January 23, 2025 • 20 mins
Some of you can't help yourselves. Most of us can't. We start talking in meetings and it's this endless wave of points and data and stories and reasons and explanations and side stories and jokes and then everyone is left wondering what in the world we even said. We need to change. In this episode Lead In 30's Russ Hill digs into:
• The significance of effective communication in leadership
• Practical tips for concise messaging
• The impact of clarity in key performance metrics
• Importance of engaging and responsive dialogue
• Call for self-reflection on personal communication style
In other words.... let's learn how to communicate more powerfully!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How do you strengthen your ability to communicate
with others?
The power of just one word inthis episode.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastwith Russ Hill.
You cannot be serious,strengthen your ability to lead
in less than 30 minutes.
We are back at it in the newyear 2025 at the time that we're
(00:28):
pushing this episode out.
Hopefully you had a fantasticbreak, the holidays, happy new
year, all of that and hopefullyQ1 of 2025 is off to a great
start.
Q1 is so critical in business,right?
Some of you are in industriesand organizations where the
(00:49):
first month of the year isinsane it's so busy.
Others, it's like this slowrebuild, like this slow
recalibration or powering thesystems back up and getting
people back on their game.
If that's the case, wow, thatjust puts you in such a hole for
(01:10):
, uh, for the rest of the year,at least for the first, uh, the
first half of it.
So hopefully, that's not you.
I'm, uh, I'm excited to be backat it doing two episodes of the
podcast every week.
Again, thanks for your patienceas I unplugged over the break
to be able to recharge batteriesand get off the grid just a
(01:30):
little bit.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastin less than 30 minutes per
episode.
We give you a nugget, aframework, a model, a story, an
example, something to thinkabout implementing or to
consider using in the way thatyou lead others.
Nothing impacts your income,your impact, your ability to
(01:53):
scale results to have thelifestyle that you desire more.
Nothing impacts all that morethan your ability to lead, and
it's not a set thing.
It's changing.
Your ability to lead is eithergetting weaker or it's getting
stronger, based on how mucheffort and energy and attention
you're paying to it.
(02:13):
So huge props for listening tothis podcast and everything else
, anything else that you'redoing in order to strengthen
your ability to lead.
My name is Russ Hill.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'smost amazing biggest companies.
Lonerockio is our websiteLoneRockio if you want to find
(02:34):
out more about what we do andthe 30-day leadership course
called Lead in 30.
Okay, so I was in the New Yorkarea recently, just the last few
weeks we were having thisconversation with a senior
executive team that leads a lotof people, thousands and
thousands of team members, downthe org chart, across the org
(02:56):
chart, and we get in thisconversation about communication
and how important it isespecially when you're leading a
team of thousands or thousandsof people that are spread out
that you're trying to be anexecutive over to help them
deliver the results that youneed to, and just the importance
(03:16):
of effective communication thatcame up in the course of our
dialogue, and the principle isactually no different for those
of you that are leading a teamor an organization of five
people.
I mean it's you know, scaledoes matter here, or it impacts
it or makes it more difficult,but the principle is still the
same.
I would even argue thateffective communication,
(03:40):
one-to-one, is criticallyimportant, and so I want to give
you just a couple of thingsthat are on my mind because of
that conversation and share acouple of best practices with
you.
Get you thinking about it,because some of you are just,
you just vomit from your mouth.
I mean, I guess that's whereyou vomit from when you're sick,
(04:00):
right, but no, in communication, like in meetings, like you
just use so many words, you sayso much and yet none of us have
any clue what you're talkingabout.
You lose us, you dilute youreffectiveness as a leader, as a
team member, as somebody workingwith the customer too, because
(04:25):
you just say so much and we haveto, like, dig through all of
this word salad to try to get towait.
What was your point in that?
And there are various reasonswhy we do this.
And if that's you and you'relike, oh no, guilty as charged,
or you're thinking, no, that'snot me and I think I'm pretty
(04:48):
good at it, the reality is weall need to get better.
This is this is something thatwe need to continually work on.
So let me give you a few things.
