Archive for Writing
The Quickest Way to Enhance Any Communication You’re Having
Posted by: | CommentsIf you could find one idea or technique that could quickly and “almost miraculously” transform any communication you’re engaged in–from speaking at a community event to leading a team training or meeting to talking with a loved one to writing a letter or blog post–what would that be worth to you?
Or if you could avoid the pain of missed communication–from frustration and conflict to lost opportunities and sales. Or if you could avoid doing or saying something that might injure a key relationship–what would that be worth to you? I’m guessing a lot. Well, get ready because you’re about to get that one idea/technique–and it won’t cost you a thing.
I learned this idea/technique from a minister and author from England named John Stott. In his classic book on pastoral communication (also known as preaching :-), Stott introduced a concept he calls quadruple thinking–and it’s brilliant! The basic idea is this. It occurs in four parts (hence the phrase, quadruple thinking).
1. You think of what you want to say
2. You think of how the person you’re communicating to will hear what you have to say
3. You rethink what you have to say
4. So they will hear what you want them to hear.
Brilliant! In other words, if you or I want to be more effective communicators (and as a leader of a small or medium-sized business or organization you ought to want to be), then
We don’t have the luxury of ever just saying what we want to say.
Why? Because communication always involves two (or more) people. And that means that the other person must ALWAYS be factored into the equation.
For example: You’re in a rush and under a lot of pressure. You call in one of your employees and say, “Here’s an assignment, just make it happen.” You don’t have a lot of time to spell out what you want done–after all, they’re an adult, they can figure it out. And furthermore, you don’t want to be known as a micro-manager. So you just hand out an assignment. Unfortunately, the person you handed that assignment to is, in Myers-Briggs language, an SJ.
SJs are great workers. They make up roughly 40% of the population. They follow assignments. They get things done. BUT ONE THING that SJs don’t do well is create from scratch. SJs like to do things right. However, if they don’t know what right is, they get stumped–which is why SJs LOVE DIRECTIONS. They like their leaders to spell out details.
So while you may think you communicated clearly to your employee, the reality is you didn’t. If, on the other hand, you were employing quadruple thinking, you might have thought. “Let’s see, Barb is an SJ. As an SJ, Barb is going to want lots of direction on this assignment. So, I better clear out 15 minutes to talk with her about this assignment today.”
On the other hand, if Bob is an NT (in Myers Briggs language–and NTs don’t like lots of direction) then your quadruple thinking conversation might go like this. “Let’s see, Bob is an NT. NTs hate to be straight-jacketed with lots of direction and control so I better just walk by Bob’s desk and give him this assignment and a due date.”
Remember, the goal of communication isn’t simply to process sounds out of our minds into words on paper, screen or air. The goal of communication is to connect with another human being for a specific result or reason. Therefore, they must always be factored into the conversation.
Now, in one sense, this seems so blatantly obvious, that it shouldn’t have to be stated. But it’s not. Common sense is not common practice. Every day in every workplace (or home), miscommunication takes place. And while neither you nor I can’t completely eliminate it, we can greatly reduce it by practicing this one simple technique: Quadruple Thinking!
1. You think of what you want to say
2. You think of how the person you’re communicating to will hear what you have to say
3. You rethink what you have to say
4. So they will hear what you want them to hear.
Go ahead, give it a try! If you really get it, this should change every conversation and communication you ever have from this day forward–that is, if you want to be an effective leader and communicator.
To your accelerated success!
P.S. Let me know what you think of this idea in the comments section below!
What You Can Learn From Steve Jobs About “PowerPoint”
Posted by: | CommentsEvery CEO eventually has to do a presentation. And that invariably means that you have to use PowerPoint–or if you’re lucky enough to be on a Mac, Keynote (which is way better, by the way). Note: That’s also why “PowerPoint” is in quotes above since Steve Jobs clearly uses Keynote–but you get the point.
