Use the 80-20 Rule

Speak with clarity. Seek to deliver clear communications. So much time is lost because of unclear written and spoken communication. We assume the other person knows what we are talking about. We only give half the information needed to do the job. We ramble and go off on tangents while talking.

Seek to be crisp and clear in your communications. Stick to your point. Ask, “What is the other person hearing? How do I know they understand what I said? Am I so clear, that they can repeat it back to me?”

Clear communication means someone doesn’t have to come back to you to ask all over again. It means the job gets done sooner and with more accuracy. It means less frustration and more satisfaction for everyone.

“Clarity is the essence and root of efficiency – the more clear we are in defining assignments, roles, expectations, problems, obstacles, and solutions, the more precise everyone’s efforts can be. “

Julie Morgenstern, Making Work Work

Five Days of Action

What you say and what the other person hears may be two entirely different things. It’s often the source of problems. Determine today to be a leader who communicates with clarity. Starting now, be as complete and understandable as you possibly can in your communications. Don’t assume the other person will know what you know. If it’s important, be as thorough and as clear as possible.

Today practice finishing one topic before you go on to something else. Finish your thought and your topic first to guard against rambling.

When giving instructions, check to see that the other person has got it. If it’s important, don’t assume. If they can mirror it back to you with understanding, you have done a good job. Start writing it down if necessary.

Notice today how often things are not done the way you asked them to be. Think about what is going on. Is it a function of the person doing the task or a function of your communication about what the task entailed? Where do corrections need to be made?

Step up and reach towards being a superior communicator. Start listening to great speeches for their brevity and depth of thought. Create made up situations while you are all alone and practice communicating complicated and detailed messages, emotionally loaded messages, memos, messages with numbers, multi-person instructions, soaring and inspiring rhetoric. Practice it all to become a better, clearer and more crisp communicator.