Not that I'm the master or theexpert of it, but obviously I've
studied communicationthroughout my career.
So I've got three decadesalmost four on it now is
studying it, let's count, let'scall it four and um, and of all
(05:12):
the weaknesses and strengthsthat I have and I got a lot more
weaknesses than strengths, butthis is one of my strengths and,
again, doesn't mean I'm perfectat it, doesn't mean that I have
um, have you know that I'm themaster of it, but I'm, I'm
fairly decent at it.
So let me give you some thingsto think about.
The first thing is think beforeyou speak.
(05:35):
I was in a virtual meeting thisweek and with, uh, the CEO of a,
of an organization.
It's owned by private equityand they're of an organization.
It's owned by private equityand they're just starting to use
our firm.
They're not a very big companyand one of our team members
asked me if I'd be on the callwith the CEO to kind of get the
(05:55):
thing started.
I'm not going to be involved init on a frequent basis, but he
asked me if I just kind of weighin and set the tone.
And so I did and I'm asking theCEO in this virtual meeting
there's some other executives onthe call as well.
I'm asking him what are thestrategic priorities for 2025?
Like, what have you definedsuccess?
And he said yeah, actually, we,we just rolled it out, we just
(06:18):
displayed it or just presentedit to the company.
I said great, can you tell mewhat, what you, what you
presented, what, what was it?
And he said, yeah, actually,can I share a slide?
It's right here on my on mycomputer.
I'll just share it with you.
I said, awesome, so he puts itup on the screen and it's seven
things, right.
And actually the slide wasincredibly, um, valuable and
(06:41):
concise and efficient comparedto 90% of what we see out there,
and so there were too manywords and too many items, but at
least he had a slide and atleast there were seven and not
70, which is the problem in somany organizations.
And so, as he starts sharing it, I said, well, of these seven,
(07:02):
um, and they, and they were eachone of the seven items was a
sentence, right?
So it was just this sentenceabout this and a sentence about
that, and I think the title wassomething like the 2025 pillars
or something that was somethinglike the headline of it.
And so, as he's showing it to me, sharing his screen, I say to
(07:23):
him are there of these seven,are there two or three that are
more important than the others?
And he said, yeah, actually,these first two are really,
really important.
I said, okay, well, speak to meabout it.
Well, like, talk to me about it, tell me the why and explain to
me what those things are.
Like, cause I'm, I haven'tworked in his industry and his
(07:48):
industry, and so he's explainingto me well, this is how it
works and these contractors andthese clients and the
reimbursement and this, that.
And then I'm like, okay, great,so perfect, thanks, good.
And then I said, okay, thosetwo make sense.
And I asked a few morequestions and then I said okay
now, so those are the top two ofthe remaining five.
Is there one that jumps outlike it's probably right there
with them?
He goes oh yeah, it's actuallynumber five on the list and that
(08:11):
, that's that's it.
So we'll talk to me about that.
Why, what does this mean?
And explain it to me.
While he's speaking, I'm on mycomputer right, this is a
virtual meeting and I'm typing anote and I'm capturing three
words hours, engagement margin.
That's what he was saying.
Now, he talked for 10 minutes,but what he was saying to me was
(08:36):
the three most important thingsthat define success in 2025 for
us are hours engagement margin.
Now, you need someinterpretation in order to fully
follow what those are.
Doesn't matter really.
My point in this example isjust three words.
(08:57):
So while he's talking, I'mtrying to capture the essence of
what he's saying in the mostconcise, strong, efficient,
effective communication possible.
If he goes around his companyall year long and he says listen
(09:18):
, team, the three most importantthings we're measuring, we're
tracking that matter most arehours engagement margin, and
those have specific meaning thateveryone in the company knows
what they mean.
Like hours, there's a specificthing they're talking about and
what they're working towardsEngagement.
It's not what you think, it'ssomething different, but the
(09:40):
word they use to describe it isengagement.
Everybody knows what that means.
And then margin.
There's a certain thing thatthey're working on that
everyone's tied to.
Everyone can impact thatspecifically drives margin,
margin.
So margin was his second orthird one.