While watching Steve introduce the iPad last week in real-time on Gizmodo (hats off to B. Lam and Jason Chen at Gizmodo who were doing photo and text blogging during the presentation–I was majorly impressed), I thought that I’d share some of their images of Steve’s slides so you could see how a master does his “PowerPoint.” So, here we go.
Here’s one of Steve’s first slides. Notice the simplicity of the design. A short quote in large enough type to read, and a simple image to further drive home the point. Also notice the cool reflection of the image.
As Steve started to talk about mobile platforms he posed a question, “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a lap top?” Here’s how he represented that.
I love this next slide for it’s simplicity and color popping. No fancy charts. Just one image and one number–that’s all that matters!
Changing gears, when Steve wanted to talk about environmental friendliness, he took and created a “report card” check list that didn’t just look like another table. You get the point. Nothing confusing here.
Here’s another slide where Steve’s team had to convey a list of features (in this case, iWork software for the iPad). Notice the simplicity of the image and six statements. Once again, you get the point.
When Steve started talking about price, he started with one slide with just one number on it. Unfortunately, slide images don’t do justice to the animation Steve and his team used. The number actually dropped from the top and kicked up some dust until it settled with the following clear slide. It really was one of those awe moments when you could hear people’s shock and awe.
Probably, the only somewhat confusing slide Steve used (which isn’t too confusing) was this one announcing the different price points based on memory and 3G (an extra $130 per model)
So, there you have it. A few lessons from Steve on doing a “PowerPoint” presentation.
- Keep your slides uncluttered. Strive for simplicity.
- Use large font sizes (anything less than 40 pts. should be a concern). The bigger the better.
- Use one large graphic and minimal text to say a lot.
- Strive to find a simple way to say something complex.
- Get to the core of your point, and just illustrate that.
- Look for creative ways to say the same things
- Don’t spend time reading off your slides. Their job is to augment you, not drive the presentation (note: if you don’t put too much info on a slide, this becomes automatic).
- Use lots of slides. It doesn’t cost any more to add an extra slide. You don’t need to cram a lot of info on one slide. Most of my presentations have 80 – 140 slides.
- Practice, practice, practice. Steve and his team run through their presentations multiple times before going live.
- Get a Mac and Keynote. You’ll be glad you did!!! :-)
P.S. Post writing the above, I found a YouTube video that takes a humorous look at the adjectives Steve and his team use. Even as a Mac Addict, I have to admit, this is fun (cool, awesome, unbelievable, remarkable, exciting, gorgeous, amazing, super …)
What’s the Best Advice You’ve Ever Received?
Posted by: | CommentsNow, I don’t know if you saw the Fortune magazine edition entitled, “The Best Advice I Ever Got” (7.6.09) but it’s an interesting read. For example, in very shortened form,
- Eric Schmidt (CEO, Google). John Doerr told me to, “Get a coach,” even though I didn’t think I could learn anything from a coach.
- Tiger Woods. Rather than focusing on technique and swing, my father told me to, “Pick a spot and then figure out how to hit it there.”
- Mohammed El-Erian (CEO, Pimco). My father told me to, “Read four newspapers because if you don’t read different points of view your mind will eventually close and you’ll become a prisoner of a certain point of view that you’ll never question.”
- Jim Sinegal (CEO, Costco) Sol Price said to me one day, “If you’re going to go to the trouble of hiring someone, it’s because you can’t do the job yourself–so you’d better show them how you’d do it.” In other words, he was letting me know that a good manager is a good teacher.
So, what about you? What’s the best advice anyone has given to you?
Now, you may be tempted to just write this off as a futile exercise but it’s not. Why? Because the essence of great leadership is teaching. Great leaders don’t just take a group of people someplace, they seek to influence and change the lives of those they’re leading. And the main tool that leaders use to change behavior is story.
For example, when I’m working with leaders, one of the stories I usually tell is about a time when I was in seminary, back in 1987. The seminary where I was attending was in the midst of a faculty split and I had professorial friends on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, professors on both sides shared information with me about the people on the other side that they shouldn’t have shared with me, a student.
