In the War for Talent, Leaders Cannot Make This Unforced Error

Brett Favre may be the simplest example.

The NFL had Junior Seau. The NBA has Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama. MLB has Shohei Ohtani and Xander Bogaerts. Even my low hockey IQ recalls Mark Messier and Jonathan Toews.

And it’s not just men—Nadia Comăneci and Martina Navratilova qualify too.

All share something: phonetically challenging names. And fans learned to pronounce them perfectly.

Why?

Because they cared.

They didn’t want to sound dumb.
They wanted to show respect.

These athletes prove we can pronounce names correctly—if we want to.

Dale Carnegie said a person’s name is “the sweetest and most important sound” in any language.

Which brings me to my client.

He’d recently hired a “superstar” named George. Young, ambitious, bilingual, hardworking. My client couldn’t stop praising him.

But when we reviewed the org chart, something didn’t add up.

“Where’s George?”
“Right there,” he said.
“Padilla,” he pronounced—rhyming it with vanilla.

I closed my eyes.
Time for tough love.

“You talk nonstop about the war for talent and this unicorn named George… and you haven’t taken the time to learn how to say his name correctly. It’s Jorge Padilla.”

(HOHR-hay) (pah-DEE-yah)

I tried to lighten the moment.

“His last name doesn’t rhyme with vanilla, chinchilla, or Thrilla in Manila.”

My client looked embarrassed.

“You already know this,” I said. “What’s the name of the former Met who gets paid every July 1?”
“Bobby Bonilla!”
“Exactly. Padilla rhymes with Bonilla.”
“…Like Pancho Villa too?”

If you care about the people you work with, you learn how to pronounce their names. We do this for the people above us on the org chart, but often fail to do the same for the people who work for us.

And it’s no surprise Jorge Padilla didn’t correct the guy whose name is on the building.

If you—or people you know—struggle with Hispanic names, we can help.
Let’s start with two rules:

1. The La Jolla Rule of Pronunciation (lah HOY-yah)
 The J makes the H sound, and LL makes the Y sound.

Think La Jolla—not “lah DJAH-lah.”

This rule explains José, Juan, Jesús, Jorge… and women’s names like Juana, Josefina, Alejandra, and Julia.

2. The Burrito Rule of Pronunciation
In Spanish, the letter I sounds like “EE.”
As in fiesta, gordita, diablo, and Padilla.

Three insights, two rules:
– J → H
– LL → Y
– I → EE

And since names matter, it helps to know the most common nicknames you’ll hear on the job. Just like Richard becomes Dick and William becomes Bill, Spanish has its own set of familiar shortenings that often show up on the jobsite. Here are the most common ones: –

• Pepe (José)
• Chuy (Jesús)
• Paco/Pancho (Francisco)
• Toño (Antonio)
• Lalo (Eduardo)
• Memo (Guillermo)
• Quique (Enrique)
• Nacho (Ignacio)

To pull both pronunciation rules together, you can practice with the names of major U.S. Cities:

• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• San Jose
• San Francisco
• El Paso
• Las Vegas
• Sacramento
• Mesa

In the war for talent, mispronouncing colleagues’ names is an unforced error.

Don’t be afraid to ask, “Can you repeat that? I want to get it right.”

If you can master Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, and even Brett Favre, you can pronounce the names of the superstars on your own team.

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Bradley Hartmann & Co.
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Contact Bradley Hartmann:
bradley@bradleyhartmannandco.com