Communication Skills

After two decades of advising organizations large and small, my colleagues and I have formed a clear idea of what’s required of you in this role. Adaptive strategic leaders — the kind who thrive in today’s uncertain environment – do six things well:

Anticipate 

Most of the focus at most companies is on what’s directly ahead. The leaders lack “peripheral vision.” This can leave your company vulnerable to rivals who detect and act on ambiguous signals. To anticipate well, you must:

• Look for game-changing information at the periphery of your industry
• Search beyond the current boundaries of your business
• Build wide external networks to help you scan the horizon better

Think Critically

“Conventional wisdom” opens you to fewer raised eyebrows and second guessing. But if you swallow every management fad, herdlike belief, and safe opinion at face value, your company loses all competitive advantage. Critical thinkers question everything. To master this skill you must force yourself to:

• Reframe problems to get to the bottom of things, in terms of root causes
• Challenge current beliefs and mindsets, including your own
• Uncover hypocrisy, manipulation, and bias in organizational decisions

Interpret 

Ambiguity is unsettling. Faced with it, the temptation is to reach for a fast (and potentially wrongheaded) solution.  A good strategic leader holds steady, synthesizing information from many sources before developing a viewpoint. To get good at this, you have to:

• Seek patterns in multiple sources of data
• Encourage others to do the same
• Question prevailing assumptions and test multiple hypotheses simultaneously

First, you need to identify your audience. There are several methods to identify your audience, such as determining keywords that are bringing users to your website, creating user personae and more. Once you’ve identified your audience, you should create content that speaks to each user persona. Do not stray from this concept, because you will lose readers or followers. Readers are finicky at the beginning of any article or post. If you don’t capture their attention with the title, the remainder of the content might as well be in a language they don’t understand.

For example, let’s say you operate a blog about the exam for certified public accounts. Who is your audience? There are a few user personae we can identify without doing much detailed analysis. You can easily create personae for your audience in the same manner.

• Students: those in their early 20s who are working on an accounting bachelor’s or master’s degree, with the intent of taking the CPA exam eventually.
• Entry-level professionals: early- to mid-20s professionals working full time at a public accounting firm, after attaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree. This group is most likely to be actively involved in accounting practices or preparing to become a CPA.
• Career changers: adults looking to change careers or re-enter the workforce.
• Educators: accounting professors who might need to discuss CPA exam content with their students.
• Professionals: licensed CPAs who are concerned about the future of the profession.

Let’s say we want to target entry-level professionals, because this is likely the largest of the five personae we have identified. Many of these individuals have probably taken entry-level jobs as an accountant but have not yet sat for the CPA exam. One of the greater stresses about this exam is finding out one’s score for each section. Though the exam is largely computerized, it can take a few months for scores to be reported to the appropriate governing body. So “CPA exam score release” is a hot topic and sure to draw attention from entry-level professionals because this demographic would be interested in knowing exam scores.

This would be a perfect theme or title to create your content around. When reading this blog for the first time, readers will immediately be locked in because the content pertains to their situation — not their past, not their future, but what they are actively involved in at the moment. Most readers and discussion groups talk about what’s happening now. What’s buzzing? By focusing your title and content on “the now” of your target audience, you have a much better chance of each reader reading your article or post from beginning to end, which is the goal of any writer.

When selecting a topic, there are a few tips to keep in mind.

• Pick one that relates to at least one of your user personae. This drives at least one group of users to your content and is sure to relate to them.
• Topics should be useful or answer a question. This encourages social sharing, allowing your content to reach beyond its page.
• Pick a controversial or trendy topic. Readers usually show initial interest in current topics and trends compared with those of the past. That is, unless you are comparing a “now” topic with a past topic.
• Limit the sales and marketing aspect of your content. If you’re only trying to sell a product or service, you will probably fail. No one likes to feel as though he or she has been sold, but everyone likes to buy.

