When is the last time you had someone look at you with their jaw dropped and their eyes wide? I hope it was recently. It could mean you just gave them invaluable advice.
Invaluable advice is hard to come by unless you do the hard-smart work. That is the work that others won’t or can’t do. The kind of work that is full of using your business acumen, your wonderful imagination and your scientific nous.
And you know something? I bet you a gazillion dollars the last time that happened it was not after you delivered a lengthy paper or a long-winded analysis of a situation in a meeting. It was after you said something beautifully simple and insightful.
Check out the diagram below. Simple and insightful means invaluable. Insightful and complex may have been a lengthy paper or long-winded analysis. And that is OK, but everyone wishes it was delivered more simply.
Now think of other advice you have given recently. Did any of it seem like a distraction to your audience? Was it long-winded or just a few words that were summarily dismissed? Now ask yourself these questions: Was my advice poor, more distraction than insight? Or was it actually insightful and I simply did not get my message through?
I can’t help you with the former. But with the latter, check out any of these blogs for how to cut through with your advice. After all, there is nothing more frustrating than your pieces of gold being seen as pieces of $#!t and nothing more exhilarating than watching someone’s jaw drop!
• We've never had a conversation like that before
• Support functions and insurance companies: A lot in common?
• Powerful advice EMMAnating from Beauty and the Beast
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Bryan's new book teaches you practical methods to cut through with your advice and make the impact you want to make. Available on Amazon or order here now.
YOUR DECISIONS DEFINE YOU.
Available on Amazon or order here now.
Bryan Whitefield works with strategic leaders across all sectors to help organisations harness uncertainty – uncertainty is the strategic leader’s best friend. He is the author of DECIDE: How to Manage the Risk in Your Decision Making and Winning Conversations: How to turn red tape into blue ribbon. He is the designer of the Risk Culture: Build Your Tribe of Advocates Program for support functions and the Persuasive Adviser Program for internal advisers. Both can be booked individually or in-house. For more information about Bryan, please click here.
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