Brian's Language and Power
Intro
Good day everyone. I would like to first welcome you to Brian's World. Please bare with me because this will be my first time ever doing a blog. But before I get started, I bet you would like to know a little bit about me. You are just in luck! You clicked on the right link for me to tell you who am I and with added bonus I will give you my viewpoint of what language and power means to me.
I go by the name of Brian Farley. I currently reside in the beautiful sunshine state of Orlando, Florida, but I hail from the great city and state of Fayetteville, North Carolina. I am 37years of age married with 1 beautiful daughter that is the age of 7. I love all sorts of sports but my favorite 2 would have to be basketball and football. Being that I am originally from North Carolina college basketball is huge in that state. My team that I love to root for would have to be the one and only Duke Blue Devils of Duke University. If you live in North Carolina you either love Duke or the Tarheels. I chose to be smart and love Duke.
What have you Done lately?
I pride myself on getting better in life by constantly striving for positive change in my life. In my younger days I started off as a bagger in a grocery store. I did so well with that particular job they moved me to being a cashier and I thought I was on on top of the world! The journey then later continued and after completely high school and passing on a potential football career, I then enlisted in the United States Air Force. I feel that I had and outstanding run in the military, but like I mentioned earlier, I always wanted to strive for change and progression. After 12 years of serving our country and learning many new skills, I decided to rejoin civilian life. I currently work for the Boeing company. But my greatest challenge in front of me, is completing my Bachelors degree. With working full time and having a family, it has taken me longer to reach that goal but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am only 3 classes away from completing my BA in management. With this class being part of the three classes, it only brings me excitement to finally hit this milestone. But I can't reach this milestone without first tell you what language and power means to me.
Language and Power
To deep dive into what language and power mean to me, first I must define the two words. Language is defined as the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community. Power is defined as the ability to act or produce an effect or the possession of control, authority and influence over others.
What Does That Mean To Brian?
When I personally think about language and what comes to my mind first, it would have to be it's uniqueness. Language is special in it's own way. It is very diverse. But with language certain powers can be attached to the way you express your language. I believe there is good powered language and there is bad powered language. For example, lets take a look at a manger's position. A different manager can manage the same group of people that do the same type of job but the outcome of production can be greatly different depending upon the manger. I bring the manger up because a manger has invested power that has been given to them solely just because of the position they hold. But it's how they use that power, that make's them a effective leader. Language and power come into play with a manager. If a manger language is dictated by language that is not convincing language or language that is used as a weapon that feeds power, that manger probably will not succeed and gain the trust of their people the manage. On the other hand if language is used from a standpoint of understanding and listening the feeds the listener which are the employees, therefore you have convincing language in a positive way.
Conclusion
At the end of the day language is power and power lies in the language that one chooses to use. It's important to know what power you have and what language you use especially when dealing with people from different backgrounds.
I agree with you on the focus of management. Throughout the years I have worked with effective and ineffective managers. The ineffective managers scared or passed blame along to their employees, causing discontent and malice. While the effective managers instilled lessons by finding teaching moments in errors and inspiring their employees to find their own solutions to problems.
ReplyDeleteThe counterpoint to this argument can be that management has to meet certain expectations of the company, and by being too lenient or friendly can make employees to brazen. Its possible for employees who do not respect their manager to do things that may hurt the company as a whole, such as offering a discount when a customer is angry, just to rid themselves of the problem.
I am looking forward to reading more of your thoughts as class goes on. It was very nice to meet you.
Greetings Brian!
ReplyDeleteWow! Congratulations on juggling 3 difficult jobs. You remind me that education is so different now, that students are managing so much in their lives while going to school- so hats off to you, you should be proud. Your ideas regarding power in a manager are great instances of leadership. I look forward to working with you. All my best to you and your family,
Dr. Kim Morse