Comments on: PowerPhrase: I’m trying to get it real

By: merylrunion

merylrunion — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:16:05 +0000

Thanks for your observation, Ken. I’m looking back over my response to Maria and see it didn’t appropriately acknowledge her point. I don’t like “political correctness” at the price of clarity either!.

By: Ken Rhodes

Ken Rhodes — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:10:39 +0000

I think Maria hits good point, though. Personally, I’m not a big fan of beign “politically correct” when you speak, because it comes too close to what George Orwell called “Double-speak” in 1984.

But I think it also needs to be said that there is a big difference between considering your words carefully (“say what you mean, without being mean”) and being “politically correct”, just because you are following the herd, or using mis-placed good intentions.

By: merylrunion

merylrunion — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:35:48 +0000

Maria, my answer to you is, because if we did, I wouldn’t have a job encouraging people to speak!

But my more serious response is that there are so many things we could say at any given time and so many ways to say them, and our challenge is to do it in a dynamic and constructive way. When I first took on my passivity I spoke with a lot of “raw assertiveness” that wounded and built walls instead of bridges. Political correctness can often obscure, but the right touch of grace allows our message to be heard.

In my SpeakStrong book, I have a several chapters designed to helping people figure out what to say – and another 40 chapters on how to say it.

By: Maria Howard

Maria Howard — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:18:10 +0000

I think the statement Get Real is a copout. As Adults in this new world of changing words like terroist to enemy combatants.

Why can’t we just say want we need to say instead of waltzing around the issues. Are we now so politiaclly correct???

It is want it is.