Basically, I knew information (junk) on people that I shouldn’t have known and yet I still needed to interact with those people. So one day, in the midst of this internal turmoil, I was walking across the center of campus (I can still see it vividly in my mind’s eye) with one of those professors, a guy named Paul, when I shared with him my frustration of knowing information (junk) about both sides that I could never share or use. To which Paul said,
“Congratulations. You’ve just learned one of the most important lessons of leadership. Leadership is lonely. You will always know more information than you can share or use. Welcome to the club.“
That advice has served me incredibly well for the past twenty-two years. Leadership is lonely. It’s tough not being able to share information that could help you and your cause. And it’s tough having to carry a burden that no one else in your business or organization even understands. But nonetheless, when you know leadership is lonely (and that this is what all leaders experience), it helps.
Now, of course, I could have simply told you, ”Leadership is lonely.“ But the story helps you remember the principle, doesn’t it?
Realizing that, don’t you think you would be a more effective leader/teacher if you took some time to think about the best advice you ever received? And then started sharing it? And then once you started making your list, you regularly added to it, as you either remembered stories or learned valuable lessons? Absolutely!
So, if you want to be a more effective leader, what is the best advice you’ve ever received? Make a list. Then look for opportunities to start sharing those stories. Why? Because that’s what great leaders do!
To your accelerated success!
Is Perfection Getting in Your Way?
Posted by: | CommentsI was at a conference this past week when one of the speakers, a copywriter by the name of Ray Edwards, nailed me–in a positive way.
The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked,
1. How would you describe the quality of a MacDonald’s hamburger?
2. Who sells the most hamburgers in the world?
Point made. Point received.
I don’t know about you, but I often get stuck by trying to make something “perfect.” I have three books, several new talks, and a couple of projects all stuck in varying states of completion–not because I can’t get them done–but because I want to make them PERFECT!
In the literary world, it’s the equivalent of wanting to write, “The Next Great American Novel.” It’s the desire to want to write something that “no one else has written.” Or to say something so compelling that newswires will want to pick it up, blogs will want to make it viral, TV reporters will want to call for interviews, and schools of business will want to make it required reading (of course, by this point, you’ve already figured out–this guy lacks reality–exactly!).
It’s this longing to do something perfect, to do something that causes people to take notice, that tends to hinder so many of us. When, in reality, we ought to set our sights a little lower. While I may want to write the “ultimate” guide to growing a business, there is no such ultimate book to be written.
In the mean time, while I’m waiting to create the perfect/ultimate book, others are publishing their books and making money–and the people I could be helping out are missing out.
Likewise, in your world, chances are (if you’ve been infected with the disease of perfectionism), you’re doing something similar. You have projects on hold, products that haven’t been launched, services that haven’t gone public, talks and letters that haven’t been written, and presentations that haven’t seen the light of day, etc. Not because you can’t get them done, but because you’re waiting until the thing you’re working on is … well, perfect.
But in a business environment, perfection is not the goal–it’s an impediment. In fact, when Ray was speaking I wrote in my notes, “Perfection > leads to procrastination > which leads to poverty.”
While you or I may want to create the perfect burger (metaphorically), the reality is that someone else (MacDonalds, in this case), is making a ton of money while we’re still in the design phase.
So, if your goal is making money, or influencing others, or meeting a critical need or want for your target market, then you’ll want to revisit this MacDonald’s hamburger metaphor again and again. Make sure you beat down the perfection monster. And whatever you do, make sure you get what you’re working on out in the world. As I’ve said for years,
“Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got in the amount of time you’ve got to get it done.”
So what projects have you been holding off on or delaying because of perfectionism? And how much more money (or whatever metric your project works with) could you be making if you stopped waiting for perfection and just got that thing out in the marketplace?
To your accelerated success!
Give Away Your Best Ideas
Posted by: | CommentsIf you want to succeed quickly, especially in the information/ professional services arena, you’ll want to practice this idea. However, you can also apply this principle to your leadership or parenting or networking, etc.
