How to communicate more succinctly at work

[TooTalkative]

I'm in a senior manager role in a public body. I've recently had some 360 feedback at work, which was largely very positive, but lots of (anonymous) colleagues said that I could communicate verbally much more succinctly. Embarrassingly I've had this feedback before and thought I was trying to address it, but clearly not.

I think I need to do some actual training / read up on techniques / watch some TED talks to help me improve, as just telling myself "must be more concise" isn't working. There is loads available when I google, but it would be great to have any recommendations for resources.

Any suggestions?

How about recording meetings and watch yourself back afterwards?

Yes, recording meetings and then listening back to myself really helped me to improve the way I come across in meetings. You’ll probably need to ask people if they mind being recorded first. Also, preparation for meetings is also very useful I find.

Bullet point the points you want to make. And make them no need for in-depth explanation or clarification. People can ask you questions if they need further details

Can you give an example of how you communicate?

My problem is that I tend to
A) do my thinking out loud
B) want to "show my workings"

Prep is really useful. It helps to think through (and write down) your key points. That helps me filter out the less directly relevant stuff for each potential audience.

When prep isn't an option, I find "tell them the time, don't build them a clock" a useful prompt.

I find it helps to tell people what I'm not telling them, as well as to tell them what I'm telling them.

So, new policy x has arrived. Can I take three minutes to give you the headlines? Then let's talk about how we implement it. Then if anyone wants to know the thinking behind it or what impact it will have on budgets for y, I'll have time to answer questions.

Or - ask people what information they want. 90% of people tend to want less than I would want. A classic - do you want the full details of how the system works, or will I just explain what I'd recommend in your situation?

Also, don't be afraid to say, I'm going to need to think that one over, rather than launch into a response.

It comes down mostly to - work out why people are asking, and don't feel you have to tell them everything - just what they need, with options for more. I find that the more verbose speakers do too much on why they think something ("I'm a stickler for punctuality as you know, so when I met Martin at the conference last week and he explained to me how they've improved their turnaround time with this strategy, I asked him to send me the details and he's been so kind ...).

Try not to do too much information sharing aloud. Refer to emails and documents. People don't retain a lot anyway - your conversations should be headlines and discussions.

@Franklet Yes, that's exactly me...

Massively cringy but I can see how that could be massively helpful!

The problem is I'm fairly extrovert, so I think aloud, and like @Franklet I also want to show every last detail of my workings so that everyone can be totally confident in what I'm saying. Which isn't helpful! So at my worst I think I just go on and on, I (unnecessarily) repeat points that are important, I tell people everything about the topic /question, and I'm not selective in choosing what to include /miss out.

@Mangledrake - those are really helpful tips, thank you. In fact I spoke to my manager today about this too, and she made some of the same points!

You will probably find that your recorded voice doesn’t actually sound like your own voice in your head. Weird but helpful in a way, because it’s almost like hearing someone else, so less cringy.

If you are preparing for a presentation or written document then you can use chat gpt to help you summarise things. I’ve found it so useful for that!

It might help to ask what they need to know and then answer that. When you're finished ask if you can clarify anything.

I think I'm a bit better (and sometimes good!) at preparing in advance when I know I'm presenting something, it's more the ad hoc talking in meetings etc where I speak less concisely...

I have two people who work for me who tell me the same thing three times in the same conversation and it drives me mad. After you’ve said it once, stop. You don’t need to keep repeating yourself the same info when I’ve heard it and commented on it. They do it all the time! And as they are just continuing to talk it’s hard to get a word in edgeways and no polite way to say, I’ve got it!!!

I think it’s a practice in empathy and getting to know others - putting yourself in the person’s/audience’s shoes, what you know about what they’ve got on their plate, and tailoring the message to what they really need to know. And trust - trusting that they’ll ask if they need more detail from you, and trusting yourself that you’ve got the deeper answers if they ask.

I have to relay the same messages maybe 3/4 times to different levels of management, so I do a lot of this at work… they all have different bandwidth, responsibilities, some are closer to the work and others just need a high level overview.

Maybe have a think through your common audiences at work and what they tend to need to know from you, and prep your next few messages to them accordingly til it becomes more of a habit?

I hear you. I can be like a stream of consciousness. I did an interesting training recently about the Insight colour method - where you really tailor your communication to your audience. Are they people who want cold hard facts just to make a decision, or more "feely" people who want to be comfortable and included in the process? My big boss justs wants facts and hopefully to presented with a done deal that he can sign off on and look good. My immediate boss wants the ins and outs of a duck's arse with every detail including many things I never even thought about. Many of my colleagues just want to have their voices heard. I've been working for 35 years and done ALL the training but I thought this was quite a good one.

Do you have a PR and comms team at work? They will likely offer media training to key company spokespersons, part of which will cover identifying key points and answering questions succinctly. Although this may not be part of your role, it could be a creative way of learning.

What's your confidence like in general? I found that once I focused on my own confidence I got better as I felt less need to show my reasoning

My former manager recently requested 360 feedback, and one of my comments was that she needed to be more concise in meetings and team get-togethers.

In her case, she had a habit of spending half an hour or often much more at the start of every meeting downloading her thoughts and opinions on a particular subject. These meetings and days together were supposed to be for the team to work collaboratively on tasks that needed us to brainstorm and come up with ideas/solutions, but I would find them very frustrating because I spent most of them listening to her lecturing on in a vague manner and nothing ever really got resolved. It got to the point where we stopped inviting her because she just made things harder (while her intention was to facilitate). She would then complain that she didn’t get invited to meetings.

So: don’t be her. Give yourself a time limit, or even better, ask yourself honestly if what you want to say is actually relevant or helpful. Ask your team what they need from you. I wish more people would do this instead of bleating on for the sake of it.

the Feedback is to be more succinct so that means you are waffling in or going into too much detail.
preparation is key, keep it main headlines and ask them to contribute.

I once had to give feedback to a colleague who was verbose in both spoken and written forms. She provided a lot of context and background info always. She was incredibly diligent and competent. But noone ever read to the end of her emails as she didnt get to the point soon enough-and same with her speeches. So stop giving context and detailed summaries-allow people the space to ask questions or to follow up. Gaining understanding is about the back and forth-not about being ‘talked at’. Allow the back and forth.

Also, passionate people often make the mistake of telling the audience everything they want to tell them. Thats not the same as telling the audience what the audience want to hear. So whenever you draft your presentations take out all the stuff that is interesting to you and keep asking yourself what the audience need to know.

I work with a few people who make the same point again and again in the same conversation. I find I'm saying (internally) "You've already said that, you've already said that". It's really annoying and takes up other people's time. If you think you do this and are really serious about trying to stop, could you ask someone to do some sort of secret signal (touch their nose or something) when they notice you're doing it again, "move on to your next point or stop now". I don't know if that would be easy to plan but I find overtalkers exhausting to work with and end up tuning them out once they start repeating themselves.

Watching with interest, I often need to remind myself 'less is more' at work.

Do you think through in your head what you are going to say before you open your mouth?