Yes, I am a communications coach. I help my clients become great communicators – as media spokespersons, as keynote speakers, as leaders. But sometimes I tell my clients to step back and say nothing.
More often than not, the best way to position yourself in an email battle is not to participate at all. More often than not, when someone says something nasty that’s orthogonal to the real issue, the best way to behave is to ignore it. More often than not, letting someone cool off for a few days before you reply to them is the right strategy.
Deepak Chopra says that what you pay attention to grows. That’s awesome if you’re putting attention into your meditation practice, or into building stronger relationships, or a healthy body. But it’s not awesome when your attention is dragged into stuff that should be left to die on its own!
In my last day job I worked at a public relations agency overseeing a global account in 75 countries. There was always something going wrong in at least one of those countries. It was my job to solve those problems!! I was always on the phone, on email, creating so much activity and attention. I was so busy. So frustrated. So tired.
My colleague down the hall managed the agency’s other huge global account. He had many of the same problems that I did, but he took an entirely different approach. He starved his problems, paying almost no attention to the drama people were trying to stir up.
It took me months to look up from my frenzied email production. When I did, I saw that we had the same success rate – I solved about 75% of my problems through tons of actions and angst. About 75% of his problems just went away on their own. Oh, I said to myself. I get it. I stepped away from the keyboard.
It’s easy to spot one of those quicksand email threads. Step away from it. Let it fester on its own. You have much more important places to put your attention!
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
