Allgemein Archive - Page 4 of 158 - The Art of Communicating

The WOW vs. AHA Matrix

We can all agree that you never want to be in the bottom left quadrant.

But surprisingly, there are strong proponents for the top left and bottom right quadrants.

The genius who refuses to make an impact sits in the top left. They have huge talent and brilliant ideas but they are wasting their talent because they can’t get people to pay attention to their ideas. Worse, they almost refuse to get bigger attention because they insist that

“this is how our customers expect it”,
“WOW” is a trickster skill of the show-offs,
“getting attention” equals “click bait”, and
“great work will prevail”.

They’ll never make it to the top right.

In the bottom right sits the show-off who dazzles the audience but lacks substance. They are brilliant at getting their audience’s attention but leave them short of a profound insight. Worse, they almost refuse to make an impact because they insist that

“this is how it’s done”,
“how you say it is more important than what you say”,
“people are bored by the details”, and
“we need more bang”.

They’ll never make it to the top right, either.

Here’s the thing:

Without attention, people won’t hear your story.
Without substance, your story won’t make an impact.

The point is that this is not either-or. You need both.

WOW opens the mind. AHA changes the mind.

Keep lighting the path and make a bigger impact!

Things your audience does during a presentation

Tick all boxes that apply:

□ listen carefully to every single word
□ look the speaker up on LinkedIn
□ catch up on this morning’s emails
□ surf Instagram
□ try to match what’s being said to own experience
□ sleep
□ prepare to ask a question
□ flirt
□ doodle/take notes
□ mentally rate the presentation on a scale from 0 to 10
□ imagine giving the presentation themselves and how they’d do it differently
□ make a photograph of a slide
□ make a selfie
□ fact check a claim the speaker made
□ …

The list goes on.

The important question is:

What do you want your audience to do during your next presentation?

And how do you create the conditions to make that happen?

Well done

How often do you personally hear “Well done!”?
It’s not something a leader hears very often, is it?

Leaders are supposed to be the ones giving team members recognition for their achievements.

But they are seldom on the receiving end.

Well, as the saying goes, if you need someone to praise you, you’re probably in the wrong place as a leader.

And yet.

That doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t feel good to hear a word of appreciation at times; not to feed your ego but as an acknowledgement that you – just as everyone else – thrives on being seen.

So.

When was the last time you gave some recognition to one of your peers in the leadership team?

When was the last time you said “Good job!” to one of them?

When was the last time you saw your peers and appreciated that they deal with struggles, challenges and opportunities all the time … and do it well.

Sure, that won’t put you on the receiving end. But it puts those in that spot who are likely to be in a similar situation.

It’s a gesture that costs little but can yield immense benefits in terms of morale, motivation, and the overall health of the organizational culture.

Culture might only change very slowly. But it starts with a first step.

Who will you reach out to today?

Swift action needed

It’s not that bad leaders are similar to good leaders, just less effective.

Bad leaders are much better thought of as the opposite of good leaders. They destroy the morale of a team and frustrate the members to a degree that leads to struggles and fights, greed and envy.

The same is true for a number of business related jobs.

A bad accountant isn’t slower, they make a mess of the books.

A bad marketer doesn’t spend a bigger budget, they burn the budget.

A bad speaker doesn’t need more time to explain things, they confuse the audience.

If you recognize any of this happening in your team, swift action is needed.

How do you deal with this?

It starts with the speaker

Who else is tired of speakers who waste our time with boring speeches that take forever but lead nowhere?

Who else thinks it’s disrespectful when speakers don’t take the time to prepare well?

Who else is done with selfish speakers who only show up to take advantage of the audience?

Relationships are built on respect and generosity.

Value your audience’s time and they will treat you accordingly.

It’s a simple dynamic. But it starts with the speaker.

Much like the idea of servant leadership has changed leadership, the idea of a servant speaker could do the same for speaking.

