The Elevate Formula is a way of reading pressure language. It reveals how people explain setbacks to themselves, and how we can use language to protect confidence, Capability and performance under pressure.
Woven into your language, it naturally inspires and can coach your clients to face tough times with poise and belief. The Elevate Formula (EF) is a thread that weaves through Identity, Edited Reality, and all 7 Skills.
In Part 1, we explored how the Elevate Formula shapes our internal sense of Identity. Here, we shift outward, learning how the same filters reveal themselves in everyday language, and how using them deliberately allows us to inspire confidence and resilience in others.
We’ll cover how to detect the EF in someone’s speech, and how to use it deliberately, to strengthen your own confidence and to inspire it in others.
Applying the Elevate Formula in Everyday Life
One day, I was chatting with friends in my health club when two women from an exercise class stumbled over some tennis bags left on the floor. Neither fell nor was hurt, but each reacted differently.
The first blurted,
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m so stupid: I’m always doing things like this.”
Moments later, the second stumbled and cried,
“What idiot left that there? I could’ve hurt myself.”
When the second woman regained her composure, she apologised for being harsh, but her instinctive comment told us more than her later correction; it came straight from her System 1, whereas the rephrasing came from System 2.
What do you make of these two responses? To understand why their reactions were so different, let’s look at the Elevate Formula filters.
The Elevate Formula Filters
The first woman made it all about herself and her “stupidity.” She saw the mishap as the kind of thing that always happens to her: Self, Broad and Lasting, a Low IDQ response.
The reaction of Woman Two tells us she didn’t blame herself for the trip and treated the stumble as unusual: Other, Narrow and Fleeting, a High IDQ response.
In this way, the Elevate Formula reveals how someone is creating their Edited Reality. It is a “tell”, revealing how we define setbacks or challenges, our stance when we feel anxious and under pressure, and our Explanatory Style when we discuss adversity with others.
In those times, we assess the problem through three filters:
- Self / Other
- Broad / Narrow
- Lasting / Fleeting
You’ll Start Hearing the Elevate Formula Everywhere
Once you tune into the Elevate Formula, you’ll start to hear it all around you, in everyday conversations, in workplaces, in families, and even in your own voice.
Think about the last time you had a small mishap, perhaps you forgot to lock the front door or dropped a glass that shattered on the floor. What were the first words that came out of your mouth?
Did you turn the spotlight inward:
“I’m so stupid, I always do that,”
or outward:
“That was unlucky,” or “I was in a rush”?
Those instinctive first reactions reveal your Explanatory Style, the lens through which your mind interprets setbacks.
When you begin noticing it in yourself and others, you’ll see that some people naturally use Elevate language: their challenges are Fleeting, Narrow, and Other (i.e. not related to their Identity).
Others tend to go the opposite way, framing difficulties as Lasting, Broad, and Self.
Once you start listening for it, you’ll hear the pattern in friends’ conversations, news interviews, and the way leaders talk about success and failure.
And you’ll begin to understand how powerfully our words shape the worlds we live in.
An Inspirational Football Manager
Because the Elevate Formula leaks into natural speech, I began analysing the language of elite coaches.
One of my favourite passages came from a coach who had just taken over a struggling English Premier League football team.
The season before, they were close to being relegated. In his first match in charge, the team were overrun and scraped a 1–1 draw.
Back in the dressing room, the players felt dejected and doubted whether they belonged in the league. But the manager’s reaction surprised and inspired them.
Talking to the press after the match, he said:
“I thought our effort was fantastic. They [the opposition] are up and running at the moment. They had some European games pre‑season, so they’re much fitter than us.
So when we get fitter, we’ll be OK.
And I thought when we had possession of the ball, we played very well. We had some decent chances in the game, and we were always a threat.”
Did you detect the Elevate Formula in this passage? How are the EF filters woven into his words? Take a few moments to think it through.
He framed the poor form as Fleeting and Narrow, a lack of fitness they could quickly put right, and suggested the team’s Identity was admirable, praising their effort, possession and threat.
His Explanatory Style lifted his team; the same players who had been struggling set a club record unbeaten run and finished only a few places off the top of the league.
Real‑Life Inspiration at Its Best
In this speech, the coach used the Elevate Formula to inspire.
Inspirational language involves describing challenges as Fleeting and our SQAs as Lasting. And those strengths have to be framed as “Capable enough” to be safe, to belong and earn respect.
That’s precisely what the coach did with his words. He changed the team’s Identity from “strugglers” to “winners”. He gave them hope and moved them from the right-hand side of the Identity Model (see below) to the left.
With the Elevate Formula, you can inspire your client to feel the weight of a pressure moment lift. Your leadership can help people recover confidence, find momentum, and act from a stronger Identity.
What’s Truth Got to Do With It?
I was presenting the 7 Skills at a University famous for its students’ sporting achievements. The audience consisted of coaches from various teams and athletes.
I was running through the template for writing an inspiring speech when suddenly one of the coaches asked me,
“What if this isn’t true? What if my players just aren’t good enough?”
I could have given a very long answer to his question. Instead, I said my focus wasn’t on the “truth”; I was interested in credibility.