Little things can make a difference:

1. Play music with positive lyrics.
2. Clean smells and the odor of cookies both make you behave better.
3. Keep the area warm.
4. Get outside in nature.
5. Read fiction,

The value of this Business Plan process is the thinking that it forces you to do about your business, your products and services, your goals and the actions you’ll take to achieve your goals. Even if no one but you ever sees the plan, you will have given purposeful and logical thought to the purpose and direction of your business. This process helps ensure that the many activities you squeeze into your limited hours are time well spent – focused on moving your business forward in an aggressive yet realistic way.

Part 1: Analysis

Core Services

• List the core services (or products) you offer
• Be as specific as possible, but put similar items in a group (e.g., “Editorial Services” includes writing, editing, etc.)

Target Markets

• List the market segments you serve
• Be realistic; if you realistically cannot serve large corporations, for example, then don’t include them
• Be as specific as possible, but put similar items in a group unless there is a compelling reason to list them separately (e.g., “School Groups” could include secondary schools and colleges, but these segments might have different needs)

Competition Analysis

• List your competitors and a brief description of them
• Unless a specific competitor presents unique challenges to your business, it is OK to list them in groups (e.g., “Independent Practitioners” or “Small Agencies”)
• The purpose is to provide yourself a picture of what your business is up against as you market your core service

Vision and Mission Statements

• It is useful to have Vision and Mission statements that keep you focused on what is important to you
• Vision Statement should describe the “ideal state” of your business; it should be achievable, but also something to strive for
• Mission Statement succinctly states what your business is about, its purpose, the role it plays in the market

Part 2: Assumptions

Business Principles

• It is useful to develop a set of Business Principles that guide how you will conduct your business
• These principles have a direct bearing on your relationships with customers and clients
• The reason to include it under “Assumptions” is because your Business Principles are conditions under which your business operates; as you will see further in this section, you will list other conditions under which your business operates as well

Economic Assumptions

• List things you know about the economy (local, state, regional, national, international – whatever you believe affects your business)
• Include relevant historical facts (e.g., “the U.S. economy fell into recession in 2001”) and how they affect your ability to do business
• Note the impact of past, current, or anticipated economic conditions on your business and the products/services you provide

Financial Assumptions

• List things you know about your personal and/or business financial situation that affect your ability to do business and to grow your business
• Include things like cash flow issues, savings programs, the financial picture as a result of actions or conditions (a recession, recent investments, loan approvals, etc.)
• Reflect financial “realities” about your business (e.g., the need to control expenses, taxes owed, upcoming capital expenditures, expanding payroll, etc.)

Technological Assumptions

• Since so many businesses – large and small – depend on technology (web, e-mail, phone, etc.) today, it is useful to think about how these issues affect your business’s ability to succeed
• Think about upgrades of hardware and software, the impact of growth and expansion on your technological needs, training that will be necessary, etc.

Part 3: Strategic Summary

SWOT Analysis

• List all the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats about your business
• Be honest with yourself; don’t hold anything back or ignore realities

Key Success Factors

• Out of your SWOT Analysis, what are the key factors that will affect the ability of your business to succeed?
• Examples: strong reputation, broad client base, repeat business, unique provider, etc.

Competitive Advantages / Disadvantages

• Create lists of your competitive advantages and disadvantages based on your analysis of everything else up to this point
• What unique advantages does your business have in the marketplace?
• What distinct disadvantages does your business have?
• Be honest and don’t hold back because you will develop strategies based largely on this informatio

Strategic Goals

• Develop two or three broad Strategic Goals for your business in the next year or the next 3-5 years, depending on the scope of your plan
• Strategic Goals should be “big picture” goals, but they should also be specific enough that you can measure them
• Under each goal, list one to three specific, measurable components
• Example of a Strategic Goal: “Grow Client Base”
• Example of specific, measurable component: “Add at least X new clients by X date”
• Make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-driven

Tactical Actions

• Out of your Strategic Goals, list specific actions you will take that will help you achieve them
• Examples: Meet with two new prospective clients per month; Join a professional association to expand my network
• Create a calendar that plots when each tactical activity will occur so you don’t forget to do them

Robert Holland

Of all the advice I give to my media training clients when it comes to how to answer questions during a media interview, the hardest piece for people to grasp is the need to communicate all three of your message points in every answer (that’s EVERY answer). When I tell people this, they think I am kidding, or they think that I meant to say “all three message points during the course of the interview.”

