Words are about as powerful as swords, if not more powerful. Words have the power to either break or mar a person. While the right words will motivate a person and help them keep going, the wrong words can confine a person to a life of mediocrity. They have the power to make or mare people.
Even when we know how powerful our words are, a lot of us still go on to use negative words more than positive words. This inclination to use negative words is something deeply entrenched in society.
So deeply entrenched that most of the times, we do not even do this with the aim of hurting others. We do it with good intentions, hoping to help them change their behavior.
Regardless of our intentions, these words end up making the other person feeling belittled and inferior.
To make matters worse, the damage done by these words cannot be easily undone, even if you follow them with positive words as people tend to focus more on negative words than positive words.
To avoid unintentionally belittling others, you should make a conscious effort to expunge negative words from your vocabulary.
In this post, we’ve listed 12 bad words you might be using that makes others feel inferior.
1. INCOMPETENT
A lot of us use this word at workplaces. It’s used by condescending bosses or clients who want to intimidate staff. But you’ll agree with me that intimidation is not the best way of motivate people to be better at their jobs. What you’ve done is belittle and demoralize them.
Rather than saying people are incapable of doing their jobs, you can simply say that they aren’t meeting your expectations and that they need to try harder.
2. IRRESPONSIBLE
Every time you’ve called a person irresponsible, you’ve indirectly said that they act without thinking about the possible outcomes of their actions.
When you tell someone that they’re irresponsible, you almost certainly do so because you would like them to place more thought into their actions.
However, calling someone irresponsible doesn’t help them in any way. It only works to shame and intimidate them, and if they end up believing you, they will avoid being proactive and taking up leadership roles in a bid not to display their perceived irresponsibility.
3. DUMB
If you’ve ever been referred to as dumb, you must know how this feels. Guess it made you feel a lesser person and probably affected your self-confidence and self-esteem temporarily. Exactly!
Every time you refer to someone as dumb, you’re basically saying the person is below-average intelligence, that their thinking or decision-making is outside the expectations of normal behaviour. But the reality is that nobody is dumb.
Someone won’t be excellent in one area, but there are other areas where they’re better than you. Does that make you dumb? Not really. So, why refer to someone as dumb because they did not behave as you expected?
4. CAN’T
When you say a person CAN’T do a certain thing, you have discouraged the person.
It is very possible that the person will believe you, especially if you are someone whose opinions they trust, which will in turn prevent them from giving their all and achieving what they wanted.
5. WEIRD
Weird says there is something wrong with you. It also says I’m normal and you’re not.
If you’re someone whose opinion this person values and respects, calling them weird will make them feel inferior and inadequate like they’re aren’t worth hanging out with you or doing something.
To avoid making others feel this way, you should try as much as possible to avoid using the word weird.
6. HATE
Hate is such a strong and powerful word. When you tell someone that you hate them or something about them, it means that you have a very intense dislike for them.
In other words, if you had an option, you’d totally avoid them. You might not mean that, but that is the message that the person will infer from your words.
7. FOOL
When you refer to someone as a fool, it means you think that that they’re incapable of acting wisely. When someone is referred to as a fool severally, they start believing it and lose the motivation to try and perform better. Why try when they believe they cannot?
Ultimately, continuously referring to someone as a fool can even lead to lack of self-belief and even depression.
8. FAILURE
The word failure has a very negative connotation.
When you refer to someone as a failure, you are essentially saying that they are not capable of winning.
As the person hears this more and more, they might actually start believing that they cannot do anything successfully.
Instead of referring to someone as a failure even when something they were working on didn’t work, what you should do is encourage them to examine why it didn’t work, see what they can learn from the experience and then try again.
9. USELESS
Can someone really be useless? Even a doormat has its uses because it helps people clean their shoes as they get into a building.
By telling someone that they are useless, you are implying that they are even worse than a doormat, that they add no value on earth.
Everyone has something good about them, so you should avoid referring to anyone as useless.
10. BORING
When you tell someone that he or she is boring, you are essentially saying that there is nothing interesting about them.
This can easily make a person feel inferior and insignificant. The truth is that everyone has totally interesting about them.
If you think there is nothing interesting about a person, that’s probably because you don’t know them well enough.
11. UGLY
This is just a word you should not use. How we look is something natural, and there is not much someone can do about how they look.
When you tell someone that they are ugly, you are making them feel inferior for something that is not within their control.
Just don’t refer to someone as ugly.
12. RIDICULOUS
When you tell someone that something about them is ridiculous, you are implying that their opinion/ideas are laughable.
Who wouldn’t feel inferior if people laughed at your ideas or suggestions?
