Tag: complexity

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Clarity is Key to Communicating Purpose

Purpose is defined by ambitions, actions, plans and principles. In business, our purpose is revealed through communications, both intentional and unintentional. What we say is who we are, in perception and reality. The words we choose to share in describing ourselves, our businesses and our outlook, illustrates our purpose.

Simplicity empowers the communicator. Simplicity frees the recipient from interpretation due to a lack of clarity. Complexity in content and message strangles good communications. Complexity will often leave your audience lost in intent and making assumptions in purpose and desired outcomes. Simple and clear direction produces higher quality results.

Clear and concise messaging is the key to convincing others to take action. It is no secret, business leaders are often frustrated by the lack of understanding when they “feel” they provide explicit direction or orders. The frustration comes from the failure of communications, which is often caused by lack of clarity. The associated business risks and costs of failed communications can be astronomical depending on the purpose and use. Bad communications can negatively impact revenues, growth, relationships and confidence.

Clarity improves connection and engagement because it increases trust and transparency. Clarity exposes purpose by unveiling expectations. Clarity tells people exactly what you want.

“Clarity is power.” Anthony Robbins

Testing your message reduces misinterpretation and failure in communications. Here is a quick way to test your clarity. Share one sentence with no less than 10 words and no more than 15, with a person or group. After delivery, ask that they repeat it back to you verbatim. What were the results? Are you surprised by the fact some won’t recall “exactly” what you said? Now really test your clarity, ask them to tell you what you wanted based on that sentence. Did they properly interpret your expectations and purpose?

Communication success if often defined by how close we reach an audience. Sampling tests will identify if there is clarity or your audience has a “gist” of what you are trying to say. A clarity test is a also way to show understand how people will imply their own assumptions, listen selectively and interpret the message. This presents a clear and present danger for the person delivering the message, which is why critical communications need good testing protocols.

Know your audience and set your own expectations as the communicator. Humans are not skilled in being great listeners. We also have very active brains, myriads of distractions and sadly our attention spans are less than goldfish. Yes, that is actually proven through science. Microsoft reported in a 2015 study that people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, while goldfish can focus for nine seconds. Your message has to cut through a lot of noise to be heard, no matter the content format. Clarity makes a difference.

Definition of Clarity: Clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from in distinctness or ambiguity.

Seven Tips for Creating CLARITY in Communications

  1. Concise messaging improves connection; be brief and succinct
  2. Laser-focus on anticipated actions and intentions
  3. Ask specifically what you want without ambiguity
  4. Results orientation informs your audience on how you will measure success
  5. Identify how you will measure the impact of your communications
  6. Target your message to your audience
  7. Yes responses confirm agreement in understanding and expectations

Another valuable bit of advice from a practiced marketer, avoid the noise. Using hyperbole and jargon complicates the message. Ideas will be lost in translation. Simplicity improves clarity. Concise communications boost understanding and retention.

Definition of Assumption: a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.

Never assume. “They didn’t get it.” “That’s not what I meant.” “You don’t understand what I’m trying to tell you.” Have you ever felt this type of frustration after delivering what you thought to be very clear communications? Communication is tricky. It’s an art. The biggest mistake made in business today is assuming others will clearly know what you are asking and what you want.

For critical communications, it is important to follow through with post analysis. The results may require sharpening the messaging or providing clarifications to ensure the message is clearly understood.

Who is to blame? When there is no clarity, the communicator often blames the audience for not understanding. When in fact, it was really just bad communications that produced unintended consequences. There was simply a lack of clarity. The owner of the message owns the results.

Let’s be clear, clarity of intended expectations will sharpen a message and improve delivery. Clarity reduces frustration resulting from perceptions and judgement. No matter the content type, whether corporate communications driven from the CEO or marketing campaigns to draw in new prospects, say what you want with clarity and purpose. You’ll be happier with the results.

Jamie Glass, CMO + President, Artful Thinkers, a sales and marketing consulting company.

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Do It All Marketers are Mythical Superheroes

“I can do it all, yes I can!“

This is a great motivational pick-me-up in the morning. This meditative mantra might get us excited to tackle the day’s challenges; however, it lacks realism, sensibility and truth.  This type of ambitious self-talk is often a set-up for over-extending ourselves, disappointing others and ultimately failing.

