Leaders use active verbs

Your English teacher was right... passive verbs suck

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Photo by Justin Eisner on Unsplash

Use Active Verbs

I once had an English teacher tell me, “Never use passive verbs unless the subject is being murdered.” 

And you know what? He was not far off. 

As a leader, nothing kills your authority like passing blame. And that’s exactly what passive verbs do. 

“This month’s revenue goal was stifled by unforeseen market conditions.” 

“Shipping the software update was delayed by last-minute bugs.”

“The customer was lost in a price-battle with our closest competitor.”

Tell me, do these statements sound like leadership? Not at all. They actually sound like excuses. 

Active verbs take responsibility. 

“We missed this month’s revenue goals.”

“We delayed shipping due to last-minute bugs.”

“I lost the customer to a price battle.”

You’re not passing blame — you’re tackling the problem head-on. That’s great leadership. That’s great writing. 

Next time you find yourself reaching for a passive phrase, stop to ask yourself why. Chances are, you’re trying to protect yourself from something negative. That’s why we say “We won the big account!” but also “The big account was lost.” Active phrase forces you to claim responsibility for a statement - whether it’s good or bad. 

Take responsibility. Use active verbs.

Cheers,

Ben

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This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Great Founders Write: Principles for Clear Thinking, Confident Writing, and Startup Success.

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