If you find yourself in this position, Louis Tice in A Better World, A Better You, recommends asking yourself, "What am I communicating to my people?"

Are you leading them toward success or failure, toward excellence or mediocrity? Do you describe to them what you don't want them to do or what you do want?

In directing yourself and in leading others, visualize what you want and communicate it … You thus establish a positive feedback loop, feeding back not what is … but what you see as capable of being someday.

Because you have tremendous power, for yourself and for others, you must recognize the power of words and the intent behind them. "Words trigger pictures that bring about emotions", Tice says.

Strike, from the way you talk to yourself and to others, all sarcasm, which is destructive, all devaluation, which diminishes, all belittling and teasing, which demean, and all faultfinding.

Start thinking better of yourself and others — creating the images you want, not those you do not want.