The Problem of Unexamined Language

Many teams begin with the best intentions – clear goals, energy, and competence. Yet execution falters. Not because of capability, but because of a hidden breakdown: vague, habitual, and unexamined terms, meaning and language.

Consider this: a leader says, “Take ownership of the project.” One person interprets this as full decision-making authority, another believes it means acting only with permission, while a third assumes it refers to final accountability for outcomes. Everyone nods in the meeting – but they’re not actually aligned.

When common terms like “initiative,” “motivation,” “ownership,” or “alignment” are used without precision, teams fall into interpretive drift. Different people act from different assumptions. Friction increases. Execution suffers.

Without a disciplined commitment to defining terms and models:

• Promises are vague or break down. No agreement lives without a shared interpretation.
• Trust erodes. Misunderstandings get labelled as incompetence, lack of motivation, or avoidance.
• Learning stagnates. Without shared language, feedback loops fail.
• Performance degrades. Results are sporadic, responsibility is diffused, and people disengage.

Unexamined language fosters:

• Confusion. The same term may mean five different things to five different people.
• Assumption. Teams behave as if there’s shared understanding, but there isn’t.
• Inefficiency. Meetings drag on. Promises falter. Blame circulates.

Vague language limits understanding, alignment, performance, and satisfaction. Precision in language enables clarity and coordination to return.

Why Language Matters for Leadership

Language isn’t just descriptive – it is generative. It brings new futures into being. It shapes perception, action, and the coordination of commitment.

Ontological coaching, as advanced by Fernando Flores, shows that we live in language. Our ability to act effectively is shaped by the distinctions we hold – and the speech acts we enact.

“Language is not just a tool for communication, but the very medium through which we build our reality.”
– Fernando Flores, Conversations for Action and Collected Essays

Robert Kegan, in his model of adult development, demonstrates that leadership maturity arises from the capacity to reflect on one’s own meaning-making structures. A mature leader understands that language is not merely symbolic – it is the infrastructure of leadership itself. A mature leader can reflect on how their own background, experience, education and perspective shapes their participation and how their speak is from this context. When they realise this they also understand that not everybody shares that context, so they make efforts to ensure the context goes along with the message so that meaning, intent and share understanding is intact.

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
– Ferdinand Foch (quoted in Immunity to Change, Kegan & Lahey)

When we can take care of doing something valuable across stakeholders then we legitimately have a basis for being on fire with the vision, mission, purpose and values of the collective commitment.

Good leaders use language to architect these futures, align teams, and orchestrate strategic movement. When this capacity is lacking, language fragments rather than unifies.

Language as Action: The Ontological Foundation

Speech act theory takes the perspective that, language does not describe action – it is action. It identifies five foundational speech acts that underpin all coordination:

1. Declarations – bring new realities into being (e.g., “I declare this project launched.”)
2. Requests – generate possible futures requiring others’ contributions
3. Offers – commitments proposed by the speaker
4. Promises – occur only when offers or requests are accepted
5. Assertions – claims about the world that require grounding in facts

Without fluency in these distinctions, teams rely on politeness, habits, or assumptions. For example, it’s easy to mis-step, mistaking polite noises for an actual promise. Coordination becomes unstable, and accountability is vague.

Developmental Maturity and Language

Mature leaders shift from being subject to their thinking, to being able to reflect upon and author it. In plain terms, they understand:

• Language constructs reality.
• Speaking is a form of commitment.
• Meaning-making must be made visible and shareable.
• The context is decisive.
• Communication has specific moves.

This shift enables a leader to:

• Distinguish between interpretations and facts
• Reflect on how their language shapes others’ context and performance
• Engage in meta-coordination = the act of designing how coordination itself happens

Mature leaders speak futures into being. They coordinate action through declarations, design alignment through requests, and create accountability through shared promises.

Practices for Teams and Leaders

To implement this in real teams and projects:

1. Define Your Terms
Clarify your organisation’s core vocabulary – especially in leadership, accountability, and performance. Develop shared, grounded definitions.

2. Introduce Speech Act Literacy
Train teams in the distinctions between declarations, requests, promises, and assertions. This becomes the backbone of trust and execution.

3. Develop Shared Models
When applying frameworks (for decision-making, collaboration, or delivery), ensure models are named, defined, and referenced consistently.

4. Align Language to Development
Support people to work at their developmental edge. Encourage reflection on how their language expresses – and limits – their worldview and action.

5. Audit Your Language in Meetings
Record or reflect on language used during regular interactions and high-stakes meetings. Identify assumptions, ungrounded claims, and unclear requests. Use this to refine how the team communicates.

Final Thought

Language is not a passive conveyor of information. It is the medium in which futures are designed, trust is built, and coordination occurs.

“When we say something, we are not simply talking – we are taking action. And when we coordinate those actions through shared language and commitment, we generate the future.”
– Alan Froggatt

Define your terms. Ground your models. Generate your world.