My old boss told me I was terrible at public speaking and he was right

I used to ramble forever in meetings at my old job in Chicago, throwing in every detail I could think of. Then my manager Dave pulled me aside after a presentation and said 'you lose people by sentence three, just give them the bottom line first.' I started leading with the conclusion and cutting my updates down to 90 seconds max, and suddenly people actually listened. Has anyone else had a piece of blunt feedback that forced you to totally rework how you communicate?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancyn694d ago

I mean, three bullet points isn't exactly groundbreaking advice though, right?

michael6692d ago

@mia700 did the VP give you an example of what not to say?

mia7004d ago

Used to think "telling them everything" was just being thorough. One VP straight up told me my updates were wasting peoples time and to keep it to three bullet points max. Took a few months to break the habit but now I actually get nods instead of glazed over looks. Blunt feedback stings in the moment but its way more useful than the soft stuff.