How to Add Value as a New Manager without Alienating the Natives

Getting a new job is exciting – but now the pressure’s on to prove yourself…

The first several months of a new job can be incredibly stressful as you work hard to make a good impression and show your new employer that they made a good hiring decision.  But sometimes trying too hard can backfire and your efforts end up alienatating the very people you are trying to impress.  Here is a story of how one manager navigated this tricky terrain:

SITUATION

John had just been hired to head up the Operations Team at a successful, growing company.  He was eager to prove to the board that they had made a good hiring decision, and started the job with enthusiasm.  But his first few months were turning out to be much more challenging than he had anticipated.  He would use his best judgment to make a decision, only to find out he’d accidentally left someone key out of the loop.  He came up with good ideas, only to get push back from people who would patiently explain that the ideas had already been tried. He had basic questions, and was afraid to ask his busy peers for fear of appearing incompetent.  He felt like he couldn’t move projects forward, and feared that those who hired him might start having second thoughts if he didn’t get some tangible wins soon.

COACHING INSIGHTS, DECISIONS, AND ACTIONS

John had always been well-liked and respected in his prior positions, and for the first time in many years he was beginning to doubt himself.  It was a big relief for him to find out that this is a common pattern for anyone moving into a new organization.  There are cultural nuances, jargon, and interpersonal dynamics that everyone in the company takes for granted, and no one thinks to explain to newcomers.  This “way” of doing things is only noticeable when the awkwardness of an outsider’s behavior brings it to the surface.  Usually it takes four to six months for a newcomer to soak up the ins and outs of the new culture, and during that time getting the most basic parts of a new job done can be painfully slow.  Unfortunately, these same four to six months are when you are being watched and judged.  Just when you want to make your best impression, you are completely handicapped.

We discussed various ways to accelerate his assimilation process, and John liked the idea of building a relationship map.  He drew a flow chart of the organization, adding new people and connecting them to others as he met them.  We identified eight questions that would help him understand their goals, how his role connected to theirs, and how they could optimally work together: 

1.  What are your most important goals and objectives?

2.  What do you need most to acieve those goals and objectives?

3.  What do you need in particular from my department to help you achieve those goals and objectives?

4. How do you see my role connecting to yours, and how do you envision us working together?

5. How do you prefer to communicate (e-mail, voice mail, lunches, quick hallway conversations, meetings…)?

6. What are some of the biggest barriers / frustrations / challenges you face in your work?

7. Who do you trust to go to for support and advice when you need it?

8. If I do well at my job, how will that impact you?

His goal was to answer these eight questions for each person on the relationship map.

RESULTS

The relationship map project gave John something tangible to work on, and got him initiating conversations he might otherwise have avoided.  He was initially worried that the project might take away from his work, but he soon saw that the information he got from his conversations enabled him to get more done faster. 

 He found people much more receptive when he showed genuine interest in what they were trying to accomplish.  In one case he discovered that another department was working on a project that could be combined with something his team was doing, and his work with the other department head to make it happen gained him visible win # 1.  He also found that as he probed for what was currently frustrating people, he was able to come up with new ideas that people wanted to try, and this lead to more wins. 

 But most of all, he started feeling like himself again.  His network within the company solidified, and he felt confident asking “stupid” questions anytime he wasn’t sure of something.  Because the relationship map included everyone in his department, he was able to develop a deeper understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of team members and work more effectively with all of them.

KEY LEARNING

Acclimating to a new organization is usually more stressful than looking for a new job in the first place.  By working with a coach, John learned that this was a normal part of starting a new position, and he stopped questioning his competence.  This also enabled him to take a proactive approach that gave him a sense of control in a situation with a lot of unknowns.  A relationship map is a useful tool for anyone in an organization because it helps you get outside of your own head and see things from the perspectives of those who work with you.  In John’s case it helped him mitigate the natural suspicion that most people have for a newcomer in a corporate environment, accelerate his assimilation process, and build the foundation for a strong network within the organization.

Pass it on…

John’s story is quite common, so if you find yourself in a similar situation don’t despair, and see if the relationship mapping idea will work for you.   You don’t have to use the same questions or even have eight of them.  You don’t even have to schedule meetings to answer the questions; you can challenge yourself to find the answers to the questions in whatever manner most suits the environment.  The point is to create questions that will help you learn more about what things look like from the other person’s perspective. 