I I suggested he move it tonumber three because you don't
(10:00):
want to lead.
That's hard to rally around.
Hey, you guys, the mostimportant metrics this year
margin deflate the ballooninstantly.
Right.
People understand why margin isimportant, or profit or
whatever else, but you don'twant to lead with it, with the
masses, and so it's the lastthing.
And and the other two are moreimportant.
So it's just one word.
(10:22):
So here's, here's my suggestionto you as you're planning your
next meeting, as you're thinkingabout the conversation you're
going to have when you do aone-on-one with that particular
team member or you're going todo that market visit.
I want you to spend more timethinking about what you're going
to say.
(10:42):
What are the main messages thatyou need to get across?
What's the objective of thismeeting?
What is the message that youneed this employee or this team
to really understand?
What is your top priority inthis discussion that you just
(11:04):
wish you could communicate andwhat you need to understand a
the more diluted the message.
And yet you feel the need tokeep saying stuff to explain it
or justify it, or tell a storyaround it, or give some context,
(11:28):
or, and then you get on thisaside because something pops
into your brain.
You know, I was actually withso-and-so Sally yesterday and
she and I were having aconversation about this and I
told her about my.
I'm like that's how your brainworks, it's how all of our
brains work.
And so these thoughts pop intoyour mind.
You think about Sally, youthink about the restaurant you
were at, you think aboutwhatever, and you just start
(11:49):
sharing what pops in your brain.
Stop it.
You got to not do that, so yougot to allow things to be
flowing into your mind for youto visualize and see and think.
They need to not come out ofyour mouth.
They stop in your head.
You filter that in a casualconversation.
Of course you can.
That's normal human interaction.
(12:11):
But when you're a leader tryingto be concise and have effective
communication, you got tofilter a lot of that out.
That takes practice.
None of us are great at it, so,um, so you're, you're, you're,
you're just trying to get itdown to the basic message, and
then so I want you to type itinto an Apple note, I want you
to put it into a word document,I want you to to to have a sheet
(12:34):
of paper out in front of you onthe airplane or in the hallway
getting ready for the meeting,or at your home office, as
you're thinking about nextweek's calendar, as your,
whatever it is, I want you tothink about it.
Well, what's the most importantmessage?
What am I trying to convey?
Write it out, type it out.
(12:56):
Get like five or six bulletpoints, narrow them down, get it
to one or two, shorten thatdown to four words, three words,
one word, if you can get it tobe as concise as possible.
And then the way to do it, whatI've seen work the best, it's
most effective, is I'm going tonarrow that down to just one or
two thoughts, as few words aspossible, and I'm going to say
(13:19):
okay, team, what I want to getacross in this meeting, or
what's on my mind, or what I'mwhat, the point that I need to
make, or the top priority that Iwant us to focus on, is this.
Now, before you go to all thecontext.
You might need to provide alittle bit right, depending on
how familiar they are with it.
Might need to provide a littlebit right, depending on how
familiar they are with it.
You might need to provide alittle context.
But what works really well isstate the item.
Then, if you need to providesome context, provide that
(13:41):
little bit of context, keep itas tight as you possibly can.
Then state the item again.
You lead with it, then you endwith it, right, and then now
what you do is so what thoughtsdoes that generate?
Team or individual I'm chattingwith.
What questions do you have?
What pops into your mind when Isay that now they're going to
(14:03):
just give a lot of reaction.
This is what.
Let them just let them get thatout.
It's coming regardless.
It's coming regardless.
So let them talk.
Okay, great, good.
What other questions do youhave?
What other thoughts?
What other observations wouldyou make?
Let them get all that out asthey're processing what you said
.
(14:27):
And then now you really need tocraft great questions in
response to what they said,because the reason you're having
them talk is to see whether ornot they heard you, to see what
they heard you to see what theyheard.
So, lisa, based on what you'resaying and what I'm hearing you
say, is this yeah, mike, whatyou're saying, if I heard you
correctly, is that you'reconcerned that the priority that
(14:47):
I just laid out would interferewith X, y, z.
Is that right, mike?
Am I capturing that accurately?
