I love a good pep talk – both giving and receiving. One thing I’m most proud of in my life is the solid group of friends and colleagues who help me through the tough times with their words of encouragement. And I’m happy to reciprocate.

As noted in the Forbes article, The Science of Pep Talks to Build Winning Teams, scientific studies demonstrate that pep talks work.

              From the baseball fields to the workplace, great leaders energize teams with their words.

Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura pioneered the study of self-efficacy or believing in yourself. He found that the more a person believes they can accomplish a task, the more likely they are to accomplish it. Tiffanye Vargas, associate professor of sports psychology at Cal State University, Long Beach, has continued this research and applied it to the psychology of pre-game speeches or pep talks. How can the content of speeches raise self-efficacy? Vargas found that:

…the content of a leader’s speeches does make a difference, raising “perceived self-efficacy”, which means players feel more energetic, determined, charged and confident.

She has also found that emotionally charged speeches were the best way to elevate an athlete’s perception of their game performance.

So if pep talks are so powerful, how do we give them effectively? The Harvard Business Review article, The Science of Pep Talks, offers the follow advice. There are three elements to an effective pep talk that need to be properly mixed, depending on the context and the audience:

1. Uncertainty-reducing language: providing information about precisely how to do the task by giving clear instructions, good definitions of tasks and detail on how performance will be evaluated. Experienced workers may not need much direction so this element should have less of the focus.
2. Empathetic language: showing concern for the performer as a human being by offering praise, encouragement, gratitude and acknowledgment of a task’s difficulty. Workers more tightly bonded with a leader may require less empathetic language.
3. Meaning-making language: explaining why the tasks in important. Link the organization’s purpose or mission to the listener’s goals, often through the use of stories. This element is useful in most situations but may need less emphasis if the end goals are obvious.

Embrace the power of the pep talk to help those in your life get through the harder times.