Book Review: Shut Up and Listen – Theobald and Cooper
At a time when our technology allows us to communicate so readily, why is it that we feel so isolated, confused and poorly informed than at any other time?
So a book that provides leaders, managers and we mere mortals with a clear description of how to communicate with clarity and impact is more than overdue.
Shut Up and Listen: Communication with Impact provides that clarity in how to get your point across easily and simply no matter the medium.
Theobald and Cooper have demonstrated exactly how to communicate well, not only in the various chapters and sections within the book but also in the elegance in the fabric of the writing itself. Kept to clear succinct prose, Theobald and Cooper deal not only with the Sherman strategy of writing but also with the tactics of how to craft a message.
Littered with examples, case studies, metaphors And comments, the authors leverage not only their considerable skill but also the knowledge and observations of and expert panel; key people and captains of industry that know the importance of clear communications. Easily read and simple to follow guidelines and examples, ensure the reader is neither bored nor confused.
In Section 1, the authors explain key revelations that often influence the quality of communications. These are a list of factors that have an impact on the parity and impact of a message.
These factors include:
- The need for directness
- The power of story telling
- The importance of passion in delivery
Section also explores a series of communications styles that we might each use, almost like a mask when we communicate. Although there are several styles here, they are decidedly on the negative IDE and appear as a less than comprehensive list. Still thy are useful lenses though which o view our individual communication attempts.
Section 2 is very different to section 1 and is very much a comprehensive manual on how to communicate. The key point is to ensure the message received by the other person is exactly what was meant. It is also important that the information is presented in a form and format that is readily absorbed and understood.
The areas addressed include most of the contemporary communications channels such as email and twitter as well as the more familiar phone, writing and reading.
The main areas discussed are:
- Getting the most from your reading – we often miss much and learn little from how we read now and often read ever hits our desk without discrimination.
- Writing with clarity – for the reader rather than for us.
- Persuasion – in it’s many forms.
- Writing for email, text, web and the new technologies – exploiting these media rather than suffering from them.
- How to listen more effectively – rather than merely waiting to talk.
- How to talk – to communicate rather than just filled the gap in the noise.
- First impressions, body language and culture – we communicate as much with our approach and behaviour as with our words.
Richly filled with examples and comment, this section is very much a manual on “how to communicate with impact”.
Section 3 seems almost out of place in this book. While the rest of he text seems well researched and presented, this section seems almost a last minute addition to fill in areas of application that may have been better placed earlier in the text or integrated into the main body.
Theobald and Cooper discuss the importance of planning how we communicate rather than doing it unconsciously. The authors then slip into a discussion on basic productivity, to do lists and planning your day which is decidedly off topic.
The last chapter, the last 4 pages in fact, discuss 6 “strategies” on how to apply the lessons presented earlier.
These are merely guidelines or factors to consider rather than a communications strategy and actually detract from an otherwise strong discussion on how to communicate with impact.
This shouldn’t put the reader off this book however as the value of the book really is in the second section. This really is the meat in the sandwich, sections 1 and 3 being wrappers around a very tasty filling.
Overall, this is a clear and useful book helping leaders, managers and we mere mortals craft our communication for clarity and impact, no matter the medium.
Certainly a worthwhile addition to the leader’s library.
Rated: 7/10
Subscribe to the comments for this postYour Unique Life Purpose
In Marketing and Business, there is a concept of USP the Unique Selling Proposition
If a business or product deserves a USP then surely you do too.
Mary Dunbar suggested that ‘We each have a unique and important way. It is our privilege and adventure to discover our own special light.”
So what is your ULP? Your Unique Life Purpose?
This is your definite life purpose. What you are born to do and how you can add most value.
One of my heroes, Earnest Shackleton has a ULP of conquering the South pole and the Antarctic Continent and he returned time and again to achieve that goal.
Finding your ULP can be difficult and the search is fraught with difficulties and blind alleys
Firstly, don’t confuse your job with your purpose.
Your job doesn’t define you…Sometimes that is difficult, but remember that no matter how much your manager likes you, if he or she needed to, your would be made redundant! If you identify yourself as just your job, that shock will be emotionally very painful.
what do you really want to be doing? Perhaps your job funds your purpose or could your purpose be something that can fund your life?
Secondly, don’t confuse your relationship with your purpose
Your relationship should be aligned to your purpose but not be your purpose. Support is important, are you getting it?
Align your goals align be to your purpose.
Consider the ‘purpose’ of SW airlines – ‘To be the cheapest airline in the US’
This allowed everyone in the team to set appropriate goals.
If it didn’t make the company cheaper, then it wasn’t a valid goal and was discarded…
”Do we serve salads in flight?”