Yes, perfect, okay, now I'mgoing to go back in as concise a
way as I can.
You're really listening and asyou're listening, you're
thinking what's the most conciseway that I can respond to this
(15:08):
in a way that validates whatthey're saying, responds to it,
doesn't minimize it at all,doesn't sideline it, but again
communicates what I'm trying toget across in the most concise
way.
Then it's the same processagain Okay, so this is what it
is.
And then you're asking so whatquestions does that generate?
(15:30):
What further insight do youneed?
What pops in your head when Isay that that is how the system
works, because what you'retrying to do, at the end of the
day, what we're trying to do asleaders, is communicate the
priority, communicate the ask,communicate the need, and then
make sure that they've got it,see if they're aligned to it,
(15:53):
see if they heard us, make surethat they've got it, see if
they're aligned to it, see ifthey heard us.
And so when I'm askingquestions, or I'm giving them a
chance to respond or I'mfacilitating that dialogue, what
I'm really doing, I'm watchingthem, their facial expressions,
their body language.
I'm listening and analyzing thewords that they're using, the
sentences they're using, to seeare they aligned?
(16:13):
Did they hear me?
Did they hear me accurately?
Or did they immediatelyinterpret and translate what I
said into some other languagethat works for them and lets
them off the hook, or changes it?
And so was the message received?
Did they get it?
Do they understand what I needthem to do in relation to what I
(16:37):
was just talking about?
So you think back to thisexample that I started with of
hours, engagement and margin.
So I would say, let's just playthis out for just a second.
So if I'm going into a meetingwith team members inside that
particular organization, I'msaying look, our top three
priorities are hours, engagement, margin.
Mike, when I say hours, whatdoes it mean?
(16:58):
I didn't even give anyinterpretation.
I saved all of that.
I didn't give stories, I didn'ttalk about why I picked it or
why we think it's a top priority.
I'm immediately going, becauseit's way more efficient to
letting Mike respond to that,because Mike's going to say what
I would have said Make sense.
Or if he doesn't, we gotproblems.
(17:20):
Like, if he responds in a waythat's not accurate.
That's actually really gooddata for me to have.
Like, mike's got no idea whathours means.
Wow, I thought everybody knew.
Okay, well, lisa, before Irespond and tell them what it is
, I say Lisa, mike, mike isn'tsure what hours means what?
(17:41):
What do you?
What are you thinking, or what?
What goes through your mindwhen I say hours as our top
priority and then Lisa respondsaccurately she knows what it
means.
I'm like, yeah, that's it.
She's making the case for it.
Mike, do you hear that?
What questions does thatgenerate?
What Lisa just said?
Well, I wonder about this.
Okay, great, the second toppriority is engagement, bob.
(18:05):
What goes through your mindwhen I say that, linda?
Why would we pick engagement asthe number two?
Why does that matter?
Let them make the case.
You're just incrediblyefficient in what you say.
Got it?
You understand the point.
I just am in so many meetingsyou all I'm in so many
conversations where people justare not effective in their
(18:27):
communication.
They're saying every thoughtthat comes into their mind.
There are, if you were to writeout or type out the sentences
that come out of their mouth ina meeting, there are 47 commas
and the run-on sentence.
There are all these additionaldetails and stories and squirrel
moments, and so then, and sothen I'm listening going.
I really have no idea whatyou're saying, or I'm I'm lost
(18:51):
in it, or I kind of caught thefirst 15 seconds and then I
tuned out for the other sevenand a half minutes because, and
and and you felt the need.
We all do, we all do this.
We felt the need to add context, a layer of context after a
layer of context after a layerof context, story after story
after story, example afterexample after example.
(19:11):
It's like we're just massivelymaking this case and and in the
end, we dilute what people hearand we come off as incredibly
inefficient in our communication.
Off, as incredibly inefficientin our communication.
So some things to think aboutin this new year.
(19:32):
If you're listening to this atthe time we put it out, maybe
that's something that we can allfocus on.
Some of you are better thanothers at this, so have you been
working at it for a while?
Others, this is a brand newpriority effective, concise
communication.