 If you have a friend who has just landed, is immersed in the first six months of a new job, or who is responsible for bringing in and coaching new managers – please feel free to pass this story on in case they can use it.

How to Deal with a Micro-Managing Boss

Bosses are tough to deal with in general. They represent authority, and they often bring back memories of what we hated most in our relationships with our parents and teachers growing up. The micro-managing boss is especially hard to handle if you are creative, innovative, and want to make a contribution of your own in an organization. But since quite a few people in management positions fit this profile, chances are you will end up with one at some point in your career. Here are some tips to help you get the space you need to thrive:

1. Understand that micromanaging behavior is driven by the positive characteristics of conscientiousness, diligence, and responsibility; it’s just that they have been taken to an extreme. People often confuse themselves with the quality of the work they produce. As long as they can control the quality of their work, they are ok, but as soon as they have to depend on others for results, they are faced with the fear of representing sloppy or substandard output. Since putting out less than excellent work is SO personally humiliating, they need constant reassurance that the team is performing. Keep in mind that behavior such as constant checking on your progress or reviewing your work has NOTHING to do with how well you perform. It is about your boss, who has gotten so caught up in his or her fears and needs for reassurance that he or she is not aware of how this behavior may be impacting you.

2. You can give yourself space by playing to their standards for excellence and needs for reassurance. Initiate a conversation about expectations and standards of work output, and make sure your boss is clear about where your standards are. If you have a difference of opinion, get it talked out and come to an agreement about what standards you are both comfortable with. Then COMMUNICATE. It’s natural to react to micro-management by doing everything possible to avoid communication. But that just plays into the vicious circle of mutual mistrust and escalates the problem. If you develop a habit of sending a short e-mail on a daily or weekly basis that gives your status on a project and how you are handling situations, the boss gets a stream of continuous reassurance, and wont feel a strong need to check in.

3. Once you have developed a certain degree of trust with your boss, you may want to take it to the next step, and that is providing feedback on the impact of the micromanaging behavior. For example, “I notice that you have redone my last three powerpoint presentations. I understand your desire to have us represented in a positive light, but you may not realize that you are sending a subtle message, that I can’t do powerpoint presentations, and that makes me feel less excited about doing them well in the first place. Is there something specific you are noticing about the way I do my presentations that does not meet the standards we agreed on related to our work?”

Unfortunately, the micro-managing boss ends up fulfilling his own fears. As he takes more responsibility for the work of the team, the team feels completely disempowered and loses the motivation to produce their best work. Soon they are complaining and doing very little, and he is fretting about how they don’t care and he has the weight of more than one job on his shoulders. It may take several attempts to help him turn around, because he needs to let go and allow himself to look bad in order to re-empower the team, build trust, and get to the point where he gets results that are better than he ever dreamed.

If you are a micro-manager, or you work for one, anything you can do to facilitate the change will be a positive learning experience. Giving your boss feedback that enables him to become a better leader is a gift he will be forever grateful for. And if you are that boss, imagine getting rid of the experience of being overworked and not being able to trust anyone, and moving to a place where you get to work with people who consistently go well beyond the call of duty, and you are so honored to be their leader that you would never consider taking ownership for the phenomenal work they put forth.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Needs at Work

What are “Needs” and why do they have everything to do with how things go at work?

Do you remember the last time someone pushed your buttons?  

In that instant, did it seem like they crossed the line, almost intentionally? 

What emotions got triggered, and how did you control your reaction?

That emotional reaction comes from having a need that isn’t being met, and this is important because almost every single ridiculous thing that happens between people at work, happens because someone has a need that isn’t being met.  Most of us aren’t aware of our needs.  We just experience spurts of annoyance and frustration with each other, but in a work environment, it’s an ongoing battle of unresolved animosity that undermines trust, communication, and productivity to the nth degree. 

We may be able to hold ourselves back from reacting in the moment, but then we vent like crazy to our friends, we “forget” to provide information that the “button pusher” needs, we go out of our way to avoid him or her, and our judgments of each other get harsher.  Eventually we decide we simply can’t work together at all. 

All it takes is one struggle like this on a team to undermine productivity, but most teams have several “button pushing incidents” going on in tandem, and repeating themselves regularly.

If you make it your business to understand how needs work, you have the power to break through the barriers and maintain a productive work environment, both for yourself and your team. 

Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Keep a log of all of your “emotional reactions” at work.  Write down the situation and ask yourself “what did I need in this moment?”   Listen to the first word or phrase that comes up, and write it down – even if it seems silly.  

2. Once your log gets long enough, see if you can find a pattern.  If the same words or phrases repeat themselves, you may have nailed an important need.  You will also notice that the same people or situations will serve as a trigger for the need, over and over again.

3. At first, it will seem like the only solution is to make the person who is “pushing your buttons” change their behavior and treat you differently.  Often the person is someone you have to work with a lot, like your boss, team-mate or subordinate.  Unfortunately, you have to start this process by accepting that the person in question will probably not change.   BUT the good news is that as you do the needs work, focused on YOURSELF, your reactions to the person move to neutral, and as a result you are able to provide more effective feedback, and the person does  change.   You just have to be willing to take the indirect route, work on yourself first, and trust that things will end up changing as a result. 

4. The person who really has control of getting your needs met is YOU, even though it seems like other people are the source of what you need.   What you’ll realize once you do some thinking, is that you have more power than you think, and you’ll also begin to see what you can do to influence the world around you and get more of what you need. 

5. An interesting paradox about needs is that we often close ourselves off to receiving what we most need from others.  It’s like having trouble accepting compliments.  One of the biggest things you have to learn is to graciously receive what you need when it comes to you, even if you don’t really care that much for the source.  

6. You also have to learn to give YOURSELF a lot of what you need – listen to that inner voice, and notice what you say to yourself over and over again.   If you need to be accepted, are you accepting yourself?  If you need to be heard, are you ignoring yourself?   It seems like an odd thing to check for, but you may be surprised when you start paying attention.

7. Once you get a feel for how needs play out in your own life, start observing other people and their interactions at work.  Pay attention in meetings and notice when someone has an edge to their voice, a hint of sarcasm or resentment.  You’ll begin to pick up on the dynamics of others on your team, and may even find subtle ways to intervene and facilitate better interactions across the whole team.

At work, whenever things start getting weird, one of the most powerful things you can ask is this: “are you getting everything you need in this situation?”   If you are genuine, this question can dissipate emotion from people who aren’t even aware they are reacting, and give them an opportunity to articulate what they do need.  Sometimes it’s as simple as clarity on priorities, extra time to finish a project, or appreciation for work they did that is no longer going to be used.

As independent and self-sufficient professionals, we don’t want to “have needs”.   But whether we want to admit it or not, we all have this stuff going on underneath, and if it’s not dealt with directly, it shows up anyway – resulting in poor communication, inefficient team-work, and wasted time, which no organization can afford these days.

No matter what type of organization you work in, you can take yourself to the next level by learning about your own needs.  Start with the seven tips above, or you can join the Aspyrre Community, an ongoing professional development program, that provides insight to help you see what’s really behind challenging situations at work, and tools to manage the situations effectively and get better results.  For more information on the Aspyrre Community, click here.

Confusions Kills

Life is a journey, and it often doesn’t matter which road you take. But if you aren’t clear about what you want, you might not take any road, and that’s the most debilitating type of time-wasting; it’s the kind that takes your life.

As a coach, the first question I ask at the beginning of an engagement, and again at the beginning of every coaching session, is, “What do you most want out of our time together”? What most clients want most of the time is clarity. Here are a few of the most common examples:

1. I want to figure out what to do next in my life
2. I want to figure out how to handle this business situation
3. I want more clarity about why I’m reacting to this person
4. I need help making a decision I’m conflicted about

When you are clear, it’s easier to act decisively and move on. When you are confused, it can feel like an endless holding pattern, and it impacts everything you do. Overwhelm at work stems from not being crystal clear on the one priority you can focus on now to get the most impact. Weak negotiating comes from not knowing what you want and when you are willing to walk away. Ineffective networking, sales and job-hunting all stem from not being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer and how that maps to someone else’s need. And one of the most painful results of confusion is a pattern of consistent direction changes, as you force yourself to make decisions in the name of moving forward, and your lack of clarity plagues you with ongoing doubt.

