There are hundreds of articles about the GM ignition switch scandal and only one, so far, has made me smile Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press, wrote a short article about “GM’s word censorship around safety issues.”

According to Spangler, there were seven words that GM staffers were directed not to use in reports. It’s when I read “seven” that I started smiling.

My mind immediately leaped to George Carlin’s classic routine about “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” which includes all seven of the words, plus a few more. Those words are still a problem for broadcasters, forty years after Carlin developed his routine.

If you’re a boss, words are the tools of your trade. You use them to have conversations and conversations are where relationships grow. You use them to write reports and evaluations. You use them tell your team members what’s important and how they should act.

Every time you deploy your words you have a choice. Your words are like hammers. You can use them to build something or you can use them as a weapon.

When you use words to hurt or to hide all or part of the truth, you’re using words as weapons. Good rarely comes of that.

But when you use words to share meaningful praise, to define reality, to help people heal, or help them grow you’re using your words as tools. Great work and great teams come from that.

Boss’s Bottom Line

You can use words for good or for evil. The choice is yours.