The Articulate CEO

Authenticity - The Key To Communication And Everything Else

Authenticity lies at the heart of success in communication and, arguably, at the heart of success in anything. We all achieved whatever success we have by being us.  Sure you may have honed your skills, gathered experience, even stolen some ideas along the way but you have remained the person you were from the start.  No one becomes successful by being someone other than who we are because we can’t maintain the charade long enough.

You are who you are.

And success doesn’t change you either.  It simply highlights whatever traits existed in the first place and allows them to flourish.  For example we often hear people say that money has changed someone and turned them into an asshole.  Not true - they were an asshole in the first place!  Money just allowed you to notice.

The most successful people in the world are those who have the strongest grip on who they are.  They are acutely aware of their values and they are not afraid to articulate them to anyone who will listen.  Consequently they gather like-minded people around them and that collective power breeds success for as long as those values have currency.  Those values are not always popular to begin with or they may not be popular towards the end but the person who believes in them, sticks with them, and we remember them for that reason.  If you want an individual example of this then look no further than Nelson Mandela.

Mandela's words, "The struggle is my life," are not to be taken lightly.

Nelson Mandela personifies struggle.  He continued to lead the fight against apartheid with extraordinary vigor and resilience after spending nearly three decades of his life behind bars.  In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners.  

He sacrificed his private life and his youth for his people, and remains South Africa's best known and loved hero.  He stands for something.  It is the stand that people rally to not the man.

It is the same in business.  To be truly successful you and your business have to stand for something.  There have to be guiding principles and values that people can identify with and rally to.  There has to be a way for people to determine if you are like them and if they can trust you to fulfill your promises.  The way is simple.

Tell people what you are like. 

Tell people what they can expect from you in their business dealings.

Tell people what they can rely upon to be a part of every transaction.

Live up to it.

Lost In Translation - Dealing With A Multicultural Workforce

Communication is always tough but it's even tougher when your workers don't speak your language.  With an increasingly diversified workforce, organizations have to recognize that English as a second language is a potential problem. Many of our employees have very important skills, but they don't necessarily communicate in English well. Whatsmore, managing workers who don't speak English as their first language is tricky. Don't deal with it properly, and you risk problems ranging from poor customer service to diminished productivity to poor morale.

Many CEO's see themselves as an accessible, available, good communicator but that belief is often delusional when it comes to the language barrier. If you only speak English but half your workforce hail from China, Malaysia, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq or Serbia then pretty much none of what you have relied on in the past for your communication is likely to work. 

If you have a multicultural workforce then it is important to find members of that workforce who can fulfill management posts. The truth is no matter how much you think talking more slowly and loudly helps it doesn't and you are going to need translators. It is not enough to understand the language you have to understand the cultural barriers that come with it. People from within your workforce are best placed to do that and can give you valuable feedback on how to approach communication issues.

The favoured Western communication method of large, open meetings is not a good idea with multicultural workforces either. If you ask if everyone understands the information, they will all nod out of politeness. If you ask for questions, you won't get any for fear of embarrassment given the differing levels of English practised within the room.

Instead, have meetings with small groups of workers who have similar English skills so that nobody feels intimidated about asking questions. Have your translators at every meeting, and ask those managers of yours to check in daily.

The result will be much more detailed feedback from your employees on everything from policy changes to individual career goals. Plus, the new language sensitivity will be a massive boost for company morale.

The Concept of Attention Economics

The story goes that in the 1920’s the great Ernest Hemingway sat around a table of fellow writers and bet them that he could write a story in just six words. Laughing at his audacity they hastened to take his bet. Hemingway quickly wrote six words on a napkin and passed it around the table. The words were: “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.”

Hemingway’s story was complete. It had a beginning, middle and an end. Needless to say, he won the bet.

Whether it happened or not we will never know but the Hemingway story makes an important point - you do not need pages of writing to tell a story.

But does it matter?

You can argue that brevity has always mattered and that getting and holding someones attention has always been vital to getting your message across. In the modern world, however, it is even more vital. The attention spans of people are becoming shorter and shorter as they have to juggle, sort and process the overabundance of information that characterises the modern world. Now, more than ever, if your message is too long and too hard, you will lose people.

In 1971 Herbert Simon, a professor from Carnegie Mellon University was one of the first to articulate the concept of attention economics when he wrote:

“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”

Next time you write a message, whether it is for web content, marketing collateral or an email, remember that in order to gain someone’s interest, you first need to gain their attention. If they like what you have to say, they will trade their attention for your information. You may even be surprised by how much it can play on their minds...

'For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.'

