Inspirational memes are ruining your career

Inspirational memes are ruining your careerInspirational memes are ruining your careerIf youre a leader or trying to become one, some degree of ongoing personal branding activity is inevitable. That often creates pressure to post something new to your social channels on a regular basisand therein lies the risk.The easiest thing to do might be to share pithy slogans purporting to deliver quick hits of inspiration. After all, its your job as a leader or aspiring leader to motivate others, right? Right But your MotivationalMonday tweet or Instagram post with a Gandhi quotation might be backfiring without you realizing it. Heres why, and how to avoid those fluffy expressions.Lack of clarity fails to motivateIts hard to be profound on a daily or weekly basis. Its even harder to be profound in just a few quick words. Consider this gem from an Instagram account dedicated to motivationBuried beneath that double-negative statement are a few unanswered questions What does it mean for quotes to work? How exactly should you apply them?Heres another ambiguous one from the saatkorn accountWho could argue with that? It would be great to learn from every mistake But even the slightly lengthier captioninstructing you you to study ways to avoid repeating mistakesdoesnt tell you how to go about doing that. Vague statements like these may earn likes from other busy professionals idly scrolling their social feeds, but they wont earn you attention from the people best positioned to help you advance your career.Leaders do need to inspire and motivate, but they never succeed byspouting unclear generalities. Powerful communication spurs others to take action through clarity and precision. One reason people dont act is because theyre confused or uncertain about what to actuallydo.You cant motivate anyonelet alone everyoneto take productive, mission-driven action if you stick to vague platitudes.Superficial comments obscure your best ideasIn order to attract career opportunities or win s upport for your ideas, you need to offer an original insight or propose a compelling solution to a problem. Shallow, superficial remarks do neither. Take this tweet for exampleIs this even true? If it is, its great news anyone whos lost a friend, a family member, or even a pet. Does that mean youll get a better dog next time? Or if youve blown a client opportunity, youll invariably ace the next one? Obviously not. Yes, its true that there is nothing more certain than change, as the text of the tweet points out, but not every loss leads to a better opportunity than what came before. This baseless optimism suggests shallow, uncritical thinkingnever a great look when youre trying to advance professionally.Same goes for this postMagic? The Universe? Are these really where effective leaders should distribution policy their hopes? If anything, thefruchtwein successful people know how to minimize unnecessary risk, sidestep the sunk-cost fallacy, and cut their losses so they can redirect th eir energies wherever theyll be better served. Perhaps thats a less inspirational idea, but it suggests much more skill, intelligence, and strategy that will likely appeal to your coworkers, employers, and business partners much more than your stubborn heart ever will.Your best ideas will take more than a few words to lay out, and thats okay. The most difficult challenges out therethe ones that take real leadership to surmountare complex. So while theres an art tospeaking about complicated subjects without dumbing them down, your real goal should be to motivate others to engage with complexity, not shy away from it. Tossing out generic remarks that stick to the surface level doesnt help you do that. Worse, it suggests you arent capable of diving any deeper.RelatedHow To Talk About Complex Ideas With Literally AnybodyRhetoric should sharpen meaning, not dull itMany of the most commonly shared and liked motivational social media posts use snappy turns of phrase. They may sound clever, but more often than not, they bury meaning instead of heightening it. The rhetoric, in other words, hides the substance.An especially common device is antimetabole, which simply means reversing the order of repeated words and phrases.John F. Kennedy used antimetabole in the most famous line of his inaugural address Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. In Kennedys case, it was a rhetorically powerful way to express an idea about civic service. But if you arent careful, your twist on this common device might do little more than set up a false opposition. Take this tweet for exampleFor one thing, are knowledge and caring mutually exclusive? After a moments thought, it may strike you that the two are in fact intimately linked. After all, caring without knowledge suggests empty emotions If youre ignorant about something, how can you be expected to care about it in the first placelet alone know how best toshowyou care? Furthermore, is it even a good idea for people to desire others empathy without their understanding? Its hard to agree or disagree with an idea thats based on such shaky premises.Rhetoric by itself is hollow. Its only effective when its being used to compress and sharpen an underlying concept. Otherwise, its just fluff that makes people suspectyou dont know what youre talking about, and are trying to hide it.RelatedThese Expressions Make You Sound Like You Dont Really Know Your StuffQuoting great thinkers doesnt mean you understand themFinally, theres a risk that inquoting influential leaders, youll take their words out of context and diminish their original powermaking yourself look bad in the process.This professionalquotes Alibaba founder Jack Main her LinkedIn headline Dont hire the most Qualified candidate. Hire the Craziest. This thought has deep roots in Mas experiencehaving been rejectedfor 30 jobs he applied to after college, including one at KFC, Ma knows that on-paper credentials dont always tell the full story. But taken out of context, his statement doesnt make much sense. In fact, using this quote on your own social media channels might give the impression that you believe in making risky hires or in taking crazy risks yourselfeven if you dont.Its always in your better interest to be seen as someone of substance than as an armchair philosopher. When in doubt, stick to specifics rather than airy generalities. Ground your social media posts in yourownthoughtful observations, drawn from firsthand experience. Real leadership rarely comes in greeting cardsized bites.Its always in your better interest to be seen as someone of substance than as an armchair philosopher. When in doubt, stick to specifics rather than airy generalities. Ground your social media posts in yourownthoughtful observations, drawn from firsthand experience. Real leadership rarely comes in greeting cardsized bites.You Might Also LikeThis Three-Word Phrase Is Subtly Undermining Your AuthoritySix Ways Youre T urning Off Everyone Whos Trying To Help You Find A JobI Went To The Gym For Cardio Training And Left As A Better BossThis post originally appeared on Fast Company.