What grade would you give yourself for how good you are at communicating?
B? B+?
That’s what most people say.
And if you could get to an A, that’d make a big difference.
But it’s hard to improve in the long-term. We’ve all tried to make long-term changes – eat healthier, do more exercise – and it’s easy to slip back.
So, to make long-term improvement, change two things:
- Templates – when you create some comms, you use a template, rather than starting from scratch. So, change that template and you’ll make a long-term change; and
- Diary – include a regular “improve my communications” entry. You’ll now always have time scheduled to do it. Without this, you’ll never have time to focus on it. So you won’t
For example, if you work in sales, you could:
- Create a Proposal Template, to help you write better proposals every time; and
- Schedule a weekly “ask for one referral” diary entry
Do both and, throughout the next year:
- All your proposals will follow best-practices, and
- You’ll have asked for 40-50 referrals
An impressive long-term improvement!
So, to guarantee your Communication Grade is higher next year than this…
Action Point
…Change your template and diary. It’ll only take a minute. But the long-term impact is huge.