How To Use Email Effectively

If we are honest then we have to admit we have all decided to send an email to deal with an uncomfortable or upsetting issue rather than have a direct conversation. We would also have to admit that those emails didn't actually help resolve the issues or confusion more quickly and effectively. The fact is we were just using email as a way of hiding and, in turn, creating a situation of rising tensions and escalating problems. Thus, email wars erupt, clutter mailboxes, eat up time and thwart collaboration, morale and productivity.

Email is a great way to communicate if it is used correctly but unfortunately it often isn't. So here are a few tips for making the most of its efficiency while avoiding the worst of its failings:

1. Use email for its main purposes: communicate or receive information, as a form of documentation or for friendly correspondence
By all means use email to keep everyone informed of a project’s status, to verify what was discussed in a face-to-face or phone conversation, to ask a quick question, to say hello or send a compliment.

2. Do not use email to resolve emotional issues or arguments
In other words, if you are upset with someone or someone is upset with you, then you need to talk rather than send email. An email can never convey tone - no matter what emoticon you attach to it! It is just not a good way to communicate emotions or resolve difficulties.

3. State the purpose of your email immediately.
By stating the purpose in the subject heading or in the first sentence of your text, you minimize the possibility that the recipient will misinterpret your message or delete it before it is read.

4. Write email as you would a newspaper article.
The first sentences should contain the most pertinent information, with details following in subsequent sentences. People are busy and need the highlights. They may never finish the email and may miss important information if it is buried in the body of the text. If appropriate, have a quick summary sentence at the end.

5. If an email starts looking like a tennis game, pick up the phone.
If you email back and forth with someone more than two times about the same issue, it is time to pick up the phone and get clarification. When emails volley back and forth about the same issue, it is often a sign that something else is going on (someone is really upset, doesn’t understand, is being resistant, and so on).

6. If you don’t want an email published in a newspaper, don’t send it.
You never know what will happen with your email or to whom it will be forwarded once you press send and once it is out there it is out there for good. By definition email is public domain so treat it that way.

The bottom line is that is the information you want to convey is really impoirtant then you should be talking to someone not emailing them. Email can be a great tool but onl;y if used appropriately.

The Futility of 'Engagement' Surveys

'Engagement' is the latest buzzword used to describe an abstract emotion that we would like our employees to feel about their work. In the past it has been called empowerment or ownership or commitment and now we have 'engagement'. It is simply another attempt to describe an instinctive understanding that we have that our organisation tends to be better off when our workforce care about what they do. The reason that the word we use to describe this keeps changing is because we have not been able to discover what it is that we have to do to get it - mainly because it id actually different for most people. So, instead of admitting failure, we change the word and make it look as if we are looking for something different.

Most of us have still not found out what to do to allow our workforces to engage so when our bosses ask what we are doing about engagement we look for a survey to prove that they we are (at least) doing something. The people whose business it is to produce surveys are very happy to oblige our desperate need for affirmation.

The survey does not even have to measure engagement at all, just provide data that makes it look as if it does. Consequently, there is pretty much no correlation between 'engagement survey' results and performance. About the best anyone has managed to do at Gallup for example is about 0.19 (100% correlation would be 1.0). The fact is most engagement surveys are complete nonsense and usually pedalled by executives trying to justify their existance.

Imagine trying to measure a similar abstract emotion like happiness. No one in the business world would even contemplate it would they? You can't measure 'happy' - you just know if you are.

King Jigme of Bhutan declared when he ascended the throne that his major concern was the happiness of his people. If that had happened in the business world it would have led to an explosion of 'Happiness Consultants' and then cost a fortune while they benchmarked the nation’s current state of happiness using 'Happiness Surveys', and ran focus groups to find out what happiness was and perhaps what colour it should be. Instead, when asked what he was going to do, King Jigme replied that he was going to create the conditions that would allow his people to be happy and then they would choose to be happy for themselves.

'Engagement', like happiness, is the way that people feel about what they do. Trying to measure it is an extremely difficult and ultimately futile exercise. We would be better off, like King Jigme, creating the environment that will allow our workforces to engage. Then when they do we will know it. No survey needed... but then the survey is so much easier isn't it?

Babies, Mozart, Neuroscience and the Media - The Perfect Storm

Imagine a world in which you simply played a tune for your baby and they automatically became more intelligent just by listening to it. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could just download a bit of Beethoven or Mozart from iTunes, plug in your ipod and get better test scores? It would be fantastic wouldn't it? That's why hundreds of thousands of parents around the world do exactly that with products like 'Baby Mozart'. They spend millions on these products and what is known as the Mozart Effect trying to give their kids every advantage in life. Unfortunately, genius though he may have been, Mozart can't make you smarter.

The Mozart Effect was introduced to the world in the form of an article from the journal 'Nature'. In this article, it was reported that "...college students who listened to about ten minutes of a Mozart piano sonata showed a significant improvement on spatial reasoning tasks compared with a group of students who listened to a relaxation tape." This 1993 study seemed to show that intelligence could be improved by simply listening to classical music. Though it was difficult to replicate by other researchers, and it never claimed to improve spatial reasoning over the long term, the Mozart Effect was utilized as justification for companies to sell Mozart CDs to families with infants.

