Speak to Lead

How Bright Do You Have to Be to Turn Your Lights On?

One of the great challenges of communication is being able to see the issue from the other person's perspective. Stephen Covey refers to this as "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Frank Luntz says, "It's not what you say, it's what people hear." I call it the WHAM! Factor.

In lots of cases figuring that out can be difficult. But come on, how bright does someone have to be to turn on their headlights when driving in rain or snow?

This pet peeve of mine surfaced yesterday as Washington DC had heavy snow mid day. Visibility was obscured. After waiting for several cars to pass, I began to pull onto a major roadway ("artery" as the traffic reporters would say), when suddenly a white car appeared out of the snowflakes. I had time to stop and it wasn't a "near miss," but the car had been invisible for at least half a block longer than the cars with headlights on.

Here's The Lesson: If you're so oblivious to how other drivers and pedestrians see (or don't) you, stay off the road--literally! In a more figurative sense, if we as leaders are unaware of how our audiences see us, let's keep quiet--or ask questions--until we learn.

 

Media Myths: Exploring Six Media Fictions

What's the best way to reach your audience? With all the hype about new media, it's easy to lose perspective of the role traditional media continue to play.

Public relations firm Ketchum recently partnered with the University of Southern California's Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center to examine how organizations are communicating and what consumers are actually paying attention to. Here are six myths the study explores:

Persuasive Messages: 7 Deadly Sins

One of the things I've observed over the years is that communication failures are only rarely caused by some esoteric mistake. Rather the worst and most frequent failures are caused by breaking core principles. Here then is my list of The 7 Deadly Sins of Persuasive Messaging:

1. FUZZY RESULT. You don't have a clear picture of the result you want the communication to produce. It’s hard to persuade if you don’t know exactly what you want the listener to do. The more measurable the desired action, the better you will be able to create the right messages.
2. WRONG AUDIENCE. You can have a powerfully persuasive message, but if the  audience is unable to give you the result you want, you're wasting both your time and the audience's. Convincing the guy who delivers your pizza he wants to buy your Lamborghini may be easy. The likelihood he’ll be able to is small.
3. NO WHAM! FACTOR. If your message doesn't satisfy the question being asked by the listeners--What Here Applies to Me?--you won't have many listeners for long.
4. TELL EVERYTHING. As I frequently remind clients, "messaging is the art of sacrifice." There is almost always more to say than the listener wants to hear. Keep in mind Robert Greenleaf's comment, "Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much."
5. TOO COMPLEX. This is closely related to Tell Everything and No Wham! Factor. Attorneys, engineers, academics, and computer geeks are especially prone to be ensnared in the web of complexity. Just because the listener asks the time does not mean he or she wants to know how the watch operates.
6. A PLETHORA OF GENERALITIES, A PAUCITY OF SPECIFICS. Generalities are lifeless, vague and somnolent. Specifics are lively, clear, and memorable.
7. SAY IT ONCE, THAT'S ENOUGH. Message without repetition produces frustration. Listeners may understand the first time, but they won't be able to remember, explain, or execute without repetition.

Are there any Deadly Sins you think should be added to the list? [Or any of the above you think should not be on the list?] Please let us know by entering a Comment below.

Correcting Misspeak-Obama Provides an Example

Give enough speeches and eventually you will misspeak. And certainly presidential candidates give enough speeches. This past Sunday it happened to Senator Barack Obama.

At a campaign stop at Iowa State University, Obama said,

"We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged--and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."

Later on Sunday Obama issued a statement apologizing for his remark about the troops.

"I was actually upset with myself. Their sacrifices are never wasted; that was sort of a slip of the tongue as I was speaking."

Yesterday at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama again apologized. He said he had intended to criticize the civilian leadership of the war, not the military.

"Even as I said it, I realized I had misspoken. It is not at all what I intended to say, and I would absolutely apologize if any (military families) felt that in some ways it had diminished the enormous courage and sacrifice that they'd shown."

So how did Senator Obama do in correcting his mistake?

Media Engaged in Fakery?

The answer is "yes," according to Jim Cramer, star of CNBC's Mad Money.

Ronald Kessler has written a fascinating profile of Cramer's career and his views of the news media. (Click here for full article.) Read it to find out what kind of fakery reporters engage in and where the best source is to get business news (almost certainly not what you're guessing). And get to know Cramer, one of television's most colorful personalities, whose career path has been anything but predictable.