“Will it make us cheaper?”
“No”
“Then NO”
Your purpose should be the same…ask the question ‘Will this goal help me achieve my purpose?’ Yes / No?
Your purpose doesn’t need to be to big, too complex or too challenging…Just yours!
So how will you find your purpose? A little introspection will help us out here.
What 5 things do you love?
- I love to ……….
- I love to ……….
- I love to ……….
- I love to ……….
- I love to ……….
What 5 things are you really good at?
- I am really good at ………
- I am really good at ………
- I am really good at ………
- I am really good at ………
- I am really good at ………
Alternatively, what would financial security do for you?
If you won the lottery, what 3 things would you do?
Use these thoughts to craft your Unique Life Purpose.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can work on that over the years ahead.
So what is your ULP?
Dare to Aspire
Increasing Your Business Efficiency
There is a fairly famous quote from David Allen of Getting Things Done
‘There is no need to have a thought more than once unless you want to!’
That to me is the essence of business efficiency.
Never spend time and effort solving a problem that you or someone else has already solved.
Don’t reinvent the wheel!
So having solved the problem, create a system, a process or a procedure to capture the essence of solving that problem so that you can teach it to others.
Here are a few areas that you can consider for developing processes, procedures and systems for in your business:
- Structuring a job advertisement
- Conducting an interview
- Introducing your business to potential customers
- Explaining your vision to potential investors
- Hosting a meeting
- Crafting the minutes of a meeting
- Re-ordering your supplies
- Purchasing your supplies
- Changing your supplies into products (operations)
- Processing your mail
- Processing your email
- Storing your reference material
- Managing your time
- Developing your knowledge
- Developing your staff
- Paying your bills
- Planning your strategy
For more information on how to create processes and procedures to develop your business, read Michael Gerber’s book E-myth Revisited
Create systems, get efficient and effective and constantly look to improve.
Dare to Aspire
5 Tips for Motivation
Motivation is the key to getting stuff done through team work.
A motivated team builds upon the strengths of the group and thrives. Whereas a demotivated team struggles to achieve anything.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to motivate the team.
As Napoleon states, ‘the leader is a dealer in hope’ and hope is one of the most motivating factors in life.
Here are 5 tips to help you motivate your team.
1. Set clear achievable goals – Your people need to know what a good job looks like so that they can then do the things they need to do to achieve it. they also need to be abel to measure their progress. there is little more demotivating when you are hill walking as to reach a false peak and realise there are still several miles to go!
2. Support your team with mentoring coaching and resources – Your team will need the tools and materials to get the job done.
3. Give praise often – A child learns to walk one step at a time and is praised for every step. As you rarely see adults crawling to work, this approach seems to work!
4. Listen to the team – they are closer to the task and the problems so they are your eyes and ears, your spies in the project.
5. Use incentives and deliver them – praise often, pay up on promises and celebrate successes and you will build a culture that enjoys achieving!
Look for more, as motivation is a very personal thing and this means you will need to know your team.
Dare to Aspire
Applying Guiding principles to Your Business
As individuals we are a product of our person values and behaviours.
You recognise a good person by the things they say they believe in and the actions they take.
If someone says they value thrift and live in a modest home then we see them living that value.
If someone says they believe in green principles but drive their 4 wheel drive 1 mile to the shops then there is an in-congruency that makes us question that person’s statements in the future.
In your business, guiding principles can be useful in 2 ways.
Firstly, they can helping in making business decisions.
If your guiding principles include, ‘We apply green principles whenever possible’ then perhaps you instigate a ‘bike to work’ scheme or a ‘car share’ policy to reduce the environmental impact of your employee’s commute.
Secondly, your business principles can add to your marketing message.
The Apple company aims to explore a better consumer experiences and have this embodies in their guiding principle and motto of ‘Think Different’.
So what guiding principles does your business have?
Perhaps some of these principles are ones you can aspire to have:
- We contribute to the local economy
- We provide an environment where our staff can learn and develop
- We delivery on the promises we make
- We operate with a minimum of environmental impact
- We aim for a win-win solution for both our customers and our suppliers
- We plan for the long term growth of both the business and the environment
What will your guiding principles be?
Dare to Aspire
Book review: You Can’t Not Communicate 2 – David Grossman
David Grossman certainly lives up to his trademark title of your ‘Thought Partner’. His new book, ‘You Can’t not Communicate 2‘ , further explores how top leaders differentiate themselves from the crowd.
Grossman’s knowledge of communication styles and techniques is formidable and only matched by his ability to present his ideas in a simple, clear and entertaining manner.
