Who do you think is a brilliant communicator?
It’s a question I’ve been asking people for over twenty years.
As a young speech writer working in Parliament, it was my way to gauge who the MP I was writing for saw as the gold standard. Answer in a stage whisper as I worked for Conservative politicians: “Well Blair’s pretty good isn’t he…”
Now, with the business leaders I coach, I always follow up my initial question with:
Why do you feel they are a “world class communicator”?
Why do you think they are so “highly skilled”?
Answers range from specific examples of personal brand building alongside significant achievements and leadership in business, science, sport or politics.
But what also comes through increasingly is that those who stand out as great communicators today are the people who do just enough to get their point across, to make their argument, to communicate a message, to make a connection with the people who matter to them.
And do this with disciplined leanness.
They remove complications, explain concepts in a matter-of-fact and everyday sort of way, make sure their argument is relevant to their audience, remove barriers to being understood, recognise that people only have so much cognitive bandwidth.
As I travelled to Paris this week my Eurostar menu failed to offer just enough but instead went far too far.
Was an AI used to write this menu. Probably. Would it have been better if fewer words and far less fluff and filling had been used? Definitely.
People are busy, so creating barriers to being understood is more short-sighted than ever. Keep it simple stupid has never been more important.
However you are communicating, less is nearly always more but just enough is always ok.