Caution advised in using extremes

CMI Publisher

For those of you who came to the open houses in each market over the past two weeks, thank you for stopping by and it was a pleasure to meet you.

For those who would still like to stop by and meet me or one of the other department heads, or to see the operation, please feel free to do so.

Those who have met me by now know how I feel about what I call “extreme adjectives.” The reason for writing about this now is because the past few weeks I have been in quite a few meetings in all of our markets, and have often heard the use of the extreme adjective.

So why am I wasting time and space on extreme adjectives?

First of all, in a goal-oriented business, how do you top an extreme adjective?

I remember way too many things, and if something I did a month ago was considered “perfect” and then topped it last week, how do you top “perfect?”

Or how about how something was “incredibly awesome” this time, and was even better next time, what is the phrase to top that?

People tend to remember what has been said, and what praise has been given, and you have now backed yourself into a corner if the performance this time was even better than the last time and you have run out of words to explain.

Don’t get me wrong; I believe in praise, but if I am a goal-driven person who heard that making $10,000 over goal was perfect, then I don’t need to work on going $20,000 over goal.

You have already assigned a value to the word perfect and I really do not need to go any further than that.

Second is from a motivational standpoint. If you have used your extreme adjectives in a less than extreme circumstances, what are you going to use when an event or circumstance of greater significance comes up? What credibility have you added to that situation compared to the first one?

You gave your best praise out the first time, so you cannot win with the more important event at a time when you need something even better to say.

Everything has value, especially words. I do not know what perfect is in life, so you will be hard pressed to hear me say the word. I will use excessive adjectives in what I determine are excessive circumstances, but I want my words to count — not just today, but tomorrow as well as the relationship continues to build. Especially in our communities … people do not forget.

And to me to continue to build on relationships that are going to last you have to be able to talk to people without having to climb above a ceiling so to speak.

I know … warped mind.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone.

Robert Arrowsmith is publisher of Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]