3 Quick Ways to Improve Your Writing

Everyone writes. E-mails, notices, letters and memos. Want to make them better? Here are 3 Quick Ways to Improve Your Writing.

1) Start with the end in mind. What do you want the reader to think, feel, know or believe? Most people ramble when they write, jumping from topic to topic because they do not think of the impact on the reader.

2) Outline or list key points first before fleshing them out. For an e-mail to your team, after, `Dear QC Team:`, write the 1, 3, 6 key words or thoughts you want to get across.

Example:

Dear Team:
Last meeting (return key)
Problem 1 (return key)
Problem 2 (return key)
Opportunity with X (return key)
Request suggestions.

Go back and type out what happened at the last meeting, the nature of each problem, opportunity you want to share and your request for suggestions. Organized and easy to follow. Leave a space between each point.

3) Cut any excess and be more active in your voice. Instead of `We may have been looking at two options but have since narrowed them down and settled for one.` Change to, `Two options became one.` Instead of, `Our growth has been at around 4% for the past 3 quarters and we are currently hoping to increase this figure to 5% in the coming quarter.` Write, `We need 5% growth next quarter.`

It is all about brevity for clarity. We all have TOO MUCH to read and what we read is rarely written in a clear and concise manner.

Someone once said, `They don’t care how much you know until the know how much you care.` I believe that is true so here are 8 ways to tell people that matter to you at work and at home, how much you care about them.

1. Active listening is probably the single most important way to say you care about someone. As they share, do not just nod your head. Repeat a bit of what they say and ask questions.

2.  Write a personal note. Putting a written note (not an email) on someone’s desk for them to find later is a powerful motivator and easy way to show care and concern. Simply stating, `I just wanted to say I appreciate what you did for me. Thank you so much. It is a joy to work with you.`

3.  Remember what that person likes and give it to them. If they like a special brand of chocolates, when you see them, buy a bar or box and present it at an opportune time.

4.  Say it with flowers. If someone does a favour for you, send them a small potted plant. Everytime they water it, they will remember that you cared enough to say `thanks`.

5.  Perform a favour. I can still remember the day in 1978 when I had a ton of orders to write up and my supervisor Karl Bjornson was leaving the office at 6 PM, saw me doing all that paperwork and put his bag down, grabbed some of the work and stayed an extra hour to help me.

6.  Laugh at their jokes. My father would always laugh at a customers joke, even if it was one he knew very well. Why? The reason for a joke is to make people feel good. Laughing at their jokes makes the teller feel good. Ever had someone say at the end of a joke you told, `I’ve heard that one before.` or `I don`t get it.`?

7.  Ask them to help you or to do you a favour. This may fly in the face of logic initially, but trust me, it works. Soliciting help in the right way endears people to you. `You know so much about this…`or `It is a lot to ask I know. Would you be willing to.` or simply, `I really need your help and expertise on something.` You stroke their ego and have more opportunities to thank them and bond with them along the way.

8.  Pray for them or better yet, with them. When my wife an I kneel and pray together as husband and wife at the end of the day and she hears me thanking the Lord for her in my life or when it is her turn and she thanks God for me, well, I just love her all the more.

Saying `I care about you.` takes a little thinking and a little work, but it can literally mean the difference between breaking even or exceeding targets; between surviving a relationship and thriving in it. Start letting people know how much YOU care, today!

8 Meetings Tips to Make Your Meetings More Productive (8 GEMS)

Are all the meetings you hold at work productive or do they sometimes fall short of your expectations? Well, here are 8 GEMS to help you make your meetings more productive (Actually, GGGEMSSS).

1.  Get with the Agenda. Have your agenda out well ahead of the next meeting you run. Far too often the full agenda is only available at the meeting itself and people come unprepared. Getting a weekly meeting agenda out to all a day in advance or a monthly meeting up to a week in advance allows people to have the relevant facts and data at hand.

2.  Groom your successor at every meeting. You will never be promoted until you have someone to take your place. Meetings afford you an opportunity to let your second in command get the practice necessary to fill your shoes. Then guide and nurture them depending upon their performance.

3.  Get control. If you are at a meeting that your boss is running, offer to take the minutes and then sit at the right hand of your boss. It is a position of power and if the boss or someone else rambles, you can say, “Sorry, for the minutes, are we still on agenda point 3 or have we digressed?” You can get the meeting back on track without the boss losing face.

4.  Easy to get input if you ask the right questions. Never ask, “What are your inputs on this?” People cannot think of something they cannot picture clearly in their minds. Ask questions they can picture like, “What 3 ways can we reduce the cost of this procedure?” What 3 ways can we increase the efficiency of …” You will get some real golden nuggets when you ask the right questions.. (tons more of these tips in our book, Mining For Goldú…Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team)

5.  Meeting Milestones. Set not only an exact start and end time to the meeting and stick to it, but make sure you have milestones along the timeline. Assign a timer and tell her / him, we need 15 minute warnings so we keep on track for an hour long meeting and 30 minute warnings for a half day or longer meeting.

6.  Shoot out bullets. No longer have long minutes from meetings. Take them in short bullet form, that is, a bullet and then the basic concept. No need for a capital letter and a full stop, just concepts. Easier to record, read and will actually be USED.

7.  Stretch their imaginations. Have a 30 second group stretch every 30 minutes. Takes so little time but adds so much more energy to your meeting, getting you great results and solid gold productivity.

8.  Stand for Success. You have 45% more energy standing than sitting. Consider shorter meetings focusing on one topic and have everyone stand while they discuss the topic. The changed dynamic will also afford you greater creativity from your team.

These 8 tips are only one of hundreds we offer in our programmes, books and audio books.  How to get people to Open – Up and share their ideas in a meeting?   If you’d like to know more about how to facilitate meetings, check out my “Mining For Gold! Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team” Package.

The “Mining For Gold! will show you how to:

• get people to open up in meetings
• gain control of meetings before you lose it
• set the ground rules
• keep people with more power from asserting it
• get ideas to flow smoothly and quickly
• keep meetings light and fun
• handle difficult participants
• and more…

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“Fun to read and easy to understand and apply, Michael Podolinsky’s Mining For Gold fiilled with useful information. If you want to reach your people – I mean really learnt what they are thinking – this is the book for you…”

- - Dato Lawrence Chan Kum Peng CSP
Founder & Executive Chairman, Personal Development Leadership Management Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd