Quiz question…
Imagine I wanted to do a Tuesday Tip about meetings. Should I use this as my opening paragraph?
Today’s Tip is about meetings
It’s factually accurate.
But it’s so boring.
It doesn’t make you think “Please show me Paragraph Two”.
Instead, I could use an opening paragraph like one of these:
- Have you ever attended a meeting that was absolutely rubbish?
- When I was eight years old, my mum taught me a brilliant communication technique. I still use it today in every meeting I attend
- Did you know there are only three things to master to have a brilliant meeting? Sadly, most people don’t do any of them
- If we played Word Association, and I said the word “meeting”, what word comes to mind? ‘Glorious’? ‘Fascinating’? Or would it be ‘Over-long’, ’Pointless’ or ‘Dull’?
- When you’re in a Teams meeting, how long do you tend to leave it, before you start pretending you’re listening but do other work instead?
- A good meeting is like a good first date. Here’s why…
Each of these is more interesting than “Today’s Tip is about meetings”.
So, I should start with one of those – yes? After all, we all know that First Impressions are essential. So I should ensure mine are good.
And it’s the same when you communicate. Your First Impressions are essential. So they must be epic.
But people’s aren’t, are they?
For example: if you have a meeting about Project 12, it’d be easy to start it with “Today’s meeting is about Project 12”.
Accurate. Boring.
Or, if you sell cyber risk insurance, you might say “I want to talk to you about cyber risk insurance”.
Accurate. Boring.
Or, if you’re in an Update Meeting, we’ve all heard “In the next hour, we’ll all update each other on everything we did last week”.
Accurate. Really boring.
Do NOT start communications this way!
Instead, make your First Impressions more … well, impressive.
That’s why today’s title used a phrase like “best-known secret”. That’s why the first line said “Quiz question…”.
And I guess those First Impressions must have worked – because you’re still reading!
Action Point
For every communication today, decide the best way to introduce it.
Because, when you nail your First Impression, you’ll probably nail the whole thing.