It makes you look so much more,so much stronger it it you come
across so much more effective.
(19:54):
It affects your ability to leadothers.
Effective communication that'swhat's on my mind in this
episode of the lead in 30podcast.
Share this episode with acolleague, your team or a friend
.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
How do you strengthen your ability to communicate
with others?
The power of just one word inthis episode.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastwith Russ Hill.
You cannot be serious,strengthen your ability to lead
in less than 30 minutes.
We are back at it in the newyear 2025 at the time that we're
(00:28):
pushing this episode out.
Hopefully you had a fantasticbreak, the holidays, happy new
year, all of that and hopefullyQ1 of 2025 is off to a great
start.
Q1 is so critical in business,right?
Some of you are in industriesand organizations where the
(00:49):
first month of the year isinsane it's so busy.
Others, it's like this slowrebuild, like this slow
recalibration or powering thesystems back up and getting
people back on their game.
If that's the case, wow, thatjust puts you in such a hole for
(01:10):
, uh, for the rest of the year,at least for the first, uh, the
first half of it.
So hopefully, that's not you.
I'm, uh, I'm excited to be backat it doing two episodes of the
podcast every week.
Again, thanks for your patienceas I unplugged over the break
to be able to recharge batteriesand get off the grid just a
(01:30):
little bit.
This is the Lead in 30 podcastin less than 30 minutes per
episode.
We give you a nugget, aframework, a model, a story, an
example, something to thinkabout implementing or to
consider using in the way thatyou lead others.
Nothing impacts your income,your impact, your ability to
(01:53):
scale results to have thelifestyle that you desire more.
Nothing impacts all that morethan your ability to lead, and
it's not a set thing.
It's changing.
Your ability to lead is eithergetting weaker or it's getting
stronger, based on how mucheffort and energy and attention
you're paying to it.
(02:13):
So huge props for listening tothis podcast and everything else
, anything else that you'redoing in order to strengthen
your ability to lead.
My name is Russ Hill.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'smost amazing biggest companies.
Lonerockio is our websiteLoneRockio if you want to find
(02:34):
out more about what we do andthe 30-day leadership course
called Lead in 30.
Okay, so I was in the New Yorkarea recently, just the last few
weeks we were having thisconversation with a senior
executive team that leads a lotof people, thousands and
thousands of team members, downthe org chart, across the org
(02:56):
chart, and we get in thisconversation about communication
and how important it isespecially when you're leading a
team of thousands or thousandsof people that are spread out
that you're trying to be anexecutive over to help them
deliver the results that youneed to, and just the importance
(03:16):
of effective communication thatcame up in the course of our
dialogue, and the principle isactually no different for those
of you that are leading a teamor an organization of five
people.
I mean it's you know, scaledoes matter here, or it impacts
it or makes it more difficult,but the principle is still the
same.
I would even argue thateffective communication,
(03:40):
one-to-one, is criticallyimportant, and so I want to give
you just a couple of thingsthat are on my mind because of
that conversation and share acouple of best practices with
you.
Get you thinking about it,because some of you are just,
you just vomit from your mouth.
I mean, I guess that's whereyou vomit from when you're sick,
(04:00):
right, but no, in communication, like in meetings, like you
just use so many words, you sayso much and yet none of us have
any clue what you're talkingabout.
You lose us, you dilute youreffectiveness as a leader, as a
team member, as somebody workingwith the customer too, because
(04:25):
you just say so much and we haveto, like, dig through all of
this word salad to try to get towait.
What was your point in that?
And there are various reasonswhy we do this.
And if that's you and you'relike, oh no, guilty as charged,
or you're thinking, no, that'snot me and I think I'm pretty
(04:48):
good at it, the reality is weall need to get better.
This is this is something thatwe need to continually work on.
So let me give you a few things.
Not that I'm the master or theexpert of it, but obviously I've
studied communicationthroughout my career.
So I've got three decadesalmost four on it now is
studying it, let's count, let'scall it four and um, and of all
(05:12):
the weaknesses and strengthsthat I have and I got a lot more
weaknesses than strengths, butthis is one of my strengths and,
again, doesn't mean I'm perfectat it, doesn't mean that I have
um, have you know that I'm themaster of it, but I'm, I'm
fairly decent at it.
