Brianna Doe’s Post

7 phrases I stopped using in 2022 (and what I replaced them with): 1️⃣ "Does that make sense?" --> "What questions can I answer for you?" 2️⃣ "I could be wrong, but..." —> "What are your thoughts on this?" 3️⃣ "Sorry, I'll fix that right now." —> "Thank you for catching this/thanks for the feedback!" 4️⃣ "What do you want me to do?" -> "I recommend we do [X] because [Y]. What are your thoughts?" 5️⃣ "It was no big deal" —> "Thank you! I really appreciate that." 6️⃣ "Sorry to bother you" -> "When you have a minute, can I get your opinion on _____?" 7️⃣ (When I should know the answer but don't): "I'm not sure..." —> "I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you by [date]." Here's to unlearning old habits. Confidence comes from within, but words have power. 🙌🏽 Try one of these during your next meeting and let me know how it goes! #careergrowth #professionaldevelopment #communicationskills

Charlotte Hawkins

Writer | Marketer | Lawyer Wrangler

1y

I was always taught that it's perfectly fine (and appropriate!) to say you don't know, as long as you follow up with an action. "I don't know, but that sounds like X's area of expertise, I can ask them for you." "I'm not sure, but I can look into it for you." "I'm not familiar with that, would you like me to dive in and see what I can find out?" People like it when they feel like you are helping, not just shutting them down; and also, sometimes they say no need to dig further, and you save yourself a lot of time! :)

✨ Peter Wheeler ✨

Product Led Growth | Strategic Partnerships | Experiential | Niche Marketing | Social Impact | podcasts - pitchslap.org and goodchat.org | Formerly Credible Alibi | Posts are my own, blame only me.

1y

Brianna - I really love this - something I noticed in myself and others is that these phrasing pivots also show confidence and certainty. Which are foundational blocks for trust. No one wants to climb a shaky ladder. Phase 2 for me has been to step away from opinions and advice and instead empathize and state what happened in my lived experience and why I chose what I did. Variants of your 2️⃣ there have been CRUCIAL for me as a parent - both when dispelling difficult questions (religion, holidays, babies come from) to “I don’t know - what do you think” and avoiding leading questions and statements and going more into open ended asks - to both get truth and perspective… and build confidence and trust All of these also create a collaborative and “listening” environment - as someone who is always ready to snap into action, clap back as I see fit ♏️, and feel compulsive to have an impulsive response … phrasing can give a nice hard pause on me and give every voice a seat at the table. Thanks for sharing

Jessica Lichter

Bilingual Learning Experience Designer | Freelance Instructional Designer

1y

As a teacher, I shifted from asking my students "Do you have any questions?" to "What questions do you have?" and it had such a positive impact on my classroom. I also make an effort not to use "sorry" unless I truly need to apologize for something.

Also: Circle back..absolute cringe-worthy. -> We should resume or revisit. (When I should know the answer but don't): "I'm not sure..." —> "I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you by [date]. Translated: Let me find this information out and provide a more clearer output and if not urgent to allow up to a business day, if applicable. It is all about the delivery, and if anything our society needs to brush up on Emotional Intelligence as it seems to be lacking a bit.

Jacki Flynn

Strategic Operations Manager at CGI: Communications + collaboration expert

1y

Brianna Doe I keep thinking about this, and I'm wondering if "Does that make sense?" has a time and a place. Like if you're explaining something to someone or training someone where you have more experience and higher "status" (I don't like saying that, but you know) ... I think maybe it can be appropriate. But I like the thought of not using it in a lot of other circumstances.

Nogol Tardugno

Director of Customer Success @ Tyler Technologies | Customer Success

1y

There is this chrome extension that you can download called "Just Not Sorry". It's interesting because it catches some of these phrases in emails that negate or remove power from your words. It's been eye-opening and has taught me a lot about the power of my words. Thanks for this post!

Christina P.

The future of your private lable brand depends on clarity, connection and conversion | Content Marketing + Strategy | Amazon Listing Optimization | Sometimes I fly the sky ✈️ | Ask to see my Portfolio

1y

Can we all agree to let go of "Bandwidth"? Lol Great post!

Joe Cardillo

Fighting disinformation, coaching leaders, doing what needs to be done

1y

Love that. Super on point, Brianna Doe – testing/changing our language & ideas is a must, we can't think our way into building habits. It also reminds me of how often we *think* we've changed a habit just because we thought about it, but we didn't actually do the thing enough times to validate it. A good experiment doesn't necessarily lead to an outcome I/we want, it's just information that either confirms something works (generally or for us) or it doesn't.

Anupom Kumar Mondol

Research Assistant,Computer Science, Texas Tech University. Assistant Professor ( CSE) at Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX)

1y

How can " I could be wrong, but..." be the replacement of " What are your thoughts on this, mam? Shouldn’t they be complementary?

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Nancy Wood

People Operations & Human Resources Leader

1y

A few years ago I really focused on shifting from my default of "No problem" to "You're welcome" in response to "Thank you". I don't know if it has made a difference for anyone else, but it has helped me feel more thankful and grateful. Maybe I should start adding "My pleasure" into the mix. 😊

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