Later research would suggest that short-term mental arousal could explain the Mozart Effect. This would explain why individuals listening to music that they themselves enjoy (whether it be Mozart or not) feel more alert versus those that are not listening to anything. Perhaps you feel more alert after reading a story that makes you feel excited or after watching a thrilling movie. Any such activities could potentially improve short-term spatial ability, though not your intelligence.

So, Mozart may well make you feel a bit smarter and can certainly make you a little more alert for a very short space of time (if you like that sort of thing) but, trust me, you are as dopey as you ever were. If you are a parent who has bought into the Mozart Effect you may even be slightly more dopey than you thought you were!

The Mozart effect is an example of how science and the media mix in our world. A suggestion in a few paragraphs in a scientific journal becomes a universal truth in a matter of months, eventually believed even by the scientists who initially recognized how their work had been distorted and exaggerated by the media. Others, smelling the money, jump on the bandwagon and play to the crowd, adding their own myths, questionable claims, and distortions to the mix. In this case, many uncritical supporters line up to defend the faith because at stake here is the future of our children. We then have books, tapes, CDs, institutes, government programs, etc. Soon the myth is believed by millions as a scientific fact. In this case, the process met with little critical resistance because we already know that music can affect feelings and moods, so why shouldn't it affect intelligence and health, even if only slightly and temporarily? It's just commonsense, right? Yes, and all the more reason to be skeptical.

Why Missions, Values and Visions Fail

The common mission statement or vision, supposedly the bedrock of an organisation is often nothing more than a foundation of sand. Most corporate visions are too broad to be useful and too vague to be implemented. It isn't that the vision doesn't mean anything so much as it could mean anything. Too much is left open to interpretation and the result is our people, unsure of performance expectations, start working at cross-purposes. Where organisations have tried to go a dstep further by developing values statements there are often similar issues. The values are either poorly defined and open to interpretation or they merely reflect what an organisation thinks people would like to see rather than the reality. Look at this example:

Our Values

Communication
We have an obligation to communicate. Here, we take the time to talk with one another… and to listen. We believe that information is meant to move and that information moves people.

Respect
We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment.

Integrity
We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot or will not do something, then we won’t do it.

Excellence
We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do. We will continue to raise the bar for everyone. The great fun here will be for all of us to discover just how good we can really be.

They sound good don't they? Until, that is, you realise they are the stated values of a company you may have heard of - Enron. Do they in any way reflect the reality of that particular company? Of course not. But they are the perfect example of how values and mission statements have become nothing more than rhetoric. Now, here is a test for you.

Make a copy of your corporate values, a copy of Enron’s corporate values, and a copy of corporate value statements from a couple of other companies. Remove the company names from all documents. Take these lists to a random cross section of your employees and ask, “ Which of these corporate value statements best describes our company’s actions?” “Which least describes our company?” While you are at it also ask several suppliers and several customers.

Each time, as an afterthought, ask each group “By the way, do you happen to recognize which – if any – of these is actually ours?” Chances are that none of your suppliers, none of your customers, and very, very few of your employees will be able to tell the difference between Enron’s corporate values, your corporate values, and the values of any other random company.

What does this mean to you?

1. Most corporate value statements are virtually indistinguishable from each other.

2. Actions are what count – not what’s on paper.

3. If there’s a disconnect between what you say is important and what people do, you need to fix that right away. Rather than building a series of rules, build a series of examples. People learn from examples and role models – not from a list of words.

It’s all about alignment. What you say you want, what you really want, and what you reward all have to be in alignment. If not, then you are doing nothing more than trading in rhetoric and you will be undone by your actions... much like Enron.

 

Smart Writing is Simple Writing

At the C-suite level presentation skills are almost always at least adequate. In other words the CEO is confident enough to get up in front of a group of people, speak clearly and string a sentence together. Presentation skills are practically never the reason that their communication fails to be effective - the communication fails because they cannot write.

It’s hard to be effective when people can’t understand what you’re trying to say. Clear and simple writing ensures that your message never gets lost between you and your audience.

Unfortunately, many CEO's think they need to “look smart” by using big words and complex sentence structures. The reality is that the simpler you write, the more intelligent you seem to others. A study done at Princeton University manipulated the complexity of the vocabulary and writing style of documents and gave them to students. Over and over again, the simpler versions were rated as coming from a more intelligent writer than the more complex drafts.

Smart writing is simple writing.