That’s not what I am saying. I urge people to try to say all three of their message points in every single answer.

“But TJ,” you cry. “I’ll sound insane! Reporters will run away from me.”

No, they won’t. The trick is that you don’t want to sound like a computer or a broken record. You want to hit all three of your message points in each answer, but do it in a different order, using different examples, and using different words.

If you aim for all three message points and you only get to one or two before the reporter cuts you off or interrupts you, well then you at least hit one or two—not bad.

The mistake many novices make is that they deliver all three of their message points exactly once, near the beginning of the interview. Then, they proceed to answer questions in a totally reactive way for the next thirty minutes. At the end of the interview, the reporter looks down at his or her notes and sees 57 separate message pointes, each delivered exactly once—therefore none stand out.

The reporter then chooses to include a random couple of points from your 57 points.

If you are happy with a 3-57 chance of success, then continue to use this strategy. If you want to increase the odds that the message you care about actually ends up in the story, then you must be more proactive, specifically by trying to interject all three of your message points in each answer.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

Al Gore has taken enough heat about his flat and wooden speaking style over the years to raise the Earth’s temperature several degrees (some of it from me), but you have to give him credit for one thing he does well: the man knows how to use his PowerPoint slides.

Long before Al Gore was turned into a movie star (“an Inconvenient Truth”), he toured the country giving a PowerPoint presentation on the dangers of global warming. I’ll let others debate the merits of the science or Al Gore, but I will critique his style. I saw Gore give his presentation in 2004 here in Manhattan (his critics took great comfort that Gore spoke on global warming on the coldest day in decades in New York).

But the thing I still remember years later about his presentation was this: no text. Gore used NO TEXT in his PowerPoint presentation. Gore correctly used slides that contained images of the earth, glaciers, ice caps, and the sea to make his points. His visuals enhanced his presentation; they didn’t detract and they didn’t bore.

So if even Al Gore can use PowerPoint in a non-boring manner, what’s your excuse? If you are going to use PowerPoint slides, don’t fill them up with text. Instead, use images, photos and graphs, whether you are trying to save the planet or your number one aluminum siding account.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

The other day, I found myself thinking about all the ways we use words. Scratch “all!” Let me start over: The other day, I found myself thinking about the ways we use words.

Is the word “all” necessary?

Consider:
How do I love thee? Let me count all the ways.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Would we find Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem as memorable with “all” in the first line?

Consider these:
Arrest all people who break laws.
Arrest people who break laws.

Color in all the blank squares below.
Color in the blank squares below.

All people have their good and bad sides.
People have their good and bad sides.

The above sentences without “all” are stronger and more respectful of the reader. Their attitude is calmer, less preachy and more appealing because they’re missing one little word. Notice I chose not to write “all because.”

Look: There may be a place for “all,” for example, when you’re giving instructions and you want to make certain the person understands: Color in all the blank squares below. However, if I wanted to be emphatic, I would write, Color in the blank squares below. Check your work and make sure you don’t miss any. I think it’s far more respectful when you use a separate sentence to express that thought.

Getting even with “even.”

Even you have faults.
You have faults.

Everyone is trying harder. Even he is.
He is trying harder, just like everyone else.

He collects everything, even pennies.
He collects everything, including pennies.

Even when Jim applied himself, his output was average.
When Jim applied himself, his output was average.

Even if you’re extremely lucky, your chances are not very good.
If you’re extremely lucky, your chances are not very good.

My point? “Even” is another one of those words that act as the moral equivalent of a blinking neon sign. Yes, it can be used to express surprise about an unlikely event; however, invariably, I prefer alternative sentences that avoid using the word.

Delete “just”

I want just the facts!
I want the facts!

