You may have heard me speak about being concise. But is being concise a necessity? T.J. Walker doesn’t think so. You will find that I agree and disagree.
I was at a meeting on Monday night, where one of the managers turned to a new manager and said, “Keep this in mind. Keep your functions short so they are effective and people still want to attend.”
I immediately thought of T.J.’s post and knew… The answer is “Keep your functions Interesting and productive so that they are effective and people are clamoring to attend.”
People want to be their best and do their best. If you are providing the vehicle to do this, those people in your meeting won’t be looking to the clock for when they can leave. They will be ignoring it in order to continue being “needed” and valuable.
So we are back to the original question. “Is it necessary to be concise?”
I think it is. But “concise” needs to be defined. To be more precise, “concise” needs to be put into context.
If you heard me say “I want to be more concise”, would you imagine it to mean being short? Not taking too long? Making a 2-hour presentation fit into a 1-hour seminar?
Concise, should be not rambling. I have heard speakers say “I closed four times!” It meant that they could not stop talking. They kept going on. They made their point and made it again. The reiterated, repeated and restated.
Do you get my point?
Many times, less prepared speakers will do this. An audience can receive a piece of information, a request, or a powerful closing… then just need time to absorb it.
How do you avoid doing the same?
