Tag: self-improvement

Great communicators

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There’s a general belief that a great talker is also a great communicator. That might be true, and yet I find that most often it is not.

The way I see it, there are three core qualities of a great communicator (that a great talker not necessarily has).

First, great communicators craft their messages carefully. I mean this in the broadest possible way. A good framework to look at it through is Grice’s maxims: quality (a message that is true), quantity (a message that is no more than what required), relevance (a message that is pertinent to the discussion) and manner (a message that is orderly, polite and clear).

Then, great communicators are consistent in their messages. They are not afraid of repeating, as they are aware that different people absorb information at different paces. Furthermore, having the message well-crafted allows them to experiment with channels and formats in ways that benefit the spreading of the message in the long term.

Finally, great communicators have profound understanding of their audience. This is also true in a broad way: they know who they are communicating with before the communication actually happens; they are awake and aware to signals from the audience while the communication is undergoing; and they are capable of redesigning (without losing consistency), learning from feedback and sentiment they perceive after the communication is over.

If you want to be a great communicator, talking a lot and well is not enough. Establishing a relationship aimed at some type of change is much more important. And much more complicated.

Top of mind

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If a blurry beverage cup appears by mistake in the most popular TV series ever, clearly out of place, and everybody thinks it belongs to your brand, you have won the lottery.

Better put, you are reaping the benefits of decades of hard work making the association between take-away (hot) drinks and your brand immediate. Top-of-mind.

Every company, every person can have the same.

What do people think about when they think of you? Or, what kind of things make people think of you? How do you position yourself? It is a long and winding road, one that is built on a foundation of awareness and purpose. But boy, it is worth it.

You can easily be a guy from marketing, or you can work your way to being the guy we call every time we have to write incredibly effective copy. You can quickly become part of the team, or you can make the effort to be the one who spots and (most importantly) solves difficult problems before others even notice them. You are certainly part of our community, or you can go out of your way to go collect the trash that someone has left on the path that many kids walk everyday to daycare.

Branding and positioning is great for companies, and even greater for individuals. The great news is that the circle that acknowledges your traits needs not be greater than your family or your closest friends.

Self-development time

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Most companies allow employees to allocate time for self-development. In some cases, you can use up to 20% of your time (1 day per week) for that. You won’t probably get much guidance on the development path, and I don’t see your boss complaining if you forfeit that time and decide to finish a couple of tasks and answer a bunch of emails (they should complain – if you stop developing, it is bad for them too).

For this reason, you need to be ruthless with self-development. Make it a regular appointment on your calendar (mine is on Friday morning), and defend it. Decide what you want to learn, register to an online course, or collect some material, and then take that time, just do it. At the end of the day, you will feel much more accomplished: you will feel better with yourself, your work, your company and everything else.

Shifting attitude

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Everyone who is involved in a business, has the interest of the business at the top of their mind.

Of course, this is rarely 100% true. And yet, we should assume it is, and act as if. This would open us up for opportunity. Instead of spending our time trying to second guess others and protect our position against invisible threats, we could approach things from different perspectives, learn something about our colleagues, their work, their priorities and how they believe the business should move forward.

It’s a shift in attitude that would greatly enrich our view. It is worth making.

By the way, if you replace “business” with “family”, “friendship”, “community”, “team”, “neighbourhood”, and so on, it still works.

Associations

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A while back, somebody asked me to introduce their start-up to a friend of mine who is also a successful entrepreneur and investor.

I did not do it.

Not out of spite or malice, simply because I did not trust the idea, the people, the business model enough to attach my name to it in front of a person I trust and think highly of. A person that has helped me develop professionally and that I am sure will be there if and when I need it.

Plenty of people believe that being an advisor, a board member, a promoter, an advocate is something to stuff in a curriculum or on the LinkedIn profile. Yet I believe you have to be mindful about what you associate your name with.

The key question for me is: is this idea something I would gladly promote if there would be nothing in it for me? Most often than not, you’ll find the answer is no. And then, better move on in search of something that really matters.