Be Brief – Be Succinct – Be Effective
This week I want to talk to you about being brief, cutting to the chase, being succinct.
I was in a meeting this week that reminded me of the benefits of being brief. Imagine seven people in a room making introductions to one another as they had not met each other before. I was asked to go first, and I said, “My name is Hugh Blane and I run an advisory firm that serves executives and entrepreneurs. I help them dramatically increase the quality of their leadership, the quality of their business, and the quality of their life.” And then I shut up. I turned to the next person in the hopes that the fifteen or twenty seconds I took would be replicated. Do you know how long it took the next person? No, you would not know because you were not there. It took them seven minutes…SEVEN MINUTES! In turn it took thirty minutes to introduce seven people. It was an inefficient and unnecessary use of time.
The reason why this is germane to the Monday Morning Mindset is that in order to be crisp in your communication; which means articulating something succinctly, with brevity, with the bare essentials of what people “need to know” versus “what you can tell them”, requires a sharp and crisp mindset to do so. The thinking that you as leaders, executives or entrepreneurs bring to how you communicate is of paramount importance. It is of paramount importance because people have a shorter attention span, less discretionary time and take clues and cues about how you think from how you speak.
This week, be brief. Be succinct and then ask if anyone has any other questions. If they do, they will ask. If they don’t they won’t ask and you can move on.
Hugh’s Brevity Recommendations:
Remember that less is more powerful and compelling. The Gettysburg Address for example.
Share what people need to know and not what you know about a subject. When asked for the time avoid a discourse on making watches and tell the person it’s 5:45pm.
Brevity, when done well, respects a persons time. By cutting to the chase you are acting in service of the person you’re speaking with.
I will now stop talking and say that is the Monday Morning Mindset. If you want to have a fabulous week, be more succinct, be crisp in your communication, and if you do, you’re going to create a fabulous week.