I asked him if his “inspiring” speech to his players was to say,
“Look, we all know you’re not good enough. Just go out there and try not to get too depressed.”
If they’re not very good, how does the ‘truth’ lift them, build their self-esteem and prepare them to face life with confidence and a sense of purpose?
It’s a limiting mindset. The best coaches inspire players to perform at levels no one thought possible.
To empower and motivate, you need to sound believable. When the stakes are high, give me credible, useful framing over blunt, demoralising judgement every time.
Using the Elevate Formula for Feedback
Using the Elevate Formula structure can be helpful and even inspiring when giving criticism.
The Formula involves framing the behaviour that needs improvement as Other, Narrow and Fleeting, while highlighting the person’s strengths as Self, Broad and Lasting, and encouraging them to use those strengths to improve in the future.
With this approach, criticism can lead to change while boosting a person’s confidence and self-esteem.
The Bickering Team
I was brought in to work with a struggling football team whose players were constantly criticising each other on the pitch. The trash talk was relentless and corrosive, and performance was sliding fast.
The manager had tried to rein it in, but nothing changed. The players were combative, proud, and allergic to being told what to do. I knew I wasn’t going to stop the criticism, so I chose a different route.
I leaned into their edge, challenged their reputations, built Rapport quickly, and surfaced their SQAs. Within fifteen minutes, we were ready to work.
Instead of trying to sanitise their language, I asked them to change what they pointed it at. If a teammate made a mistake, they could still unload, but they had to anchor it in what the player was capable of.
Early in the next match, a midfielder misplaced a pass and lost possession. Almost instantly, the centre-back shouted,
“You t**t, what a stupid fing pass. You’re a f*ing magician with the ball, stop giving it away and do some f*ing magic.”
It was crude. It was aggressive. And it worked.
The criticism stayed, but it was now framed as Narrow and Fleeting, while the player’s Capability was reinforced as Broad and Lasting. The tone didn’t change. The meaning did.
The team turned their season around and went on an unbeaten run into the new year, finishing second in the league.
Any criticism, rebuke, or feedback can be turned into a powerful message when the Elevate Formula shapes it.
Elevate Formula and Realisation
Have you noticed the link with Realisation from Skill 2, Manage Your State? Realisation is based on the Elevate Formula.
When we imagine a “happy ending”, including what we’ll see, hear and feel, we are training the mind to look through the High IDQ side of the Elevate Formula. This is why it works so well at pointing our sifting and sorting towards hope and success.
This is another example of how intertwined the 7 Skills are.
Here’s a Summary: I’ll keep it short.
Language is a Lens into the Subconscious
The Elevate Formula is both a state of mind and an inspirational language template. In times of stress, we assess the difficulty through three filters:
- Self / Other
- Broad / Narrow
- Lasting / Fleeting
Our language ripples out from our Identity. It is our lens into the subconscious mind.
When we use the EF to decode someone’s language, we can assess how confident they are feeling. Those who frame challenges as Other, Narrow and Fleeting tend to protect their sense of Capability and Esteem.
When we use it in our own language, we can reframe challenges to boost confidence in our abilities. Describing setbacks as Narrow and short‑lived makes them feel more manageable.
And as teachers, parents, coaches and leaders, we can inspire others by highlighting their strengths as Lasting and wide‑reaching or Broad.
This builds belief in their Capability to overcome obstacles, which gives them hope and optimism. You can even make a rebuke or a sharp piece of feedback inspiring.
The Speechcraft Builder translates the Elevate Formula directly into the language patterns you use with others.
Open the Speechcraft Builder in the Library section of the 7 Skills app
Where Are We on the 7 Skills Journey?
We’ve already learned the three skills, often called “IMP”, that help us stay focused and calm, even under pressure. They help us build strong, magnetic relationships with others.
We also talked about “Reveal Persuasion Pathways”, with which we uncover what motivates ourselves and others on a deeper level.
In this chapter, we looked at how Elevate Formula language inspires us and others to feel confident and strong. And now, Skill 6, Stay in Accord, and Skill 7, Speechcraft, will give us simple language patterns to persuade and inspire.
Ready to return to Eddard and Jacqui’s story?
In the next section, you’ll see how Eddard uses IMP, Reveal Persuasion Pathways and the Elevate Formula to save Jacqui and her children.
Up Next: How Eddard Saved the Day Click here.
Previous Chapter
Index
Glossary of Terms
Further Reading
Hecht, D. (2013). The Neural Basis of Optimism and Pessimism. Experimental Neurobiology, 22(3), 173–199.
This review explores how optimism and pessimism may be linked to different patterns of brain activity, particularly across the left and right hemispheres. It is useful background for understanding why explanatory style is more than casual thinking; it reflects deeper patterns in how the mind interprets threat, possibility and future outcomes.
Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. Vintage Books.
Seligman’s book is one of the key texts behind the idea that optimism and pessimism are shaped by explanatory style. It explains how people interpret setbacks as personal or external, permanent or temporary, and specific or widespread, which closely connects with the Self/Other, Lasting/Fleeting and Broad/Narrow filters in the Elevate Formula.