Call 911!
“You in the red shirt call 911!” The instructor in my CPR training class was demonstrating the importance of making a very clear and specific request. She explained that if you say, “Someone call 911” it’s likely that no one will call because they all assume someone else will do it.
Most of us aren’t dealing with emergency situations every day so you might be wondering why I’m writing about this. Almost all of my clients need help communicating effectively and this advice translates to non-emergency situations as well. Here are a couple of examples:
- “Jenny I need you to follow up with accounting on this past due issue by Friday at noon” is more effective than “Somebody needs to take care of this past due issue ASAP.”
- “Would you play back what I said so I can be sure we’re on the same page?”
Effective communication is making your request clear and specific so you can get what you need. How can you apply this today?
