Individual Counseling Insights From Westlake Village-Based Patricia McTague-Loft 

Throughout history the individuals who have been able to lead people most effectively have one thing in common: an extraordinary ability to communicate. Religious, military, political and business leaders who move people to action all have a vision — but what sets them apart is the capability to express that vision clearly.

Communicating well isn’t simply about delivering a beautiful speech. As long ago as the fourth century B.C. people recognized the difference between flowery language and speech that inspires action. When the Greeks were arguing about whether to attack Philip of Macedonia (Alexander the Great’s father), a witness to the debate said, “When Aeschines spoke, they said ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said ‘Let us march against Philip.’” No wonder that Demosthenes went on to gain a reputation as the greatest orator of the ancient world. Rev. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech” is a worthy heir to Demosthenes’ call to action. King lit a fire in his audience’s hearts and the civil rights movement became a force that changed history.   

The value of moving people with words is especially valuable in business. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Carmine Gallo, author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman, says, “Communication is no longer considered a ‘soft skill’ among the world’s top business leaders. Leaders who reach the top do not simply pay lip service to the importance of effective communication. Instead, they study the art in all its forms — writing, speaking, presenting — and constantly strive to improve on those skills.”

If you’re striving to improve your communications skills, look at four tactics that Gallo noted top business leaders all use.

Use short words to talk about hard things. Our old friend Mark Twain couldn’t agree more. “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do,” Twain said. There’s a psychological basis for this advice. Nobel prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman explains that the problem is that long, complex sentences with long words place a “cognitive strain” on the listener. In short, your goal shouldn’t be to avoid complex ideas — it should be to make complex ideas easy to understand.

Choose sticky metaphors to reinforce key concepts. A striking metaphor can be entertaining, but its real value is that people immediately grasp the fundamental meaning of your message. It relieves you of the burden of listing details and explaining procedures. Gallo cites famed investor Warren Buffet, saying “In business, metaphors are shortcuts to communicating complex information in short, catchy phrases. Warren Buffett understands the power of metaphor. If you watch business news or follow the stock market, you’ve no doubt heard the phrase ‘moats and castles’ attributed to companies that dominate an industry that’s difficult for competitors to enter.”

Humanize data to create value. Politicians have long understood that reciting data alone is not only boring, it’s unpersuasive. It’s no coincidence every President regardless of party hosts ordinary citizens at every State of the Union address. They briefly give statistics and then point to the individual who illustrates what those statistics mean in real life. As Gallo explains, “The trick to reducing cognitive load and making any data point interesting is to humanize it by placing the number in perspective. Showing them PowerPoint slides with statistics and charts only adds cognitive weight, draining their mental energy.”

Make mission your mantra to align teams. Every company should have a mission statement. Short and powerful is best. Gallo points to Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic, a company that grew to employ 90,000 people in 150 countries. Bakken’s mission: “To alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.” But the mission statement wasn’t just a posting on a company website. “Bakken was a ‘repeater in chief,’ constantly keeping the company’s mission front and center,” Gallo writes. “Shortly before Bakken passed away at the age of 94, he recorded a video for employees. He repeated the company’s mission and made one request: ‘I ask you to live by it every day.’”

You may think you’re being repetitious if you repeat your message so often. You’re not. It needs to be something that grows to become your company’s identity, repeated in everything from email signatures to social media to industry presentations.