Turn an empty (clean) ketchup bottle into a vial for your pancake batter.
Color-code important keys with nail polish, so you immediately recognize them on your key ring.
Light your campfire with Doritos if you’re out of paper. They burn well.
The internet is full of these kinds of life hacks. Handy, simple tricks that you don’t just come up with.
Are there hacks for your communication as well?
Certainly.
My favorite is this one:
Use the word ‘you’ more often.
A good story is about your audience. The word ‘you’ is a shortcut for this. When you use ‘you’, you automatically engage your audience.
Want to try?
First a text without ‘you’.
We’ve developed a training course for new managers. The training focuses on personal leadership styles and communication styles. Our trainers have themselves worked as managers for many years.
In this text, the emphasis is on the sender (we, our) and on the subject (the training).
That changes if you add the word ‘you’.
Your first management position is exciting. To do your job well, you need new skills. For example, you need to develop a leadership style and communication style that suit you. That’s what you work on in our training. You will be supervised by trainers who have worked as managers themselves for many years.
Handy hack, right? What do you think?
Regards,
Arnaud