I saw a cartoon the other day. It said…
We offer three kinds of services.
GOOD. CHEAP. FAST.
But you can only pick two.
GOOD and CHEAP won’t be FAST.
FAST and GOOD won’t be CHEAP.
CHEAP and FAST won’t be GOOD.
I like this – because, all too often, we see others try and be all things, to all people.
But the world isn’t like that. You can’t be both the best and the cheapest – that just doesn’t make sense.
So, here’s a little exercise to see how you want people to describe you, and whether your comms help/hinder this:
List three ways you’d describe yourself
- Now think of your boss – list three ways she’d describe you
- Now think of someone in your team – list three ways he’d describe you
- You’ve now got a maximum of nine points, though there may be some duplication. Review these nine, and…
- …remove any you don’t agree with
- …group similar ones together
- …for any that are opposites, remove the ones you don’t agree with
- …prioritise them so you find your top three
And this shortlist means you now have a list of how best to describe yourself.
Now to your communications…
Your comms should be a manifestation of you. In other words, you should also be able to use your shortlist’s three words to describe them too.
For example, if you’ve identified that you are PROFESSIONAL, PROACTIVE and THOROUGH, your communications should tick these boxes too.
So here’s a really easy, useful exercise to do…
Action Point
Review your most recent communication – maybe the email you sent just before reading this.
And ask yourself whether it ticks the boxes that you want people to think, when they describe you.
- If it does, great stuff. Crack on. Keep doing it
- If it doesn’t, remember that people form massive judgements about you based on how you communicate with them. If this is the case, identify ways you can quickly improve
And, of course, if you want some pointers as to how to improve, there’s a massive bank of previous Tuesday Tips here, and a shedload of my videos here.