So let me give you some thingsto think about.
The first thing is think beforeyou speak.
(05:35):
I was in a virtual meeting thisweek and with, uh, the CEO of a,
of an organization.
It's owned by private equityand they're of an organization.
It's owned by private equityand they're just starting to use
our firm.
They're not a very big companyand one of our team members
asked me if I'd be on the callwith the CEO to kind of get the
(05:55):
thing started.
I'm not going to be involved init on a frequent basis, but he
asked me if I just kind of weighin and set the tone.
And so I did and I'm asking theCEO in this virtual meeting
there's some other executives onthe call as well.
I'm asking him what are thestrategic priorities for 2025?
Like, what have you definedsuccess?
And he said yeah, actually, we,we just rolled it out, we just
(06:18):
displayed it or just presentedit to the company.
I said great, can you tell mewhat, what you, what you
presented, what, what was it?
And he said, yeah, actually,can I share a slide?
It's right here on my on mycomputer.
I'll just share it with you.
I said, awesome, so he puts itup on the screen and it's seven
things, right.
And actually the slide wasincredibly, um, valuable and
(06:41):
concise and efficient comparedto 90% of what we see out there,
and so there were too manywords and too many items, but at
least he had a slide and atleast there were seven and not
70, which is the problem in somany organizations.
And so, as he starts sharing it, I said, well, of these seven,
(07:02):
um, and they, and they were eachone of the seven items was a
sentence, right?
So it was just this sentenceabout this and a sentence about
that, and I think the title wassomething like the 2025 pillars
or something that was somethinglike the headline of it.
And so, as he's showing it to me, sharing his screen, I say to
(07:23):
him are there of these seven,are there two or three that are
more important than the others?
And he said, yeah, actually,these first two are really,
really important.
I said, okay, well, speak to meabout it.
Well, like, talk to me about it, tell me the why and explain to
me what those things are.
Like, cause I'm, I haven'tworked in his industry and his
(07:48):
industry, and so he's explainingto me well, this is how it
works and these contractors andthese clients and the
reimbursement and this, that.
And then I'm like, okay, great,so perfect, thanks, good.
And then I said, okay, thosetwo make sense.
And I asked a few morequestions and then I said okay
now, so those are the top two ofthe remaining five.
Is there one that jumps outlike it's probably right there
with them?
He goes oh yeah, it's actuallynumber five on the list and that
(08:11):
, that's that's it.
So we'll talk to me about that.
Why, what does this mean?
And explain it to me.
While he's speaking, I'm on mycomputer right, this is a
virtual meeting and I'm typing anote and I'm capturing three
words hours, engagement margin.
That's what he was saying.
Now, he talked for 10 minutes,but what he was saying to me was
(08:36):
the three most important thingsthat define success in 2025 for
us are hours engagement margin.
Now, you need someinterpretation in order to fully
follow what those are.
Doesn't matter really.
My point in this example isjust three words.
(08:57):
So while he's talking, I'mtrying to capture the essence of
what he's saying in the mostconcise, strong, efficient,
effective communication possible.
If he goes around his companyall year long and he says listen
(09:18):
, team, the three most importantthings we're measuring, we're
tracking that matter most arehours engagement margin, and
those have specific meaning thateveryone in the company knows
what they mean.
Like hours, there's a specificthing they're talking about and
what they're working towardsEngagement.
It's not what you think, it'ssomething different, but the
(09:40):
word they use to describe it isengagement.
Everybody knows what that means.
And then margin.
There's a certain thing thatthey're working on that
everyone's tied to.
Everyone can impact thatspecifically drives margin,
margin.
So margin was his second orthird one.
I I suggested he move it tonumber three because you don't
(10:00):
want to lead.
That's hard to rally around.
Hey, you guys, the mostimportant metrics this year
margin deflate the ballooninstantly.
Right.
People understand why margin isimportant, or profit or
whatever else, but you don'twant to lead with it, with the
masses, and so it's the lastthing.
