You have two ways to get to your left ear lobe.

Take your left hand and touch your left earlobe. Simple.

OR, take your right hand and stretch over your head (or even go under your chin) and you’ll still reach your left earlobe. Convoluted.

Do you communicate in a simple or convoluted way? Are you making it easy or difficult for your listener aka your audience, team, prospect, client, email recipient, or committee to understand you?

I hear a lot of leaders communicate using the right hand to get to the left ear.

You use GPS every day to drive the most efficient pattern to get from point A to point B with the least amount of traffic and time. That said, why not use our Speak For Yourself® Conversational GPS approach to do the same thing…. get from your Point A to your Point Z with the least amount of non-directional verbal overdose?

Your 5 questions to activate your Conversational GPS:

1. Ask yourself, “So what?” Does your listener REALLY need to hear this? Be hard on yourself here!
2. Ask yourself, “Does my info move my message forward?” Often our clients realize they are driving down Tangent Lane and getting lost. The speaker gets stuck and their listeners tune out.
3. Ask yourself, “Can I make my comments clearer by categorizing all my ideas within three main points (informative message) or three main reasons (persuasive message)?” Think of a grocery store. Items are not randomly placed throughout the store. You’ll find all the stuff for pet care in one aisle, dairy items in another.
4. Ask yourself, “Can I use examples or analogies to support my logic?” Examples – how you get to your left ear lobe, or using the concept of GPS, or how a grocery store displays product. These visual pictures provide a way to make your message simple and sticky.
5. Ask yourself, “Can I, um, get rid of, uh, verbal clutter?” Try pausing instead. Hard to do. First you must become aware of your verbal ticks, and then work on deleting the clutter.

Every time you use Google Maps think about your own Conversational GPS. Keep it simple, not convoluted.

© 2020 Karen Cortell Reisman, All rights reserved

Want a customized Speak For Yourself® virtual workshop on how to communicate formally, informally, and electronically? Email Info@SpeakForYourself.com

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Karen Cortell Reisman, MS, Executive Communication Author & Speaker