Again, just like yesterday, I want to acknowledge Eben Pagan for sharing this concept. The metaphor he uses to explain it is perfect. Let’s say you decide to cut a CD and you want to release a song to radio stations across the US to drive sales of your album. Which conversation are you going to have with your team.
2. “Which of these twelve tracks is our best?”
Obviously the second. You always release the song (or in our case, idea), which you think has the greatest likelihood of becoming a hit. Your goal is that they’ll love the song so much that they’ll want to buy the CD. It’s not the worst song that you want to release for free but the best.
Now, if you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking, “But if I give them my best ideas for free, why would they want to buy my product/service?” Answer, the same reason why you buy the CD. The song entices you/teases you to buy the whole. And when you buy your CD, are you ticked off that the musician includes the song you hear for free on the radio? Of course not. You’d be disappointed if they didn’t!
The reality is that most people don’t get what we say the first time we say it. They may think they do, but they don’t. And even if they do, they forget. I may tell a leader,
“As a leader, you need to cast vision every day in every communication you send out–that means every conversation, every letter, every memo, every message. You need to constantly tell your people, ‘This is who we are. This is where we’re going. This is what we’re becoming. This is why we do what we do. Etc’ As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to cast vision and you virtually can’t overdo it. So just cast vision every day in every way and your leadership capacity will rise.”
That is a rock solid idea. Most leaders will acknowledge it. Some will actually do it . . . for a couple of days. But virtually every leader I’ve ever worked with needs to be reminded of that idea over and over again.
In other words, if you’re afraid of giving away your best ideas for free, don’t be. Give them away. Demonstrate your value. Allow people to see your expertise. And you’ll start attracting more and more
people to you.
So, what are your best ideas? Take your area of expertise and make a list of your best ideas for doing something or solving something? Think through the most pressing needs of the people you’re trying to
help. Then take your best idea for solving their most pressing problem and bingo–you’ve got a hit!!!
Don’t wait until tomorrow to do this. Take out a piece of paper right now and make two columns. On the left side, list your best ideas. On the right, list your prospects and/or customers’ most pressing needs/ problems. Then link the best ideas with their most pressing problems and start giving those best ideas away!
To your accelerated success!
How Often Do You Communicate Your Marketing Messages?
Posted by: | CommentsI was working out at the gym this afternoon, watching “Pirates of the Caribbean,” on USA (yes, it is difficult to workout on the elliptical these days :-) when I noticed, down at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, the following words,
All New Season
Sunday, April 19th 10/9C
As I saw that I thought, “Isn’t that amazing. I’ve been watching ads for this show on USA for the past several weeks. Now, they’re even promoting the show during the main content part of other shows–and we’re still SIX WEEKS AWAY!”
Think about that. When was the last time you promoted anything like that?
Most of us send out one or two messages–and when no one or a couple of people respond, we think, “I guess this doesn’t work!”
But maybe it’s not what we’re saying. Maybe it’s that we simply haven’t communicated it often enough.
The old adage is that it you have to communicate a marketing message seven times before a prospect will buy.
However, what the marketing rule-makers don’t tell is that your prospects don’t hear your message, two out of every three times you send it out. In other words, the Rule of 7 is really the Rule of 21.
So as you look at the marketing messages that your firm or business is sending out, how frequently do you communicate your messages? Are you sending them out at least 21 times? If not, you may want to take a lead from USA–who at least knows that if you want to create a hit, you’ve got to send out a whole lot of marketing messages–even if you’re two months out from your launch date.
To your accelerated success!
Remarkable Speak is Common Speak
Posted by: | CommentsThis morning, as I was watching the morning news, I heard about a new air carrier out of Dulles Airport, MaxAir (which I’ll probably blog about later because they appear to be doing a lot of things right). However, what bothered me, as I watched was how both executives (one from MaxAir and the other from British Airways) continued to talk in industry speak—even though they were both being interviewed on television (for the general public).
My favorite phrase that they both used was, "We believe we have the right price point". Hello! What customer wants to hear the phrase, "price point." What we want to hear is "We’ve worked diligently over the past year to reduce our costs so that we can provide the typical business passenger with a business class seat that costs 75% less than what they’d have to pay on a major carrier." Now, that I get—and so would everyone who heard that statement. But who cares about "price points"? Only insiders.
