Keep It Brief

While driving to work this morning, listening to my favorite radio station (Sirius: Lime), I literally wanted to zap a lady who was on via phone (with the host). She was going on and on about her point, all the while the radio host was trying desperately to get her to wrap up. Finally, the host had to just literally cut her off mid sentence and go into break. Recently a similar incident happened at work where a fantastic (but long winded) co-worker of mine was going on and on to a senior executive who had asked for her feedback about a topic. As my colleague was waxing on about her experiences, it was quite evident that the executive’s eyes had glazed over and that she was already thinking about her next meeting. The entire point of the conversation was for naught as the point was lost in excessive verbiage.

Coming from someone who likes to talk (this is where my husband would nod vigorously while rolling his eyes), even I know when to keep it brief and concise. Brevity seems to be a lost art in the business world today as most of us just experience verbal diarrhea when asked about our opinion (or decide to provide it unsolicited!). It seems that that worst offenders are those who aren’t good observers of people.

If you observe your listener, you will know immediately when their attention starts to wane and when it’s time to wrap up or turn the mic back to the other guy or gal. Eye contact is lost or weakened, their “uh huh” and “oh, interesting” responses start to fade and their notepad doodling gets increasingly artistic. Seth Godin, someone I consider the God of Permission Marketing, has a very good point when he points out (about blogs in general but still … the point is the same): people really just want to hear your story or point as it relates to them or put forth in a summarized manner that might apply to them.

So keep it brief, keep it concise and above all … observe the body language of your listener (if via phone or web, listen to your listener … when they get too silent, take your cue). Brevity is often king.