One of my pet peeves is about sloppy habits with which most people communicate their message in everyday life. The opportunities for communication cover the gamut: from résumé (it is not about you, but it is about the job you are after!) to making a simple request on LinkedIn to join someone’s network (“since you are the person I trust I’d like to be in your network!”).
In this short blog I am going to provide some guidelines for you to follow to make your communication more effective and to get the result you are looking for from it:
- First be clear about the intent of why you are communicating. If you are writing a résumé it is because you want to go after a certain job(s), and not to show the world how great you are. So, remember that your résumé is NOT about you, but about the job you must get from that résumé.
- If you want to approach someone worthwhile to connect with you on LinkedIn, once again, do not send a message available from LI’s canned menu (“I’d like to join your LinkedIn network,” or the sample above). I routinely get dozens of such requests from people I barely know or do not even know. I accept only those that show some thought and request it in a way that I want to be in the same network with this person (“Dilip, I really liked the points you made during your talk yesterday at TiE. I hope that I can practice some of your tips to advance my career. I’d like to stay in touch with you to learn more about you and your ongoing work by joining your network on LinkedIn.” How can I ignore this request?!)
- Recently I received a rather thoughtless and arrogant request from someone in my network, but whom I do not know well (he is not my client or a someone I have worked with). His request was made as follows: “I see that you have many many CEOs in your network. I want to LinkedIn them (sic) and become a CEO soon. I would like an intro and soon.” This request was so arrogant, poorly written, and pretentious that I responded to the sender (only because he is in my network) by conveying that this is NOT how you make requests, especially when you want to connect with CEOs. I was expecting this person to submit a revised and proper request (not that I was going to forward that to any CEO, but I was just curious as to what he would do). Yes, he did make a revised request, which said, “Can you please draft such a request so that it looks right and then forward it to me?” Guess what I did?
- In any communication that you plan to craft (oral, written, or otherwise) make sure that your intent is clear. You must consider how the reader or the audience will receive the message and what action you want them to take. What persuasive element in your communication is going to move the reader to act and do what you want them to do for you? This is not always easy to learn, but worth learning.
- And, finally, the language in which you communicate (the diction, tone, and style) must all covey a certain polish that reflects your brand and what you stand for. This is a learned skill and something worth learning.
Good and effective communication is no accident. It is a practiced and honed skill. It is the single most important element in your ability to influence others. So, take it seriously.
Good luck!