Clear and simple writing is actually quite difficult to do. It requires you to think hard about your topic, get at its core, and then put that core in terms that your audience can understand. Here are a few tips on writing and speaking with greater clarity:

• Write or speak so a 12 year old can understand. If a 12 year old can understand your speech or article, then chances are an adult of average education can too. If you ever get stuck with what to say to, grab a 12 year old and talk the issue through with them face to face. It’s amazing what keeping this rule in mind can do to help make you a clearer communicator.

• Use strong verbs. Avoid is, are, was, were, be, being, been. So instead of saying “Diane was killed by Jim,” say, “Jim killed Diane.” Shorter, clearer, and punchier.

• Keep average sentence length to about 20 words. Sentence length is one of the biggest factors in determining how easy it is to understand what you’re saying or writing. Ideas can get lost in long sentences. While you should avoid really long sentences as much as possible, you don’t want all your sentences to be just five words each either. That makes your writing and speaking sound choppy and rushed. Shoot for an average of about 20 words a sentence. And mix sentences of varying lengths together.

• Keep paragraphs short. Ideally, each paragraph should contain just one idea. This ensures that your reader doesn’t get lost in a jumble of different points. When you write long paragraphs, it’s easy for more than one idea to sneak in. Avoid this by keeping paragraphs short - say 5 or 6 sentences a paragraph.

• Don’t use a five dollar word when a fifty cent word would work just as well. If you have a choice between a fancy word and a plain word, go with the plain word.

Are We Over Being Over-Connected?

The backlash against 24-hour connectivity is gathering pace around the world amid concerns that the lines between work-life and personal life are becoming more and more blurred.

Workers who find themselves answering work emails on their smartphones after the end of their shifts in Brazil can now qualify for overtime under a new law. The new legislation was approved by President Dilma Rousseff last month and basically says company emails to workers are equivalent to orders given directly to the employee.

Brazil is one country that is well and truly over-connected. Brazil has a population of 195 million people but the number of mobile subscribers exceeded 210.5 million in August last year, according to the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).

Subscriptions were growing at about 3 million a month, mostly from internet-enabled phones. There were more than 25 million internet-enabled mobile phones in the country last year.

Labor attorneys told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper the new law makes it possible for workers answering emails after hours to ask for overtime pay. I'm not sure how successful such a request would be but it is probably only a matter of time before we see it tested in the courts.

This issue of over-connectivity has now started to pop up in several corners of the world.

In May, Chicago policeman Jeffrey Allen filed a class action suit against the city, asking for unpaid overtime compensation. He argues his connection means the city of Chicago owes him lots of overtime. His attorney Paul Geiger says it's a simple case.

"What we are saying is he's using this mobile device at the behest of the Police Department very routinely and very often off duty and not being compensated for all the time spent on the device doing the city's work," Geiger says.

The city gave Allen a BlackBerry when he worked in a unit determining which assets of criminals police could seize. Susan Prince, an attorney with Business and Legal Resources, says the deciding factor in this dispute is likely to be the Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs wage and overtime provisions for American workers.

"Basically, it comes down to whether an employee is exempt or non-exempt," she says. "Exempt employees, they make the same salaries no matter how many hours they work during a week, so using a BlackBerry from home at night is not an overtime issue for them. But when you're dealing with non-exempt employees, they have to be paid for all the time they work."

It is a case that will be watched very carefully in the US and around the world. Regardless of the outcome we are already seeing an impact. In December, German carmaker Volkswagen agreed with labour representatives to switch off Blackberry emails after hours. The move came after French IT company Atos announced plans to eliminate company internal emails by 2013.

German telco Deutsche Telekom and consumer goods maker Henkel have also introduced measures to curb after-hours emails to reduce the pressure on workers to be always on call.

Are we truly over over-connectedness or is this a convenient way to excuse our own mobile addiction... after all we can always switch off can't we?

 

 

Something For Everyone - The Barnum Effect

Ever wondered why people seem so easily conned by slick talkers? The answer may lie in a phenomenon known as the Barnum Effect. The Barnum effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people.

For example:

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.

If these statements sound like they came from a news stand astrology book, that may be because they did. Such statements are sometimes called Barnum statements and they are an effective element in the repertoire of anyone doing readings: astrologers, palm readers, psychics, H.R. Managers and so on.

When statements like this appear on things like personality inventories that people believe have been especially prepared for them alone, they often validate the accuracy of such statements and thereby give validity to the instrument used to arrive at them. If Barnum statements are validated when they have originated during a psychic reading for example, the validation is taken as also validating the psychic powers of the medium.You see the same kinds of statements and conclusions for that matter in things as diverse as economic analyses, school reports and performance evaluations.

Incidentally, "Barnum effect" is an expression that seems to have originated with psychologist Paul Meehl, in deference to circus man P. T. Barnum's reputation as a master psychological manipulator who is said to have claimed "we have something for everybody."

And that about sums it up - they are statements in which there is something for everyone.