STUDY BOOK The power of language and actions, the basis for

COACHING: El poder del lenguaje y las acciones

Three pathways to engagement:

• Promises.

Promises are linguistic acts different from assertions or statements, although they function within a declarative space. Promises are those linguistic acts that allow us to coordinate actions with others. When someone makes a promise, he or she makes a commitment to another to perform some action in the future. Promises involve an overt mutual commitment. They are the responsibility of the pledgee: the pledgee does so with absolute responsibility, with the exception of coercive situations. The commitment must be a free and voluntary act. If you do not want to do what the other person asks you to do, all you have to do is to say no. Adopting the role of victim takes away a person's value and dignity. They generate networks of commitment : each promise enables and implies other promises, with which it creates networks of commitments. Each promise is a link in the chain of commitments that sustains the functioning of the economic system.

Not all are explicit : Some pledges are explicit, some are not. The problem with implicit pledges is that different people may assume that different pledges are in place.

They are context-independent: different interpretations of contexts and commitments can wreak havoc on links where cultural differences exist.

They are settled by a declaration of fulfilment: a declaration of satisfaction on the part of the receiver will consider the promise to be fulfilled. If one accepts a request in which the interlocutor asks for something, one's promise remains open until the interlocutor fulfils it.

They always carry interpretative risk : It might be thought that by being careful in communications and diligent in actions, breaches of the rules can be avoided.

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European Open Business School