Blog #5

1. Create written content with high skim value. No matter whether you are writing an email, a white paper, a project proposal, or a marketing plan. Executives’ time is valuable and writing a story will only make your document get lost in the shuffle. Try to write in a direct manner, ‘cut through the fat’ of passive tenses; use bold, bullet points, underlining, and italics. Anything that is essential for your boss to read should be easily found and understood.

Also, understand when something should be written in an email versus discussed on the phone or in a meeting. If there are a lot of decisions to be made with a lot of factors that could play out, a meeting might be more appropriate to be able to explain specific situation.

2. Employees need target goals, they need to feel like their opinion matters, and they need to be motivated to come to work everyday. As a manager or a colleague, or both, do not underestimate the power of casual, seemingly meaningless conversation. People need to feel like you genuinely care about them and that they’re more than just a deliverable. Take time to get to know the people you work with and determine the best ways to communicate with them. Empower people by requiring that their opinions are heard. Know when to be the provocateur, critic, learning advocate, and innovation coach as these are all vital communications styles at different times.

3. If you use ums, ahs, you-knows, likes, etc., you lose credibility before people even listen to the content of the information you’re attempting to share. If there is one thing you, and all of us, should be conscious of and working to mitigate it’s the use of these vicious filler words that we have picked up throughout our lives. When we pause to collect our thoughts, it feels like there’s a lot of dead space in a conversation, but that brief moment actually creates a stronger, more structured demeanor and makes people want to listen more. Practice makes perfect, it will not come overnight but we must start somewhere.