What if I said you have the power to affect others’ behavior without them knowing? This isn’t based off a work of fiction, as there is ample research that shows you have the ability to subconsciously impact the people around you with the messaging you deliver. Influencing the subconscious minds of those around you is a skill all leaders should know about.
Malcolm Gladwell and Blink
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink1, he goes over the idea of “priming,” where individuals subconsciously reacted to subtle cues they were given. In an experiment he references, psychologist John Bargh had participants in a study create sentences out of different lists of words. One set of participants received words such as, “aggressively, bold, rude, bother, and disturb, while another group received words such as respect, considerate, appreciate, patiently, and polite. (Gladwell 54)”
The students were then directed to head to the person leading the experiment to get further instructions, only to find the experimenter in a conversation with another individual. When they measured how long it took participants from each group to interrupt the conversation, they found the individuals primed for politeness never interrupted the conversation, while those primed for rudeness interrupted within 5 minutes. The science behind this experiment involves our subconscious mind and its ability to process information without us being fully aware of what’s going on. (Gladwell 54)
Influencing the Subconscious Minds – For Leaders
I’m sure most leaders would agree that this research has significant implications for the way they communicate with others. It’s extremely important for leaders to be intentional with everything they say and/or write because it could impact the behavior of others. For example, we need to be mindful about how often we use words like worry, urgent, important, or necessity. These words could lead individuals to feel more stressed and frenetic.
Now, this isn’t to say they shouldn’t feel a bit of pressure at times, but that we need to be strategic with our choice of words. A first year teacher in the middle of October definitely doesn’t need that added stress! On the flip side, I don’t think it could ever hurt to push encouraging, motivational, and positive words to those around us.
Tips to Influence the Subconscious Minds of Your Community
Here are some areas where we it can be helpful for leaders to be mindful of their choice of words/phrases.
Messaging to staff
Think about the feeling and impact you want to have on the individuals receiving your communication. Consider being more intentional with the emails you send out, conversations you have, and meetings you lead.
Messaging to students
Instead of what hasn’t been going well, try to frame your messaging around what you want to see. Take advantage of meetings with students, physical environment in and outside the classroom, and any sayings the school or classrooms have.
We will never be able to control the feelings and actions of those around us, and we shouldn’t strive to. Instead, we need to think about the environment we want to create for our staff members and work on being intentional toward that goal.
1Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group.