Just because you’re intelligent doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try hard.
You’re intelligent. Does that mean you shouldn’t try hard?

We got there just in time.
We got there in time.

You get the point.

Write without “that”

I think that you’re intelligent.
I think you’re intelligent.

I say that a person is only human.
I say a person is only human.

I believe that all men are created equal.
I believe all men are created equal.

This is the gift that we give each other, the gift of love.
This is the gift we give each other, the gift of love.

Some sentences require the word “that;” however, it is often unnecessary. When it is, leave it out!

“All,” “even,” “just” and “that:” I am not suggesting you never use those words. I am suggesting that each time you want to use them, you see if you like the sentence better after you rewrite it without that word. Give it a try!

It’s just better writing.
Scratch that. It’s better writing!

By Chuck Lustig – ExcitingWriting

Public figures get in trouble all of the time and are then forced to apologize. Whether it is TV preachers who claim to know why God strikes some people down or Olympic athletes who brag about skiing while drunk, big shots are often forced into the role of the contrite. Few pull it off well, because they don’t seem to be sincere and they don’t seem to grasp why what they said or did it offended anyone.

Oprah Winfrey, once again, is in a class by herself. Not only is she only the world’s greatest talk show host, but she is a world class apologizer too. Winfrey suffered a rare ding to her public image when she promoted James Frey’s phony memoir “A Million Little Pieces.” She made matters much worse for herself when she defended Frey after he was exposed as a fraud. Winfrey called to defend him on the Larry King Show, saying the controversy was “much ado about nothing.”

What happened next was not the usual treatment for media darling Oprah. She was roundly denounced by columnists, pundits, editors and talk show hosts around the globe for essentially saying that “the truth doesn’t matter anymore.”

Oprah countered several days later on her show when she brought back disgraced author Frey and his publisher Nan Talese. Regarding Oprah’s call to King defending Frey, she said “I regret that phone call. I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter and I am deeply sorry about that. That is not what I believe.”

Additionally, Winfrey said that she felt “duped” by Frey and she used the platform of her own TV show to rake Fry and his editor over the coals repeatedly.

So why was Oprah’s apology effective whereas as most politicians and public officials fail in their own apologies?

1. She said she was sorry and that she made a mistake. She didn’t sugar coat things or claim that she had “misspoken.” She didn’t apologize just for having offended people. She apologized because she had made a serious mistake.

2. Oprah didn’t try to minimize her sins. She showed she really understood why people were upset. She spelled out that her mistake was giving people the impression she didn’t care about the truth.

3. She seemed sincere. By spending so much time on her blunder and by giving airtime to her critics, Oprah seemed genuinely troubled by the course of events and sincerely sorry.

4. Oprah tried to take actions to correct the problems. She practically chopped off the fingers of Frey and his editor in order to keep them from writing and publishing again. This shows she takes the issue seriously and isn’t just doing a quick PR spin.

5. By apologizing to her viewers, admitting that her critics were right, and offering no defense for her actions, Oprah revealed herself emotionally to her fans and the world. She also left no other rational reason for anyone to be angry with her or to criticize her. Thus, the only logical reaction left from her audience was to give Oprah forgiveness.

That is a successful apology and that is yet another reason why Oprah is the queen of all media.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

Very few people actually think of themselves a as a crashing bore, but a very high percentage of people temporarily become huge bores when they give a speech.

And everyone always has a good reason.

“But it’s a lot of technical information I have to get out.”

“For legal reasons I have to say things in a straightforward way.”

“My boss wants me to stick to the script.”

“My audience is highly sophisticated and they really want me to drill deep into the details and all the numbers.”

“I’d like to show my personality, but the PowerPoint scripts have me handcuffed.”

What’s the one thing all of these excuses have in common? Your audience doesn’t buy any of them and will tune you out!