If you feel confused about your direction, a situation, a relationship, or an upcoming decision, here are a few ways to move to a place of more clarity and better decision-making:

1. Know your values

Your values are not automatically the same as the values of your parents, church, community, or social group. You can often pick up on a values conflict when you know the right thing to do, but you don’t feel motivated to do it. An example is going after a prestigious job or high-income business opportunity. In the United States, we place a lot of importance on how much money someone makes, but people need to feel personally fulfilled. It can be confusing when you have an opportunity to make more money, but you aren’t personally excited about the work involved. This dilemma can go both ways. What if, as a mom, you believe you should stay home with your children, but it drains you, and you miss the intellectual stimulation and camaraderie you got from being at work? Most people have five to eight very clear and strong values. Know yours, and be willing to stand for them.

2. Know how much control you have

One of the exercises I do frequently with clients shows how much control you have in any given situation. Confusion often stems from trying to control something that you can’t control. Maybe you have a certain degree of influence over the situation. Maybe all you can really control is your response. Once you acknowledge how much control you really have, it’s easier to decide what actions you are willing to take, and when to stop spinning your wheels and let go.

3. Acknowledge your dreams and test them

A common fear from the “choosing a life direction” category goes something like this: “What if I tell everyone what I really want, and then I fail?” We all have “pie in the sky” dreams that aren’t completely realistic. The problem isn’t having those dreams; it’s clinging to them in secret. If you keep the dream a secret and fantasize that you’ll make it happen one day, that dream prevents you from considering any other opportunities or truly experiencing the life you are in right now. The best thing to do with a pie in the sky dream is: bring it to the surface and commit to doing something about it. If you do this, one of two things will happen: (1) you’ll realize how hard it’s going to be, and you’ll decide you want to go for it anyway, because it will be worth the experience even if you fail, or (2) you’ll realize how hard it’s going to be, and you’ll decide you don’t have the energy, but maybe you’ll discover another way to enjoy what you love about it within the parameters of your real life.

4. Resolve internal conflicts

Internal conflicts come up when you get caught between two things that are important to you, and it seems that they are mutually exclusive. For example, “I want to succeed in business, but I also want to spend quality time with my family”. If one side keeps winning out over the other, you might want to go back to item one and take an honest look at it. Perhaps you feel that family “should” be a value but it really isn’t? It might be hard to admit, but this awareness provides you with a powerful level of freedom and clarity. Let’s say you realize that you love working, and that you don’t really enjoy spending time with family. This doesn’t take away from your commitment to your family, but it empowers you to think about it differently. You can ask yourself, “What is the minimum time I could spend with my family so that I am living up to my commitment?” You may find that it takes less time than you thought. Perhaps you choose to reserve one hour, three nights per week to eating dinner with the family, and you make sacred a weekly 24 hour period from Saturday at 2pm to Sunday at 2pm. Turns out you could work after dinner every weeknight, put in a few hours Saturday morning and a few hours Sunday evening, and still provide your family with the consistent quality time they need.

5. Make all decisions right

The truth is, every road will take you somewhere, and provide you with great opportunities, as long as you are paying attention. Most successful people don’t make the right decisions all the time or even most of the time. What distinguishes successful people from those who flounder, is that successful people trust themselves, and make the most of their decisions. They choose to learn something from every experience, and they know that new opportunities can always be created, simply by taking action. If you are struggling with a difficult decision, the best question to ask yourself is: “what’s the worst that can happen as a result of each choice, and if it does, how will I still benefit”? Once the pressure is off, and you realize that no decision is going to ruin your life, you are in a much better position to make the best decision, because you are no longer afraid of the results.

When you think about it, confusion is probably one of the top two or three killers of personal effectiveness. One of the best ways to stay clear is to get a coach, and get into a consistent pattern of talking every week or two. While hiring a coach can’t guarantee that you will double your income or land your dream job, it’s almost certain that you will get more clarity as a result of your coaching conversations. Sometimes people hesitate to invest in a coach because it’s hard to measure the return on your investment. One way to measure this for yourself is to look at how often you struggle with confusion, not just in business decisions, but in handling both personal and professional relationships, and managing your career and your life. Then ask yourself, if you were consistently clear, what would you be doing differently, and how would your life be different as a result?

How to Solve Repeating Problems

The first time you encounter a new problem, what you most need is information and expert advice. But repeating problems are frustrating, because no matter how many experts or “proven solutions” you apply, they just keep coming back.