Unfortunately, business speak (or educational speak or religious speak etc.) is often ubiquitous in places where it shouldn’t be. For example, earlier today I read the following phrase from Time’s Interactive President, Ned Desmond, quoted in Business Week.
"Office Pirates’ "plan does not bank on the idea of becoming a serial creator of these outrageously serendipitous viral events."
Hello! Could you say that any simpler? Absolutely!
Years ago, William Zinsser wrote a wonderful book on writing entitled, "On Writing Well". Every CEO, President, leader and manager ought to read it—if only for the first few chapters—especially the one on simplicity. Zinsser correctly argues that writing (or speaking) should be simple and clear. Why? Because the goal of communicating isn’t to impress people, it’s to inform or to persuade or to change. Which means that if someone can’t understand (or be persuaded or changed by) what we just said, then real communication hasn’t taken place.
So what’s the easiest way to communicate in a remarkable way? The easiest was is to remember your audience and then speak in as simple, as clear and as concise a way as possible. The point is not to impress, but to change behavior—and that requires simple, clear and concise language. Anything else is irrelevant.
So, how has the vocabulary of your profession made your ability to communicate to others murky? If you want to be a more remarkable communicator, then I would encourage you to excise all "insider language" from any and all communications you have with "real" people (i.e. people outside your profession or position).
Make it Spectacular
Posted by: | CommentsThe other evening, my wife, Jacquie, and I went to see Shakespeare’s Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre here in D.C. It was simply . . . spectacular. Kenneth Branagh is one of my favorite Shakespearean authors. His Hamlet is one of the best performances and movies of all time and his role of Iago in Othello is nearly as brilliant. However, I was pleasantly surprised the other evening by the depth and power of Patrick Page’s performance. I didn’t think it was possible for me to be caught up by anyone else’s portrayal of Iago (after Branagh), but I was. Page was spectacular. Within a few moments I was so caught up with his portrayal of Iago, I left behind my comparing mind and simply enjoyed the performance. It really was a spectacular performance of a spectacular play by a spectacular playwright named William Shakespeare.
As I was sitting in the audience I kept thinking about what makes Shakespeare so spectacular. And one of my conclusions, and there are many, is that he refused to be pedestrian (ordinary) in his use of language. In a play about a whole range of issues from racism to love, from love forbidden to love acquired, from family dysfunction to family betrayal, from deception to integrity, from power to powerlessness, etc. (in other words, it’s not just a play about jealousy) what sets Shakespeare apart is that he infuses his characters with language that refuses to be common.
For example, instead of saying, "Jealousy is a bad for you," he says, "Beware my lord of jealousy, it is a green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon." Or instead of saying that Desdemona listened intently to Othello’s retelling of his story, he writes,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer’d. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore,–in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange;
‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank’d me;
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov’d her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d;
And I lov’d her that she did pity them.
Like I said, Shakespeare was anything but pedestrian in his choice of words, he was simply . . . spectacular at what he did—which is why four hundred years later we still read his plays and are moved by them.
So, what does this have to do with you and me? Everything. When Shakespeare wrote, for example, Romeo and Juliet, he was far from famous. He was an actor making ends meet as best he could. But because he refused to be ordinary in what he was doing at the time, he became famous and four hundred years later we’re still reading what he wrote.
So my question for you (and for me) is, how can you take what you’re currently doing and make it spectacular? How can you turn it from ordinary to extraordinary? It doesn’t have to be a book or play that you’re working on, it could be a making a meal or designing a room. It could be coaching a sports team or preparing a lesson for a Sunday School class. It could be putting together a party or designing an accounting package. It could be developing a sales team theme for the year or planning a karate tournament. It really doesn’t matter what you’re doing, it’s a mindset that I’m after—a mindset that says, "I don’t want to go through life doing ordinary things in ordinary ways, I want to leave whatever I’m doing with a touch of the spectacular." If you’ll do that, you’ll have a lived a life worth living.
