ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the negative consequences of ignoring language differences and why is this so important for everyday leadership. It is assumed that borrowing words from another language is due to the fact that the phenomenon or the object under consideration does not exist in the local context, or has no adequate name in the local language. The author describes cases where borrowing provokes negative semantic resonances. The example is the use of the English word leader in Italian and Spanish. The vernacular words for leader are never used, neither in Italian and Spanish texts on leadership nor in every day organizing. The emotional resonances of the word leader become multiple; we became speakers of English but non-English native speakers, using an English word that resonates with various English, Italian and Spanish images. The avoidance, or preference for, certain words because of their resonances has been associated with stereotyping and the preference of using neutral vocabularies.