With attention spans shrinking, this book has cross generation appeal, presenting ideas in short bursts of highly relevant material. Easily read and digested, the key themes and points are often presented in bullet form, short case studies and tips, all proven to increase retention and clarify understanding.
Grossman covers a variety of areas including the leadership differential, What Employees Want and Communicating with the Millenials, building on his previous book with additional ideas and principles to help leaders and managers develop.
Avoiding Grossman’s 7 Deadly Sins of Leadership is critical to ensure that you aren’t undermining you leadership impact. Are you committing any of them?
Perceptive and intelligent, this book remains easily readable and is a book that you can dip into time and time again, re-learning the lessons that make leaders and managers thrive.
Highly recommended for leaders and managers everywhere.
Dare to Aspire
For those interested in the Lean process as applied to the small and medium size enterprise, I stumbled across this excellent podcast that highlights how it can be used.
Highly recommended.
Dare to Aspire
Tips to be a Better Mentor
As a leader, you will often need to take time to develop those people around you; your peers and your team members.
This can be called mentoring.
A mentor is a trusted person that helps team members improve their performance.
Unlike coaches, mentors can be more guiding with direct advice and support as well as taking an active role in the individual’s development.
As a leader, you can be a mentor to your team members, but more often a mentor is outside of the normal reporting chain.
Here are a few tips on how to be a better mentor:
- Use a private space – The mentor / mentee relationship is built on trust and this is best achieved in a space that isn’t overlooked or within earshot of others. An office or small meeting room is ideal.
- Schedule your meetings – Treat the meeting as a formal event, with a schedule and agenda. At the end of the meeting agree and action plan with specific outcomes and a timescale for achievement.
- Be approachable – Sometimes senior people can take on a slightly austere persona. This isn’t a good impression to give when you are looking to build a trusting and supportive relationship.
- Be a good listener – Take in the whole communication; words, tone and body language.
- Encourage in a supportive way – There is a fine line between supporting and intimidating.
- Act as a sounding board – You are looking to have your mentee develop independence of thought. Being a sounding board to explore ideas and options is useful to help people think out loud without fear of being ridiculed.
- Be firm but fair – You are looking to develop your mentee. Steel isn’t made by wrapping it in cotton wool, but by being heated in a fire and beaten. A little extreme for a professional relationship, but being firm will ensure that your charge will understand and respect the process and relationship.
- Be prepared to play the Devil’s advocate – You are, after all, looking after the Companies needs as well as the mentee’s. Playing Devil’s advocate will help you challenge the ideas that you hear and so guide them towards the benefit of BOTH the mentee and the Company.
The role of mentor can be very rewarding both because you are developing the talent of the future but you are also relearning the process of thinking and innovating from the position of a mind that isn’t jaded from years of being in business.
Embrace the role and develop the next generation of leaders.
Dare to Aspire
The Power of 5 Minutes
Napoleon trained himself to eat his 4 course dinner in 15 Minutes! this he claimed was because as a leader he knew the value of time, even the value of 5 minutes.
What could you do with 5 minutes?
1. Return an email
2. Make an appointment
3. Leave a voice mail
4. Write a paragraph of text for your blog or book
5. Write an agenda
6. Tweet
7. Research a point
8. Write a thank you note
9. Ask a question
10. Reconnect with a linkedin contact
11. Read a short article
12. Respond to a forum post
13. Check your blog stats
14. Check your next action list
15. Check your cash flow
16. Review your goals
Add to the list with what you could do with 5 minutes…
Dare to Aspire
5 Tips for Motivating Your Team
Here are 5 tips to help you motivate your team.
1. Set clear achievable goals – Your people need to know what a good job looks like so that they can then do the things they need to do to achieve it. They also need to be able to measure their progress. There is little more demotivating when you are hill walking as to reach a false peak and realise there are still several miles to go!
2. Support your team with mentoring coaching and resources – Your team will need the tools and materials to get the job done and the support of your leadership when they lose their way or encounter a problem.
3. Give praise often – A child learns to walk one step at a time and is praised for every step. As you rarely see adults crawling to work, this approach seems to work! Use the same apporach and catch people doing something well, instantly praising them for their efforts.
4. Listen to the team – they are closer to the task and the problems, so they are your eyes and ears, your spies in the project. They will know the issues that are being addressed and how to avoid them in the future.
5. Use incentives and the promise of rewards and then deliver them – praise often, pay up on promises and celebrate successes and you will build a culture that enjoys achieving!
These are just a few quick motivators that are effective for the majority of people.
Motivation is also a very personal thing and this means you will need to know your team better as individuals so that you can motivate each appropriately when the need arises.
Dare to Aspire
