Guest Writer: Diane Ripstein, Chief Communicator at Diane Ripstein Consulting & Speaker at The Successful You: 2013 Women’s Leadership Forum.
A software developer recently shared a personal dilemma. “I’ve gotten so attuned to thinking through what I want to say as I’m typing it, being able to go back, revise and delete, that I’m afraid I can’t think on my feet anymore. I’ve become really hesitant about speaking up…what if I sound stupid?”
Have you ever wished you could be better prepared for those “communication moments”, when you want to sound as smart as you know you are? Without worrying about not being able to press delete?
In the spirit of the New Year, amid resolutions to try something new, here are three techniques to help you get verbally in gear.
Breathe
Easy to say; harder to remember. When we’re anxious we get tense. When we tense up we breathe shallowly. And shallow breathing is not good for corralling those fabulous thoughts that are flitting around your brain. Slow it down. Breathe deeply. Enjoy a second or two of extra oxygen while you develop your lead sentence.
The Point
Your lead sentence, the first thing you say, should be The Point. This takes practice. Most of us wander around the desert of extraneous verbiage , hoping if we keep talking long enough, we’ll get to the (or any) point. You will immediately sound more compelling and smart if you lead with a fully-formed thought. It doesn’t need to be long. In fact, the shorter the better. Keep it simple.
Try to dive right in and say The Point, without introducing it with a lot of preamble. This is what preamble sounds like: “What I’d like to say is that based on the work we’ve been doing, and the most recent results we’ve seen, and looking at the big picture, and putting it into context, perhaps we might consider that …”). Not good.
Know Your CBA’s
Another technique to keep preamble at bay is to turn your ABC’s upside down into CBA’s. This will work in most situations when you’ve got nowhere to hide and you want to sound smart.
Here’s a structure to answer questions and deliver clarity in just three sentences:
C stands for Current Climate: a 1-sentence snapshot describing what is happening now
B stands for Brief Background: a 1-sentence summary on how we got here
A stands for Action Agenda: a 1-sentence outline of your next steps
Please note: you cannot say everything you know, so don’t even try. The best communicators are succinct. You can always add more if you are asked for it; that’s the easy part.
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Looking to hear more from Diane? Check out Diane Ripstein Consulting, where she helps very smart people sound as smart as they are. Say hello to Diane: (Email) [email protected], (Twitter) @DianeRipstein or (LinkedIn)