And and the other two are moreimportant.
So it's just one word.
(10:22):
So here's, here's my suggestionto you as you're planning your
next meeting, as you're thinkingabout the conversation you're
going to have when you do aone-on-one with that particular
team member or you're going todo that market visit.
I want you to spend more timethinking about what you're going
to say.
(10:42):
What are the main messages thatyou need to get across?
What's the objective of thismeeting?
What is the message that youneed this employee or this team
to really understand?
What is your top priority inthis discussion that you just
(11:04):
wish you could communicate andwhat you need to understand a
the more diluted the message.
And yet you feel the need tokeep saying stuff to explain it
or justify it, or tell a storyaround it, or give some context,
(11:28):
or, and then you get on thisaside because something pops
into your brain.
You know, I was actually withso-and-so Sally yesterday and
she and I were having aconversation about this and I
told her about my.
I'm like that's how your brainworks, it's how all of our
brains work.
And so these thoughts pop intoyour mind.
You think about Sally, youthink about the restaurant you
were at, you think aboutwhatever, and you just start
(11:49):
sharing what pops in your brain.
Stop it.
You got to not do that, so yougot to allow things to be
flowing into your mind for youto visualize and see and think.
They need to not come out ofyour mouth.
They stop in your head.
You filter that in a casualconversation.
Of course you can.
That's normal human interaction.
(12:11):
But when you're a leader tryingto be concise and have effective
communication, you got tofilter a lot of that out.
That takes practice.
None of us are great at it, so,um, so you're, you're, you're,
you're just trying to get itdown to the basic message, and
then so I want you to type itinto an Apple note, I want you
to put it into a word document,I want you to to to have a sheet
(12:34):
of paper out in front of you onthe airplane or in the hallway
getting ready for the meeting,or at your home office, as
you're thinking about nextweek's calendar, as your,
whatever it is, I want you tothink about it.
Well, what's the most importantmessage?
What am I trying to convey?
Write it out, type it out.
(12:56):
Get like five or six bulletpoints, narrow them down, get it
to one or two, shorten thatdown to four words, three words,
one word, if you can get it tobe as concise as possible.
And then the way to do it, whatI've seen work the best, it's
most effective, is I'm going tonarrow that down to just one or
two thoughts, as few words aspossible, and I'm going to say
(13:19):
okay, team, what I want to getacross in this meeting, or
what's on my mind, or what I'mwhat, the point that I need to
make, or the top priority that Iwant us to focus on, is this.
Now, before you go to all thecontext.
You might need to provide alittle bit right, depending on
how familiar they are with it.
Might need to provide a littlebit right, depending on how
familiar they are with it.
You might need to provide alittle context.
But what works really well isstate the item.
Then, if you need to providesome context, provide that
(13:41):
little bit of context, keep itas tight as you possibly can.
Then state the item again.
You lead with it, then you endwith it, right, and then now
what you do is so what thoughtsdoes that generate?
Team or individual I'm chattingwith.
What questions do you have?
What pops into your mind when Isay that now they're going to
(14:03):
just give a lot of reaction.
This is what.
Let them just let them get thatout.
It's coming regardless.
It's coming regardless.
So let them talk.
Okay, great, good.
What other questions do youhave?
What other thoughts?
What other observations wouldyou make?
Let them get all that out asthey're processing what you said
.
(14:27):
And then now you really need tocraft great questions in
response to what they said,because the reason you're having
them talk is to see whether ornot they heard you, to see what
they heard you to see what theyheard.
So, lisa, based on what you'resaying and what I'm hearing you
say, is this yeah, mike, whatyou're saying, if I heard you
correctly, is that you'reconcerned that the priority that
(14:47):
I just laid out would interferewith X, y, z.
Is that right, mike?
Am I capturing that accurately?
Yes, perfect, okay, now I'mgoing to go back in as concise a
way as I can.
You're really listening and asyou're listening, you're
thinking what's the most conciseway that I can respond to this
(15:08):
in a way that validates whatthey're saying, responds to it,
doesn't minimize it at all,doesn't sideline it, but again
communicates what I'm trying toget across in the most concise
way.
