number one professional communication skill that you should develop.

So let's get into it.

Thomas Jefferson once said the most valuable of talents is that of never

using two words when one word will do. He was talking about concise communication.

And that is the topic of our video. You want to be concise, not long-winded.

Because there are a lot of benefits to communicating concisely. First of all,

it'll help you sound more like a leader almost instantly because that's how

leaders communicate. they have that nice crisp sound. The second thing it'll do

it'll be more likely that people understand and follow what you're saying.

And that's a big part of why we communicate in the first place. another

advantage is that we have a lot more influence when our communication is

concise. The overall main point of this video is that concise communication

makes you sound more confident. I'd like to share three tips with you on how you

can be more concise in your very next conversation, meeting, and interaction.

The first tip is a phrase or a statement that I would like to teach you. You can

say the statement out loud or you can say it in your head. And a statement is

this. "If I had to boil it down I would say." And if you say this statement this

phrase right before you share your actual message, it will train you into a

habit of communicating concisely. so out loud it would sound like this. You're in

a meeting. People are talking you're finally ready to say what you want to say. You

give it some thought and then you say out loud, if I had to boil it down I

would say . . . and then you share your actual message maybe your message is, I think

that Plan A has more advantages than Plan B. And what this phrase does is it

cues to you and to the people around you that you're about to bottom line it.

You're about to be very concise. And so having said this it really prompts you

to be more concise it also gives your brain time to think and time to

crystallize that message. Now you don't always have

to say it out loud. In fact, many of the clients I've worked with, and even I use

this tip myself, I simply say it in my head right before I share my message.

That cues me to be more synthesized and more concise. so I just say in my head if

I had to boil it down right now I'd say it sounds like what you're saying is you

want to establish healthier boundaries between work and your home life. And by

prompting your brain to think that way and just saying it in your head that's

called self-talk that helps you be more concise when you finally do speak out

loud. So that's tip number one.

Tip number two is a little different. This is for

everyday conversations at work and with other people. In a conversation, the

tip is this you want to strive for short talking turns. That means when it's your

turn to talk you give about one or two sentences and then in the conversation

you leave room for the other person to give their talking turn, their one or two

sentences or however long they talk. and by sticking to this discipline of one or

two sentences per talking turn, you create a dialogue with the other person

instead of a monologue. Monologues are really not okay in conversations. If you

approach people and you talk at them for extended talking turns a long time a

couple minutes straight, it's going to be a huge turnoff and the next time they

see you coming they're likely to try to find a way out of that conversation. We

all want a dialogue and by limiting your talking turns to just one or two

sentences, you will create that wonderful dialogue and exchange of ideas that

everybody wants. and in fact as an example I would like to share with you

some dialogue from a movie from the old movie Rocky, that first one that won the

Academy Award. the dialogue in this movie is outstanding and you'll notice that

they're really short talking turns between Adrian and Rocky in this scene

right before Rocky's big fight. Rocky says, I can't do it.

Adrian says, what. I can't beat him Apollo. Yeah,

I've been out there walking around and thinking. I mean who am I kidding? I ain't

even in this guy's league. what are you gonna do? I don't know. You worked so hard.

Yeah, but that don't matter because I was nobody before. Don't say

that. So, you'll notice in that conversation there's lots of back and

forth, short talking turns is the way to get there. Now of course in the movie,

this is not exactly real life because they're really working hard to pare the

dialogue down but it does give us an example of what a nice exchange looks

like because in movies they know that people want dialogue not a monologue and

we should strive for the same kind of thing in our everyday conversations. so

that's tip number two. Short talking turns.

The third tip I want to give you

is for meetings. And that is create a communication plan before your meeting.

Now what that means is that whatever value that you're supposed to offer at

this meeting, whatever participation you have, beforehand you wants you create

some talking points so that you're really on point and on message during

that meeting. And then once you're at the meeting, you stick to the plan. You resist

the temptation to go on tangents and pull the meeting off track. Now one of

the things this will do is when you share your talking turn really concisely

it leaves room for Question and Answer and follow-up and you can flesh out some

of the details during that Q&A. This is the way leaders do it. they come with a

concise pitch and then they have a dialogue after that pitch. The other

thing you want to do is if you're in charge of this meeting in any way is to

make sure you end on time every time. aAnd this helps create the overall impression

that you're concise but it also gives you the self-discipline to know that if

we're going to end on time I really have to figure out what I want to say in

advance. And so it's a kind of discipline that you can add to your meeting

preparation. so those are the three tips for being more concise.

In summary

concise communication makes you sound more confident. In terms of your homework,

your next step, the action that I want you to take I would like to think of the

very next conversation or meeting you have on your calendar and use any of

these three tips to be more concise during that interaction. And I'd like to

finish with a quote from Dennis Roth. If it takes a lot of words to say what you

have in mind, give it more thought. Thanks and I'll see you in the next video.

I hope you enjoyed that first lesson and concise communication skills.

The next lesson up is on clear communication and by the way at any

point if you would like to download the free guide the quick guide to this

course which summarizes each of the five lessons I will put a link to that

download in the description below the video and on this pop-out card here.

Let's get into the next video on clear communication.