Repeating problems keep coming back because they are symptoms of a deeper issue. As long as you focus on the symptom, it’s just like pulling the top off a weed and leaving the roots – no matter how much time, energy, or money you invest, it will just keep growing back.

For solutions that last, you need to find the source of a problem, and make a deeper systematic change. Of course roots are underground, and they don’t usually look much like the big plants that show up as weeds in your garden, and it’s the same with problems and the systems that cause them. They often don’t look alike at all. So how do you find the roots?

You need to look for patterns. In some cases, you can sequence the events that happen before and after a problem. Sometimes you’ll find the source in the personalities and relationships of the people who are involved with the problem, including yourself. Here’s an example:

EXAMPLE

Customers want the product yesterday, production skips steps to rush the product, someone makes a mistake, the customer is angry, someone rushes to fix the problem without documenting what was done, later the customer asks for a standard replacement and gets the wrong part because documentation was missing, the customer is angry, someone rushes to help, etc. etc. etc. In this case:

1. The repeating problems are: Angry customers, mistakes in production

2. The “repeating but temporary” solutions are “appeasing angry customers with fast customer service”, and possibly some form of “training or disciplining production employees”

3. The pattern is: Rush, rush, rush to appease the angry or demanding customer, make mistakes in the rush, customer gets angrier and more demanding.

4. The root of the problem is: Rushing

5. Now we look at what causes us to rush around in response to a customer request. Dedication to the principle that the customer is always right? The fear that we will lose the customer? The need for approval?

There are many possible solutions. One might be to brainstorm on ways to talk with customers about the benefits of waiting one more day for the product so you can uphold your quality standards. The important thing is that you are addressing the issue at the source and changing the system that causes the problem. Notice that this deeper solution is almost the opposite of the solutions you would apply by only looking at the surface problem.

EXERCISE – “Getting to the Source”

Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to help you discover what is at the bottom of a repeating problem you are facing today:

1. Write a brainstormed list of when this problem has come up for you before:
1. In what way was it similar to the problem you have today?
2. In what ways was it different from the problem you have today?
3. What solutions did you implement then, and how well did they work for you?
4. Why would or wouldn’t you want to try those solutions now?
5. If you have tried some of the same solutions, how were your results different this time from when you had the problem before?

6. What key people, issues, dynamics, or components are the same every time or most times you’ve had this problem?

7. What thoughts and feelings come up for you consistently every time this problem comes up?

8. When this problem comes up, what does it make you wonder about yourself, other people, or the world?

9. If you could change yourself, other people, or the world, what would you change to make this kind of problem go away forever?

10. How much control do you have in this situation? Do you have complete control over the problem, some influence over the problem, or no control over anything except your response to the problem?

Make a list of possible actions / decisions available to you. Make a table like the one below to analyze possible solutions.

Possible Action / Decision

Worst Possible Consequence

Best Possible Result

How I will handle worst possible consequence

How I will benefit from worst possible consequence

If you have identified a pattern in your business or your life and would like to e-mail me your responses to this exercise I would be happy to share my feedback and comments.

The ONE key skill that drives Professional Success

One of my favorite books is Crucial Converations. I read it a couple of years ago, and there are two key things I keep going back to. Number one, the authors did several years of research looking for what sets apart the most effective people in organizations. They were actually surprised at what they discovered. For those of you who haven’t read the book, they ended up with a pretty diverse group of relatively normal people. They were only able to isolate ONE key factor that they all had in common. It was the ability to effectively facilitate open, productive dialogue in high stakes, high emotion, critical conversations, where most people aren’t comfortable coming clean with what is really on their mind. A great example is confronting a high level boss on what appears to be hypocrisy: advocating cost cutting measures while spending lots of money on personal perks. Another example is having the courage to admit you don’t buy into a corporate initiative that everyone else is going along with, or confronting a peer on unethical behavior. The people who can do this, and do it honestly, authentically, respectfully, and consistently, inspire everyone around them, and they win loyalty and followers, whether or not they are a leader on paper. They are the leaders who emerge naturally, because everyone wants to work with them.

The second thing this book does is put together a model that shows exactly what an effective conversation is. So if you want to work on this NUMBER ONE skill and develop it, you have an idea of what you are shooting for. It’s plain as day: you don’t react to or snap back at people who push your buttons, you openly say what is on your mind without judgment, you pay attention to the assumptions you are making about people and situations, and instead of living in your stories, you take the initiative to talk to people, find out what’s going on, and test your assumptions. Easy to see, plain as day. But really, really, really, really hard to DO!