Then it's the same processagain Okay, so this is what it
is.
And then you're asking so whatquestions does that generate?
(15:30):
What further insight do youneed?
What pops in your head when Isay that that is how the system
works, because what you'retrying to do, at the end of the
day, what we're trying to do asleaders, is communicate the
priority, communicate the ask,communicate the need, and then
make sure that they've got it,see if they're aligned to it,
(15:53):
see if they heard us, make surethat they've got it, see if
they're aligned to it, see ifthey heard us.
And so when I'm askingquestions, or I'm giving them a
chance to respond or I'mfacilitating that dialogue, what
I'm really doing, I'm watchingthem, their facial expressions,
their body language.
I'm listening and analyzing thewords that they're using, the
sentences they're using, to seeare they aligned?
(16:13):
Did they hear me?
Did they hear me accurately?
Or did they immediatelyinterpret and translate what I
said into some other languagethat works for them and lets
them off the hook, or changes it?
And so was the message received?
Did they get it?
Do they understand what I needthem to do in relation to what I
(16:37):
was just talking about?
So you think back to thisexample that I started with of
hours, engagement and margin.
So I would say, let's just playthis out for just a second.
So if I'm going into a meetingwith team members inside that
particular organization, I'msaying look, our top three
priorities are hours, engagement, margin.
Mike, when I say hours, whatdoes it mean?
(16:58):
I didn't even give anyinterpretation.
I saved all of that.
I didn't give stories, I didn'ttalk about why I picked it or
why we think it's a top priority.
I'm immediately going, becauseit's way more efficient to
letting Mike respond to that,because Mike's going to say what
I would have said Make sense.
Or if he doesn't, we gotproblems.
(17:20):
Like, if he responds in a waythat's not accurate.
That's actually really gooddata for me to have.
Like, mike's got no idea whathours means.
Wow, I thought everybody knew.
Okay, well, lisa, before Irespond and tell them what it is
, I say Lisa, mike, mike isn'tsure what hours means what?
(17:41):
What do you?
What are you thinking, or what?
What goes through your mindwhen I say hours as our top
priority and then Lisa respondsaccurately she knows what it
means.
I'm like, yeah, that's it.
She's making the case for it.
Mike, do you hear that?
What questions does thatgenerate?
What Lisa just said?
Well, I wonder about this.
Okay, great, the second toppriority is engagement, bob.
(18:05):
What goes through your mindwhen I say that, linda?
Why would we pick engagement asthe number two?
Why does that matter?
Let them make the case.
You're just incrediblyefficient in what you say.
Got it?
You understand the point.
I just am in so many meetingsyou all I'm in so many
conversations where people justare not effective in their
(18:27):
communication.
They're saying every thoughtthat comes into their mind.
There are, if you were to writeout or type out the sentences
that come out of their mouth ina meeting, there are 47 commas
and the run-on sentence.
There are all these additionaldetails and stories and squirrel
moments, and so then, and sothen I'm listening going.
I really have no idea whatyou're saying, or I'm I'm lost
(18:51):
in it, or I kind of caught thefirst 15 seconds and then I
tuned out for the other sevenand a half minutes because, and
and and you felt the need.
We all do, we all do this.
We felt the need to add context, a layer of context after a
layer of context after a layerof context, story after story
after story, example afterexample after example.
(19:11):
It's like we're just massivelymaking this case and and in the
end, we dilute what people hearand we come off as incredibly
inefficient in our communication.
Off, as incredibly inefficientin our communication.
So some things to think aboutin this new year.
(19:32):
If you're listening to this atthe time we put it out, maybe
that's something that we can allfocus on.
Some of you are better thanothers at this, so have you been
working at it for a while?
Others, this is a brand newpriority effective, concise
communication.
It makes you look so much more,so much stronger it it you come
across so much more effective.
(19:54):
It affects your ability to leadothers.
Effective communication that'swhat's on my mind in this
episode of the lead in 30podcast.
Share this episode with acolleague, your team or a friend
.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
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