I want to soften the tone or impact on the receiver’s end.
While I did these before I met him, the absolute King of Colloquialism that I’ve worked with/for in my career is Tom Thomas, a retired two-star general who I grew close to and worked directly for twice in my military career. When he moved from our first assignment together I gave him a notebook with his most common phrases as gift, where this lexicon listed the word or phrases, defined them, and used them in context for the reader. It was fun for the staff and for him and we went over the whole book together and laughed our asses off about some of our favorites. Some are pretty profane or visceral, by intent, so I won’t share the list here. Sorry.
Anyway, as I reflect on my personal sayings there are some leadership nuggets in many of them, and I think I’d like to share them. Some of my team have encouraged me to do more of passing on thoughts from my experience in leadership roles and I can’t think of a much better approach than here on my Daring Doofus blog. I hope you can get leadership advice that helps your growth, and maybe we can even participate in a discussion online about some of my postings. Or maybe not, but I do hope you can glean lessons for yourself by whatever I post here.
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