Have you ever tried to honestly confront your boss and not feel like you are risking career suicide? How motivated have you been to open up to your most political peers? And, after you’ve been burned in a meeting in front of the very people you are most trying to impress, do you really have the energy to approach the offender and graciously ask if they intended to impact you that way?

So, you know what skills you want to develop, and you know what it looks like when someone has that skill fairly well developed, but making the required changes in yourself to actually master the skill-set can be daunting.

This is where I come in. The series of tools I use in my coaching practice are all geared towards moving you to a place where you can interact powerfully and authentically with others. Here are just a few examples:

(1) You learn to get a firm handle on what drains you, and you manage your energy more effectively, so that when opportunities for crucial conversations come up, you have the mental clarity and confidence you need to handle them better.

(2) You learn what is behind your emotional reactions, and why you react more strongly to certain people and situations. This enables you to control your reactions better so that you are able to have more effective conversations.

(3) You learn basic principles of what drives behavior, which helps you understand what might be going on when others act immature, inconsiderate, or even completely out of line. This makes it easier to confront the behaviors without negative personal judgments.

(4) You become more self-aware, and learn to question and test your assumptions as a matter of course, which enables you to consider multiple perspectives at once, make better decisions, and better facilitate meetings and important discussions with others, whether you are the “designated” meeting manager or not.

I’ve compiled all of this into a new Interpersonal Mastery program that has one purpose: to help clients focus on and build the ONE SKILL that drives professional success. The program can be brought into an organization as a series of workshops or classes, or it can be taught within an individual or group coaching program, and I have found what often works best is a combination of training and coaching.

But the best thing with this program is you can take it one step at a time. Interpersonal mastery is SO important, and it makes SUCH a big difference in your effectiveness within the work environment, that in one short two-hour presentation, you can get enough information to apply immediately and start seeing a difference in your conversations.

One thing I wonder, is if interpersonal mastery sets apart the most effective individuals within organizations, what happens to organizations that commit to increasing this skill in ALL employees? I have been parts of small teams that have achieved amazing results, and in all those teams we had open, productive dialogue paired with a shared excitement about our goal. If you provide the goal – I can teach the skills that pave the way to productive dialogue. Just imagine what could be possible for your team!

If you’d like to test this program out, the easiest way to do it is bring an initial seminar into your organization. You can treat your team to an offsite or, if time is short, you can start by setting aside an hour in your regularly scheduled staff meeting. Even the smallest step can make a difference.

I am willing to schedule up to four events each month for organizations located in or close to Orange County, California. If you would like to bring a workshop or presentation into your organization, please call (949) 495-1021, and we can get you on the schedule!

Five Secrets of Compelling Communicators

How well you communicate affects every aspect of life from personal relationships to business success.  Here are five simple but powerful keys to help you communicate more effectively, and get heard.

1. Listen Fully

This means no mental background chatter or preparing what you are going to say next.  Even good listeners find this difficult.  However, once you master the skill, it’s amazing how much better you understand people.  And, when you understand your audience, you’ll automatically adjust your message to make it more relevant and meaningful to them.

2. Speak Succinctly

Compress your thoughts into two or three sentences.  Pause.  Give people a chance to grasp and consider what you have said.  If you say too much or go on too long, they’ll get overloaded and forget all of it.

3. Tell the Truth

The real truth!  This is my agenda.  I want to accomplish A, and I need B.  Can you help me?  If not, that’s OK, but I wanted you to know why I asked.  People are so scared they’ll say something stupid that they lose the ability to connect on a genuine level.  When you speak honestly and show your human side, people naturally relate and want to hear more.

4. Allow Opinions

Especially their opinion of you!  If someone is allowed to disagree with you, they are more likely to listen to and acknowledge your side of the story.  If they are allowed to think whatever they want about you, they will be downright fascinated by what you have to say.  It all comes down to not trying too hard to prove yourself.  Confidence is truly compelling.

5. Repeat Ideas

In the age of information overload, people usually don’t “get” what you have to say the first, second, or even third times.  In presentations, standard practice is: tell them what you are going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said.  This goes for other forms of communication as well.  You don’t have to use the same words every time, but if you have a message to send, expect to send it consistently over a long period of time before it sinks in.