Page 160 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Listen More Than You Talk • 141

Think, Prioritize, and Choose Your Words before

You Speak, and Then, Speak Only Sparingly

To get people to listen to you, be worth hearing. The higher you go, the
more of what you say is analyzed, dissected, discussed, and scrutinized.
Coworkers literally count the number of positive versus negative
words you use or the number of times you use “I” versus “we.” (Remem-
ber, what you say here doesn’t stay here—this isn’t Las Vegas; it’s
“YouTubeville.”)

Don’t talk a lot; that’s the worst thing you can do.

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I get around 600 e-mails a day. I divide them into four categories,
and I deal with them immediately, by and large. First are e-mails that
I forward to someone else. Next are where somebody is giving me
information that I need to cascade to somebody else with instruc-
tions. Third are the ones that I can read later on an airplane. Fourth
are those that require me to respond immediately.

Over 100 million conversations are going on at any one time on cell
phones alone. It would be a good idea to say what you’re going to say to
yourself before saying it out loud. Consider how your words will be
received; and then say the rationed, thought-out words to ensure that the
message you intend is the one you send.
It only takes seconds to preview your thoughts and readjust your
words before verbalizing them to someone else. To hear how you sound,
dial into your own voice mail, speak like you would on someone else’s
voice mail, and then play it back. You’ll end up not saying things you
regret—or not saying things in a manner you regret.
Slow down so that you are heard and understood. One CEO
told me that he was giving feedback to one of his people, and he said
that something was “pithy.” The person took great offense, hearing it
as “prissy.”