Yet, in today’s marketing world there are many organizations that still value this type of mythical marketing superhero.  The one marketing person that can do it all. It’s often disguised with terms like universal marketing expert, hands-on professional, self-starter, or the dreaded marketing generalist.

The “know it all, do it all” marketer may be admirable for any business to actually find, as we are all chasing rainbows, unicorns and lucky charms. This type approach is also very risky and harmful to a business strategy.

The marketing “do it all, know it all” generalist doesn’t exist today. 

The universe of marketing is extremely complex and requires a variety of specialists across a broad continuum of services, solutions and tactics.  What might be perceived as those fluffy, cushy marketing jobs of the past (if that ever existed), now demands talent with skills of scientific application, data analytics, user experience and design, implementation of marketing and sales technologies and the financial acumen to run growth analysis and projections. In other words, not so puffy and fluffy.

Moving beyond the numbers, today’s marketer also needs to be steeped in knowledge that defines and understands omnichannels, digital media, transformation, bots, AI, mediums, audience types, languages, platforms and even globalization. And that’s just the beginning.

Marketers have to also be versed in outstanding corporate navigation to work confidently upstream with executives, across in collaboration with peers and downstream with all employees, partners and stakeholders to gain support and drive the best brand experience.

The marketer of today has a large microcosm of responsibility to manage within a very complex environment.  Marketers need not be a specialist in “everything” to succeed today. They need to recognize the requirements and speak the “macro” language of marketing, so that they can engage the right experts to effectively execute the tasks at hand.

Successful marketers need a robust network that is diverse in talent and skills and rich in resources to manage all of today’s marketing responsibilities.

The intricacies of current marketing requires micro-level experts that can deliver a varied set of tactical solutions. Great marketers need to be exceptional in building great teams, along with being visionary and extraordinary in supporting global teamwork. These team members can be internal resources, as well as a external alliances who have exceptional skills and provide resources to create, build and deliver specific tasks and jobs.

Danger Will Robinson! Stretching even beyond the illusion of a marketing superhero,  some companies will try to create the “do it all” super hybrid who is responsible for both sales and marketing. This often comes from the desire to meld together a cost center with a revenue generating group to off-set the “pains” of spending money on marketing. It is a frequent starting place for small companies with very limited budgets.

Every marketer knows it is unrealistic and dangerous to assume one individual can advocate and grow your brand, as well as develop lasting customer relationships that are profitable over time.  It is not a matter of knowledge, it is a matter of prioritization and time.  Short-cutting will happen somewhere and investing in both sales and marketing are extremely important to the long-term success of any organization.

Here are seven tips on how to think about today’s marketer and plan for the role they have in your organization.

  1. Marketing is an investment in the long-term growth of your organization.
  2. Marketing is often outspending technology functions today with implementations of systems to manage customers and sales, budget accordingly.
  3. Marketing requires expertise and one person will not be an expert in every responsibility managed within the marketing function. They need a team of people within the organization or outsources, along with access to resources.
  4. Marketing is the fuel for your sales engine and you need to buy sufficient fuel for the engine to run.
  5. Marketing needs organizational support at the top in understanding the complex nature of the function, preferably with a seat at the table where executive decisions are made for the future of the business.
  6. Marketing needs to set clear KPIs that align to the business goals so that outcomes and achievements are measurable and communicated to the organization based on results.
  7. Excessive turnover in marketing disrupts business and performance so build a team to last, not fulfill a short-term gap or immediate need to get by for now.

As we all operate at Internet speed, it is impossible for one person to know and do it all. Setting up an organization with this type of mythical marketing superhero is a recipe for disaster.

Organizations need marketing leaders that are great in  macro-thinking and know where to acquire the micro-skills and resources to deliver results. Start with a leader that is good at big picture planning and strategy development, and who has a broad knowledge base to recognize trends in skills, technology and processes.  Empower this person to build the best time for executing all the marketing tasks and activities required to grow your business.

“Jack of all trades, master of none” is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills and not necessarily outstanding in any particular one. You need a master of marketing leadership that will bring together many Jack and Jill resources that can deliver across a broad landscape of specialized marketing tactics. That is the recipe for marketing success.

Jamie Glass, CMO + President at Artful Thinkers, a sales and marketing consulting company.