A lot of speakers waste hours and hours fretting over color schemes on their PowerPoint slides and what tie to wear. Those details have some minor importance, but they are almost entirely irrelevant if what you are trying to say is boring. There are thousands of little details that go into the style and substance of every speech that can have a minor impact and that, collectively, have a big impact. But there are just a handful of things that can have a deciding impact on your speech’s reception by your audience.

And one of those is whether or not your speech is boring. If you are boring, you can have great eye contact, a perfect suit and flawless slides—none of this will matter. No one will remember what you said.

If you actually say something interesting to the audience and you do it in an engaging manner, then you can break most other rules on saying “um,” using lousy PowerPoint slides and having your shirt tail sticking out—you will still be seen as a great speaker.

So it’s OK to make mistakes as a speaker, just make sure that being boring isn’t one of them.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

Far too many speakers attempt to look and sound smart by drowning their audience members in a sea of facts. “More is More” is their philosophy. The problem is that no matter how quickly you speak during a 20-30 minute speech, there is no way you can get your audience to know as much as you do on your area of expertise.

The other reality is that your audience can already get all of the facts on your subject from the internet. People are not suffering from a lack of information or facts. There are more than 100,000 books published every year and, seemingly, another 100,000 blogs run by self-appointed pundits published every hour.

The world does not need more information. Your audience doesn’t really want more information.

Instead, your audience is looking for someone (you) who can sift through all the info they don’t have time to go through and distill for them what they really, really need to know. In short, your audience is looking for wisdom.

Are you providing wisdom for your audience? It would be nice if every speaker could come up with stunningly original and creative thoughts for each audience.

But this is not always required. You can impart wisdom to your audience by giving it a well-organized perspective on your subject matter. This means you don’t get them lost in a forest of facts. It’s not that facts don’t matter. It’s just that facts without context and priority have no meaning. As a speaker, you can give wisdom to your audience by giving them an overriding metaphor or a new thematic way at looking at a particular problem or cluster of issues. By creating themes or overriding messages, you help your audience interpret some small slice of the world in a more coherent, and hence, more meaningful way.

And when you are adding the value of meaning, even if it is how to make award winning paper airplanes, you will be perceived as a speaker who adds the value of wisdom to your audience.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

As communicators, we’re responsible for writing clear, simple & memorable messages. But every now & then, we’re guilty of sharing lengthy, complex messages that’ll never be remembered? Consider this bad example of a key message by the Central Manchester & Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust (Agenda for Change communication):

‘Where the combined value of the above payments before actual assimilation remains greater than the combined value of the payments after assimilation, the former level of pay will be protected. These protection arrangements apply to the combined value of payments before and after assimilation, not to individual pay components, excepting the provision relating to retention of existing on-call arrangements.’

While this example is extreme, the point is we must constantly remind ourselves to write in easy to understand terms that our audiences can relate to, allowing them to easily remember what it is we are trying to convey. A great, quick read that helps me stay on track with key message development is “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath. 

The basis of “Made to Stick” is why some ideas survive and others die. Using a framework of “succes” (simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories), the authors use examples that make the importance of key message development “STICK.”

Before you start reading, share examples of good and bad key messaging that you have run into or have created.

Julie Baron, COMMUNICATION WORKS

There are many different styles of effective communication, but arguing with someone is typically the worst possible way to attempt to communicate. Once you enter the mode of arguing, listening shuts down by everyone in the argument.

Now, I’m the first one to admit it, I like arguing. In fact, for many years I was a TV and radio talk show host with a focus on politics. So yes, I argued for hours everyday. And I listened to a lot of people yelling and screaming at me on the air.

However, there is a difference between arguing on a talk show versus arguing with a boss, client, customer, friend or family member. If you or I argue on a TV or radio show, we might not convince the person we are arguing with, but we might convince the vast audience.
Back to real life: you don’t have an audience when you are arguing (unless you count your kids listening to you argue with your spouse). So it really never pays to have arguments in real (non-media) life.

You may have won high school or college debate competitions, you may be a successful courtroom lawyer, but arguing with people in real life will typically not result in you communicating your messages effectively. It will most likely make you hated — so don’t do it.
How can you avoid an argument?

