Speaking As a Leader: How to Lead Every Time You Speak...From Board Rooms to Meeting Rooms, From Town Halls to Phone Calls by Judith Humphrey

Author:Judith Humphrey [Humphrey, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-01-03T14:00:00+00:00

A Lack of Clarity

Lack of clarity is the most common language problem we in The Humphrey Group encounter. It affects the broadest range of communications'including speeches, presentations, and off-the-cuff remarks.

The roots of this problem can be deep. Many leaders begin their careers with technical training, but without extensive experience in expressing themselves orally or in written form. It's possible to receive a university degree, even an advanced one, and write few essays'and present few oral reports. Organizations that rely on PowerPoint encourage information overload rather than brief, clearly constructed talks.

Much time is wasted and messages lost because leaders do not express themselves with clarity. Take the following passage from a corporate speech:

Our selling strategy must support the combining of services. It should allow us to integrate information and apply different pricing schemes to answer customer needs. Then by developing and offering tools to better manage all our activities, we will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

There's meaning lurking in this passage, but it's well hidden by thick verbiage. When I asked the executive who wrote this talk about the meaning of those words, he looked at the passage as if thinking about it for the first time. Then he came up with a much better version.

Our company should bundle its services, and not just sell them separately. If we do that, we can offer our customers better prices and greater convenience. We'll increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

That's much clearer. And that clarity is one of the keys to persuading your listeners.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.