Who’s with me on that?

Your relationship with focus

Focusing hurts.

Especially for people who deeply care about what they do and who spend what feels like every waking hour thinking about their idea.

Part of the reason why they are so good at what they do is that they care for the details. They pick up every stone and look behind every corner.

What they find can be fascinating, sometimes opening up a whole new branch of possibilities.

For these people, it can hurt to let go of these possibilities.

And yet, it’s essential …

for yourself, so you don’t loose yourself in the details and get distracted with stuff that would ultimately lead you off track,
for your team, so everyone’s pulling in the same direction which allows you to build something extraordinary that you can actually be known for,
for your audience so that they can have a position in their mind that they know you for and can pass that story along.

Nevertheless, it hurts.

Which is why it takes courage. The courage to make a choice: What exactly is the focus?

One realization made the choice easier for me: The fact that if you don’t choose, someone else will.

It could be your team, your customers, your audience.

Or it could be time.

Basically, if you’re not making the choice you’re delegating it.

That’s not what I want.

What’s your relationship with focus?

That was quick

Among the things that frequently surprise my clients is the speed at which we arrive at results.

Anna once said: “I am not sure how you crawl into these ideas so quickly, assess them so clearly and then make such helpful summative comments considering an arsenal of factors in such record time.”

Well, I have no idea how my clients arrive at their brilliance, either, but together it seems that it’s the perfect match.

If you have an important story to share, let’s connect and find the right words.

Targeting your customers

What would happen if you stopped “targeting” your customers and started “serving” them?

The words we use to describe our work do matter.

What are yours?

The art of resonance

The art of persuasion is the art of getting people to do something they didn’t want to do.

(If they wanted to do it, you wouldn’t have to persuade them.)

I prefer to resonate instead. That’s the art of aligning what you want with what they want.

Not with what they should want. But with what they do want.

The problem, of course, is in figuring out what that actually is – especially, given that they often don’t (and sometimes can’t) articulate it clearly.

Another problem is to figure out what it actually is that you want.

So it’s not that trying to resonate would be significantly easier than persuasion (if at all). The choice is more about how much you care about the other side.

What’s your perspective on this?

A more “you” way

We’re living in a time where the best choice of words might not be trusted due to the overuse of them where they shouldn’t be used.

What used to be a “nice try” is nothing short of “revolutionary” and
a “setback” turns into a full-blown “crisis”.
An outcome that’s “unexpected” must be a “miracle”,
any “fun” event is “epic” at least, and
a minor “development” is a “breakthrough”.

Of course, literally anything is potentially “life-changing”.

We just don’t trust in the original meaning of these words anymore.
You say “revolutionary”? I say “meh”!
If I care to pay attention at all, that is …

Click-bait, bullshit, and sensationalist marketing have ruined an astonishingly large part of our language.

But, well, it’s the game we’re in. There’s not much use in complaining.

The better reaction is to find better words. Words that are relevant and truly you. Words that can’t easily be copied or pulled out of context because they’re deeply personal and heartfelt. Words that are so specific to your idea that they loose their impact when pulled out of context.

Make no mistake, though. Bullshitters and click-baiters will always find ways to take advantage of language. Misuse of words will always happen.

But you can make it a little harder for them.

The more personal, the more specific your words are, the more they will be connected to your story, not theirs.

Essentially, it’s about a shift from the generic to the authentic. When it’s an authentic story, the impact of your words doesn’t depend on how sensational the words are but on how relatable the story is.

When people can relate because it’s genuinely – and uniquely – your story, that makes for more meaningful conversations. People will listen more attentively and engage more deeply.

As is so often the case, when everyone zig-zags staying consistent can make an incredible difference. In this case, when others chase the most sensational language, you use words you truly believe in about the things you deeply care about.

These words, spoken softly with simple but heartfelt words might sound louder than you think.

PS: Thanks David, for the inspiration to this post!

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