Why You Could Be Boring The Board Into Submission
This week’s blog focuses on how to get what you want from your communication with your boss, the board and your team.
Maybe you want to get a yes for your big idea?
Or you need a cash injection into the business
Or you just need to move a project ahead and you need to get them on board.
Or maybe you want to get your team motivated to join you on your exciting journey?
But what if whenever you are speaking, they are clearly not impressed.
They are staring off into the distance or checking their watch.
So, maybe you try harder, give them more, better information and tell them what you know they need to know.
BUT they still aren’t getting it.
That’s because you may well be boring them into submission instead of inspiring them into agreement.
And that is why Less is More.
Remember that phrase, Quality over Quantity?
It’s the same for finding the balance of getting your point across.
And when we talk about Quality there’s a couple of important points:
· Quality of the Cause itself
· Quality of the way you put it across
· Quality of how you show up
And getting any of these three things can mean failure for your project, idea or getting team on board.
The Cause
It doesn’t matter how much detail you give someone, if they don’t see the need to listen to the subject in the first place, then you are on a losing streak.
And maybe you are just not hitting the mark when it comes to them understanding Why they should stop and listen.
Imagine Meerkats peeking over the rock – ready and alert. This is what you need to create BEFORE you delve into any detail about your subject.
Then and only then can you start giving the detail.
So, tell people why they should listen and what’s in it for them before you blah on about your most precious opinion. It’s got to be as exciting as giving someone a present.
They have to anticipate your gift.
How you put it across
Taking our present theme to the next level, how you put your information across is even more important.
Imagine a linear vomiting of words that just keep coming. More and more information, filling me up, needing to be processed and not giving me time to digest.
You might think that more is better, but as we said, less is more. So, we need to break up our content into meaningful, smaller pieces that give us time to digest and take on board the content.
We also need to treat each one of these like a gift too, introducing the fact, or the gift before we unwrap it and spill its contents.
When you do this, the listener or reader is able to hear what you say, read what you write and process at the rate that you are giving it to them.
This changes their ability to access and make decisions on your precious information.
How you show up
Here’s the thing – someone may agree with your cause, and they may even agree with the information you are giving.
For example, they know they need to buy a “thing,” and they understand what you are telling them about that thing. But there is a third piece to the puzzle. And that is that they need to want to buy it from YOU.
Now it may not be a physical thing. It may be an idea or an investment in your business or your team. But if they don’t want to do it for you, it doesn’t matter that they believe in it in principal because how you show up stops them coming on board with you.
And that means they are off down the road with another competitor, or you don’t get the job, or the team won’t do it for you.
So, we need to be conscious of how we show up – the behaviour we display and the impact we have as a person.
Now if that all sounds sensible, your next question might be, “Well how do I do that Julie?”
So, if you would like to super-charge your communication in these areas, then we can help. This is what we work on in the Communication Champions Accelerator 12 -week programme.
Message me for the details of how you can start applying these principals in depth in your role, business, and team.
You can watch a 15-minute power training on this subject here. Join us to find out how you can become an inspiring communicator that has the board eating out of your hand.
Enjoy!
Julie "Chief Impact Engineer" Hutchison
P.S. Whenever you are ready...here are 4 ways I can help you increase your impact as a leader:
1. Join The "Quiet Leaders Lab™ Facebook Group and connect with other leaders who want to grow
It's our Facebook community where those that are The Quiet Leaders can learn and share how to increase their impact, influence and outcomes -- Click here
2. Grab a free copy of my leadership impact report: The Team Performance Engine™
It’s the Road Map to your journey to increasing your impact as a leader -Click here
3. Join our Leaders Launchpad™ Mastermind Group Programme
This Mastermind is a selected group of like-minded leaders, in an online community, focused on growing your results.
With training, group coaching calls, guest speakers and more, supporting and challenging you to design and implement real team performance in your business.
Send me a message or email [email protected] with "IMPLEMENT" in the subject line and we can discuss how you can join us
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you or your team just need a little more one to one attention to make change happen in your business... just message and put "PRIVATE" in the subject line... tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!