If someone interrupts you, don’t interrupt back. If someone gets louder and angrier talking to you, don’t get louder back. Maintain your own conversational volume.

If someone makes several factual mistakes in a heated discussion with you, don’t revel in correcting every single fact. Instead, focus on something you agree on.

My goal is not to train you to let people walk all over you or to turn you into a bland yes-man/woman. There may be times when you want to argue with friends just for the fun of it – I know I do. Just make sure you aren’t fooling yourself into thinking you are actually communicating.

Of course you should state your opinions with confidence. Of course we all disagree with people from time to time; that is a normal course of human interaction.

But the second the person you are talking to feels that you two are in an argument, your ability to communicate messages has just dropped dramatically. So do whatever you can to lower the volume, temperature, cross talk and interruptions (not to mention name-calling) to insure maximum communication.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

Steve Sargent, president and CEO of GE Australia and New Zealand, runs through a four-point checklist–sometimes in just 30 seconds–before every organized communication event, from small meetings to large speeches.

Don’t even think about speaking in front of an audience without going through this checklist.

Read more on Inc.

The surest way to get quoted by the media is to attack somebody, even if it is yourself. Reporters love attacks. Why? Because attacks are a part of conflict and every great drama involves conflict.

The best story to be on if you are a reporter is war. Walter Cronkite became famous by covering WWII. Dan Rather got famous during the Vietnam War. Wars are interesting to cover because people are attacking each other every day.

The second best story to be on if you are a reporter is a national political campaign. Why? Because the leader of one party is attacking the leader of the other party every single day. And vice versa.

When you attack your opponents by name, your competitors, your boss, or yourself, you instantly make reporters excited. The more forceful, pointed, or emotional the attack you make, the greater your chances are of being quoted.

“General Electric is destroying the Hudson River!”

“McDonalds is on a mission to make every kid in America weigh 300 pounds.”

“I hate myself for forgetting to report all of my campaign contributions.”

All of these quotes will make it into final radio, TV and newspaper reports because they contain attacks.

Of course, as always, just because something is interesting to reporters doesn’t mean it is a good idea for you to say it. If a part of your message is to attack government waste, or inequality, then, by all means, attack away. But don’t ever attack anyone or anything in front of a reporter unless you want to see that attack in headlines connected with your name in tomorrow’s paper.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

Many business communicators lard up their speeches with jargon and weasel words. The result? They sound like bureaucratic stooges.

Your goal when dealing with the media is to communicate a message in the clearest and simplest manner possible, while at the same time building your reputation as a strong and forceful communicator. Strong and forceful are relative terms, so if you use all of the same buzzwords that everyone else does, you will always seem mediocre. Many businesspeople acquire their bad rhetorical habits at some point during their second year of business school or after having attended their third annual board of directors meeting.

Here are some of the worst offenders:

“Going forward . . .” What an utterly useless phrase. Use “in the future” instead. You wouldn’t tell your teenage son, “Going forward, please keep your room straight,” so why use it in a speech or interview? The sole purpose for using a phrase like “going forward” in a speech is to create the impression that you are saying something fancier than you actually are. So please, going forward, never use the phrase “going forward.”

“If you will.” People tack this phrase onto the back of a sentence as if to say, “Look at this most original and brilliant insight I have just come up with. It will require you to change your whole conception of the universe, if you will be so kind as to indulge me in this mind- thought experiment.” Pretentious drivel! Imagine a trap door, if you will, that will spring open and devour you if you ever use the phrase “if you will” in a public speech.

“As it were.” See above.

There is nothing wrong with using specialized language to convey complex concepts to sophisticated audiences, but that is not what many business communicators do. Instead, they use complex phrases to communicate simple concepts because they are under the delusion that this makes them sound more professional. The more simply and conversationally you can speak, regardless of the topic’s complexity, the more likely your audiences will understand, respect and appreciate you and your message.

TJ Walker, Media Training Worldwide

For more information on media and presentation training please visit http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com,