So, what can you do today in a spectacular way?
What Are You Waiting For?
Posted by: | CommentsI’m pretty confident that right now there is something inside of you that you’ve wanted to do, but you just haven’t. It may be the desire to change jobs, write a book, get in shape, start a business, travel to a distant paradise or place, meet someone, get a new degree, move to a new place or house, build something, record an album, start a church, serve someone, climb a mountain, invent something, begin an organization, run a marathon, learn to paint, etc. It’s already in you . . . but you haven’t done anything about it.
We’re all with you So, why don’t we do something about it? Well, we all have our reasons. Sometimes it’s fear. Sometimes it’s blame ("I would, but so-and-so is holding me back"). Sometimes it’s low self-esteem (we don’t believe in ourselves and our abilities). Sometimes it’s lack of personal responsibility. And sometimes it’s our poor management of time. But, the one that usually gets me is my love for planning (as opposed to taking action).
I love to do research and to know as much as I can about something. Furthermore I love to create plans and strategies about how to do something (especially if it involves creating lists with little boxes to check off!). But what often hinders me is how long I’ll take to act on something I actually want to do—which usually surprises most people because they think I’m a take action kind of guy. But over the past couple of days I’ve heard or read on a couple of occasions that the key to success is . . . taking action (a simple but powerful truth).
In a tele-seminar with Mark Victor Hansen, the moderator of the call said something to the effect, "The difference between those who make it in this business (the professional speaking business) and those who don’t is that those who do take action, decisive action while those who don’t, don’t." Again, in Canfield’s book on the Success Principles, he says,
"Over the years . . . I’ve found that the one thing that seems to separate winners from losers more than anything else is that winners take action. They simply get up and do what must get done."
Finally, if that wasn’t enough, he goes on to say,
"Most successful people I know have a low tolerance for excessive planning (ouch!) . . . Planning has its place, but it must be kept in perspective. Some people spend their whole lives waiting for the perfect time to do something. There’s rarely a perfect time to do anything. What is important is to get started."
So, what are you waiting for? You know you want to do something. What is it? And what can you do today to get it started. Don’t wait another day (or read another blog or watch another TV program or read the paper or clean the dishes or . . .). Take action NOW! This is your life we’re talking about. So, what are you waiting for?
My Greatest Writing Lesson
Posted by: | CommentsOn the plane to Cancun last week, I ended up sitting next to a writer. Inevitably, our conversation focused on the art of writing—at which point, I asked her my typical question, "So, what was your greatest writing lesson?" After she shared hers, she asked me, "So what was yours?"
My goes like this.
When I was at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, one of the great theologians of the twentieth century—and the founder of Christianity Today, Carl F.H. Henry, was present for a week long intensive course. Knowing his background in writing, and desiring to write some day, I set up an appointment to meet with him. When I walked into his office, he was pouring over a manuscript. I sat down and then asked him my big question. "As someone who aspires to write sometime in the future, what advice would you give a young writer?"
He looked at me and said, "Come over here." I walked up behind his desk as he was pointing to the manuscript he was correcting and I was shocked. I had never seen so much red on a document in all of my life. Whole paragraphs were crossed off. Sentences red lined. Words circled. New words written above crossed out ones. Arrows pointing to new places. It was a bloody mess.
Then Professor Henry said something I’ve never forgotten. "Bruce, this is my third draft."
I was shocked. The great Carl F.H. Henry had just butchered his own third draft. He then went on to say the second thing I’ve never forgotten, "You see, the difference between an amateur writer and a professional is that an amateur writes something and says, ‘Oh, that’s good!’. But a professional always thinks, ‘That could be better,’ because the essence of good writing is rewriting." And then came the clincher, "Bruce, the only thing that stops a professional from continually rewriting a piece he’s written is a deadline."
Any writer, worth their salt, could feast on those three statements for a lifetime. So go ahead. Take a bite. Chew on them. And then never forget them. They’ll feed you for life.