How to Navigate and Master Communications in a Fast-Paced World

As your career advances, your communication methods, subjects, and recipients will evolve. Mastering when and how to communicate is essential in any role. While what you communicate may change, effective communication techniques remain constant. Key elements include:

1. Focus: It's common to start speaking before fully formulating thoughts. Pause to think and ask for a moment if needed. Focus on the question and respond thoughtfully.

2. Awareness: Be mindful of your audience. This includes your leadership, peers, stakeholders, and customers, among others. Be empathetic and aware of those you are speaking with. Consider their perspective, emotions, motives, and needs. Stay present and conscious of your audience, and choose your words carefully.

3. Brevity: Avoid lengthy responses filled with unnecessary details. Trust that your expertise is recognized and provide clear, concise answers.

4. Timing: Context to your words is critical. Things said at the wrong time can be detrimental to you or the whole conversation. Well-crafted messages can fail to reach it's intended goal if it's delivered at the wrong time.

Hopefully the few notes above can help you raise the bar on your communications in meetings and with others. Don't worry if it doesn't come naturally, it doesn't! It takes a lot of practice to get each of these right. Look to those around you and listen to or read how they communicate. See if you can spot the elements above in their communication. Or try with your written communications - take a little extra time to re-read your e-mail and see if you can apply the above elements and improve your writing. Good luck! Have fun!