All tagged Clarity in our communications
Company missions need to be to the point. They need to focus on what the company actually does, so that when you read them, you have a sense as to the firm’s aspirations and where their collective energies will be spent.
Tesla talks about “accelerating the world’s transition towards sustainable energy”.
I’ve always wanted to have all of the answers. I’ve always wanted to be that guy who knows what’s happening, has a clear and cogent explanation, and can provide my point of view on the spot.
But that can’t always be the case. Nobody can have all the answers - not me, not you. And, really, there’s no issue with that.
Where the issue does arise, though, is when I try and speak with authority when I have none.
Episode 13 of the podcast is now available and today’s podcast wraps up this month’s focus on communications. In this episode, I talk about the secret to great communications - not saying anything.
Episode 12 continues this month's focus on the art of Communication, a subject that's integral to our ability to succeed in just about anything we do. In this episode, I talk about the importance of intent in our communications.
Episode 11 of the podcast is now available and continues our exploration of the art of Communication, a subject that's integral to our ability to succeed in just about anything we do. In this episode, I share the age old story of The Curate's Egg and what it tells us about being upfront in our communications.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of simplicity and authenticity in our messaging. Complex, obtuse and, worse, overly clever messaging does a disservice to the point we’re trying to make. And most of the time, it detracts from getting that point across.
Sometimes, though, this just seems impossible. We struggle with distilling the key takeaways or the so-whats. What keeps emerging is far longer and more involved than what feels right.
When it comes to communication, authenticity and simplicity are the two most important ingredients.
Whatever you’re trying to do - convince someone to buy something, change how they behave or join your team - it always pays to get straight to the point and be real about why your message is so important.
Back in my early consulting days, I was asked to give a presentation to a prospective client and was handed a deck to present. My instructions were to go through the material, get comfortable with the content and then do a run-through with the partner with whom I’d be doing the pitch.
The content was right in my sweet spot, so I was pretty comfortable with the key messages that we needed to get across. But some of the material in the deck didn’t sit well with me.
A small portion of the folks who follow me on Twitter think I’m Omar Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. I know this because every so often they’ll Direct Message me with news about developments in Kashmir (usually holding me accountable for it), or they’ll post an article about some Kashmir related issue and tag me along with the Prime Minister of India and other senior South Asian politicians.
It doesn’t happen a lot but it’s happened enough that I posted a PSA in Twitter that I wasn’t him and if you were following me for my views on Kashmir, you’d be sorely disappointed.
When it comes to the work we do, no one likes surprises.
It doesn’t matter which part of the organization you sit in - client management, operations, marketing or elsewhere - one of the fundamental tenets of corporate performance is predictability. We want to know what’s happening, why and, if necessary, what we need to do about it.
Once, during 10th grade math class, I was called on to answer a question, one that was based on the prior night's homework. Homework that I hadn't done.
My answer was instinctual. “I don’t know. I haven’t done it.”
The teacher looked at me quizzically and asked, “Well, which one is it?"
