One of my readers wrote me, “Your article on corporate non-words this week made me spit out my coffee laughing.”
I think this is because she’s seen so much of it. Possibly you have too.
I’m coaching Charles, a senior exec, on his presentations. Charles presents internally to thousands of employees, to the senior leadership team, to the board and at global industry conferences. He’s an important guy.
I was surprised to learn that Charles has three other communication coaches. Two are internal and one is a consultant. I was added as Charles’s fourth coach to accelerate his progress toward being a charismatic speaker .
I was asked to meet with the other three coaches to integrate my coaching strategy with theirs for an important upcoming presentation Charles would deliver to thousands of employees.
The three coaches told me they had spent an entire afternoon working out Charles’s key message. He needed an organization that was “sitting around waiting to see what was going to happen after the re-org” to get moving. The purpose of his key message was to galvanize the troops into action.
They were very proud of the key message they had come up with for Charles to deliver to do just that. They were hoping that I could help Charles develop the presentation skills that would enable him to deliver it “impactfully”. I asked them what this key message was and they said Charles’s key message was:
“The organization now critically needs teams to create transformation by rapidly iterating new approaches.”
And then they sat back and looked at me with great self-satisfaction.
You, reading this, can easily see the flaw in that key message.
It leaves you thinking, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I hate to say this, but that describes much of what I see in corporate presentations.
I have thousands and thousands of “Before” and “After” videos of clients and many of the “Before” videos fall into the “I have no idea what you just said” category. They’re a NON-COMMUNICATION.
People get so wrapped up in looking good and trying to be impressive, in trying to overwhelm in an effort to be convincing, that they forget that what you’re REALLY doing is getting a message across that you want people to understand and even act on.
People come to me for coaching with goals that sound like, “I want to be impressive”. No one comes to me and says, “I want to be understood”. Yet, this second goal is the one which has true power.
They make the mistake and assumption that “If I’m saying it, you must be understanding it. I just need you to agree with it.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Many corporate presentations are NOT understood and that is WHY they don’t get the outcomes they’re after.
I told Charles’s 3 coaches that I definitely want Charles to be impactful and that I would help. I talked to Charles, found out what he was REALLY trying to say, and translated the key message back to a language real people understand.
Here’s the key message that Charles delivered to the troops. It was the same message, said differently. Charles said:
“You know all those new things you’ve always wanted to try to make our organization better? GO FOR IT! NOW! And if something’s not working, figure out why real fast and make it work. Get it working! As fast as you can.”
It’s what the coaches were trying to get across, but which got lost in complexity of pompous language.
When I first presented this simplified key message to them, the other coaches looked at me disapprovingly and said, “But this doesn’t sound very SVP’ish.”
I said, “I understand. But I think this is what he’s trying to say, isn’t it?”
They said, “Yes, but…”
Somehow in their minds, SVP communication has to be elevated, sophisticated, way “above” and therefore DIFFERENT from the way normal people talk.
This is why it is usually incomprehensible.
Charles also developed a very strong executive presence (we have a special program on this) during our coaching. So when he delivered this simplified message to the employees it had a LOT of power.
The message was understood. Loud and clear. People got it. The organization got moving. Everyone stopped blaming each other. They got things working. Fast.
The RESULT: Thousands of employees went into action. Action was immediate. Results were fast.
Your primary purpose is to get your message across. Your primary purpose is to HAVE WHAT YOU’RE SAYING BE COMPLETELY AND EXACTLY UNDERSTOOD. Without understanding, you have no chance of agreement. Without agreement, you have no chance of commitment. Without commitment, you have no chance of action.
It all hinges on the DEGREE of understanding you create. And the GREAT communicators communicate with GREAT clarity and create TREMENDOUS understanding. The rest is easy after that.
In the simplest possible terms, what is it you want to tell them? Exactly what is it you want them to do? Craft an elegantly clear key message. And deliver it with real presence and impact.
This is one of the most important keys to becoming causative.
Be the cause!