It happens to all of us; our boss doesn’t understand that we are doing our best for the company, our wife or husband doesn’t get the brilliant idea behind our decision, the corporate doesn’t care with our great idea, and too many other similar situations. What is the reason for that and what would be the solution?
We are living a life full of new information coming to us every second. We don’t have an hour to sit and chat about another person’s thoughts and ideas. Lack of communication between people in this condition creates a high potential of misunderstanding. Your boss doesn’t value what you are doing because you are not given a chance to sit and explain for him/her the reason behind our actions. We get into argument with our spouse, because we don’t have a chance to talk enough about ourselves with one another. It happens always, whether it is in our office or at home.
What can we do?
You may have heard about elevator pitch: brief explanations of our product, service or our experience that we tell someone in less than one minute (sometimes 30 seconds) to give him/her the best understanding of what we offer. The idea behind elevator pitch is that you have to be ready to sell yourself, your product or service to a prospect while you are with him/her in an elevator going from ground floor of the building to the top managerial floor in approximately 30 seconds. As a sales person you always should be ready to capture such opportunity.
What I want to suggest is to use the same concept and give short reports of what you are doing or what you have in your mind to your spouse, your boss and generally everyone that needs to be informed about or engaged in what you are doing. Prepare several 30 second pitches to sell your ideas, your works and most importantly yourself. Use every short opportunity to communicate those pitches with the person who is somehow related to you or to what you are doing. By doing so, you will have yourself always in their minds. It becomes clear for them that you are doing what you should do.
For example, usually your boss is not aware of what you are doing in your project. Don’t wait for the works to get finished. Have 30 seconds elevator pitchs ready to report him whenever you get that chance of an elevator ride. Update him/her about your daily works. Don’t forget! Your report must be genuine and should not to be seemed that you want to complain. So if you talk about any problem you have in your works, talk also about your approach for solving the problem. In this way, he or she always knows what you are doing your best and not just hanging out in the company!
The same concept can be used in dealing with every other person that you want to have a good relation with.
Always have your short elevators pitches ready and customized for all the stakeholders in life. Use every elevator like situation to communicate them. After getting use to do that regularly, you will find out how these short pitches help you to improve your relations and to make your communications effective.
