The third week of March could be considered my favorite time of year. This time represents the start of the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament for the Men and Women. It also represents the Final Four of the Division 3 tournaments, which my son was a part of, but lost in the first round (hence why I'm including a photo of their conference tournament championship as the header photo. Proud Dad).
This morning I had a conversation with my wife we've had many times about the sub-language of basketball players and how she can't grasp why we ballers don't use normal English. It's become a comical conversation as she does understand many of the common terms. Here are some words used by basketball players and their common English equivalents.
- Rock, pill, orange is used for a basketball
- Dime is used for nice pass that leads to an assist
- Check means to guard an opponent
- Kiss means a soft shot off of the backboard
- Rack, tin, hoop is used for the basket
There are many more, but this gives you an idea of what I mean. Some have even become standard English terms such as "slam dunk". However, we have created different terms for that as well.
This sub-language phenomenon happens in countless settings, including the workplace. Companies, and areas within them, have their own terms and TLA's (three letter acronyms) to describe various situations, events, tasks or things. Remember when you first started at a company how hard it was to understand all of the terminology that was thrown out rapidly and fluently? You likely didn't want to interrupt the flow of the conversation with your countless questions about what this or that meant, instead waiting until after the meeting to ask people.
There are words, terms, processes and ways of thinking that are unique across a variety of levels - generational, gender, demographic, functional, etc. In order to secure connection and make good things happen, we need to find and utilize common frequencies across those differences and boundaries in order to progress forward.
In my book, The Four Fundamental Forces of Leadership, I talk about how leaders need to learn how to communicate at different frequencies instead of forcing others to communicate at theirs. When I say common frequencies, I often reference a old-style analog car radio that had push buttons and an adjustment knob. The push puttons went to favorite stations - the ones that resonated with the person. The adjustment button was used to fine tune the signal to get the best reception.
Good leaders are able to communicate at more frequencies and wider bands around those frequencies. They can understand the unique ways of talking and thinking of accountants and sales people, Gen Xers and Gen Zs. They can even help those people or functions learn how to communicate at common frequencies themselves. Organizationally, they will use something such as the mission or values to bind employees.
When leaders choose to connect with people at their frequency instead of forcing others to communicate at the leader's preferred frequency, it allows people to become more energized, engaged and accountable. They:
- See someone that gets them and they want to give more.
- Don't have to waste time trying to figure out how the leader wants things.
- Don't have to lament the disconnect between what leadership says and how it applies to them.
- Love what they do more.
- Respect situations with others because they know how to explore for common ground.
- Serve themselves, the mission, the process, the customer and so many other things because they are making that effort to find solutions.
- Have more Fun and Joy in their work.
I coach leaders a lot about Respecting how they communicate with teams they lead and how they can find common frequencies. I also have done workshops with team around this topic. It's wonderful to see when leaders practice this process and see the results. A fire is lit within them and they look to take the skill further.
The beautiful thing about this, is that practicing how to communicate at common frequencies doesn't stop in the workplace. This skill is transferable to absolutely any communication you have. When you actively look to serve others by communicating at their frequency, you can make great connections and see great things happen.