Making Sure You Are Understood

Have you ever been told you need to work on your communication skills - to get your point across as clearly as possible? 

Are you often misunderstood?

Has your career growth suffered on account of this?

Communication comes so naturally to us, we seldom stop to think and be intentional about it, until we are forced to. While most of us prepare adequately for formal presentations and speeches, we don't pay as much attention to most of our day to day communication. This includes conversations in meetings and calls, which can have a significant impact. While we cannot plan and prepare for every bit of communication we do, we can and must prepare for the more important ones.

At a minimum, before every important meeting or call, take time to think, and preferably write down the 2 or 3 key messages you intend to convey. Doing this in advance ensures you have clear goals for the meeting, and are less likely to be swept away by how the conversation flows.

When crafting your message, keep your audience in mind. According to leading speaker and author Matt Church, we can communicate any idea at 3 levels - at the level of concept (the point we are trying to make), content (evidence, details and stories that help make the point), and context (big picture, or how the point fits into something the audience already knows). While each one of us has a preference for how we wish to communicate, to be an effective communicator, you should be paying more attention to the audience's needs and preferences. This should determine how long you spend on the concept, content and context of the message you are trying to convey.

A related idea is left-brain/right-brain thinking. Left brain thinking is more about facts, logic, structure, while right brain thinkers focus more on stories, feelings, imagery. Most of us have a preference for one over the other. If you wish to be an effective communicator, you have to go beyond your own preference and ensure you are conveying your message in the way your audience expects to receive it.

Sometimes, while you may be clear about what you intend to convey, you may not get the time you need to do so comprehensively. Therefore, an important part of planning is to have multiple versions of your key message. After working on your core message, ask yourself how you would convey it if you only had 1 minute. Or 3 minutes. Preparing ahead to convey your message in as short a time as practical, will ensure time ceases to be a constraint in getting your point across.

What are some things you do to prepare ahead of meetings and calls?

​Please leave a comment below or send me an email, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.