The Insightful Leader Live: How to Talk about Your Work (and Yourself) So People Listen

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome thank you for joining us today this is insightful leader live I'm Jess love editorinchief of Kellogg Insight today we're going to be joined by clinical professor of marketing Craig Wartman and the topic is how to talk about your work and yourself so people listen but first I want to give a plug for next month's webinar we're going to be hosting Kellogg Professor n kti he's going to talk about uh leadership in a politically charged age so if you are feeling ill equipped to navigate high stakes conversations around gender race religion politics Etc in the workplace this is the webinar for you um that's going to be on Thursday May 9th at noon Central uh registration is already open on our site next a little bit of housekeeping uh this webinar we're going to do something different we're going to keep both the chat box and the Q&A Box open um these are going to be for different purposes so the chat box which is what you're using to tell us where you're from uh which is wonderful we're going to have you uh kind of hold off on using that once you've shared where you're from um and then that is going to be available uh to put some responses to some exercises in because yes you'll be doing some exercises today Craig Wartman has some work for you um meanwhile the Q&A box is going to be for questions and as is often the case you can upvote each other's questions Clos captioning is available you can access it via live transcript at the bottom of the screen and yes this event is being recorded you'll get a link to it in the next day or so all right so you have probably been asked hey what are you do what are you working on these days a lot over the years I certainly have been and I've always just said whatever comes to mind I never developed any sort of thoughtful elevator pitch for myself or my job because I kind of thought that that was for entrepreneurs or salespeople you've got something really specific you want to get out of an encounter um and Craig Wartman my guest today he argues otherwise he thinks that I'm missing out on an opportunity un to give a memorable first impression So today we're going to hear his case and we're going to walk away with a lot of actionable advice uh Professor Craig Bartman is a clinical professor of marketing here at Kellogg he's founder and academic director of the Kellogg sales Institute an operating partner at the pritsker group a three-time entrepreneur and author of the book what's your story now I want to welcome Professor Wartman hey Jess it is so good to be here hello everyone thank you so much for joining I was watching the numbers Jess because when you said I'm going to ass a couple of homework we're going to have a little bit of practice I was hoping the numbers didn't dive deeply looks like we're we're holding steady um look one and all I really appreciate you all being here we're going to have some fun and I'm always psyched to work with my friend Jess and the Kellogg insights team and we have got uh I hope a really interesting chat with you so jump into the chat we're going to be watching that and we're going to have a little Q&A at the end here we go Jess are we ready to do this thing all right let's do it folks I'm going to click a couple buttons you know how Zoom goes and hit play and we are off and running so how to talk about you and your work and one of the ways we think about this we we call what we develop these courses that we develop uh at Kellogg at the Kellogg sales Institute we call them Master courses and this is one of them the one of 36 actually called say it crisply say it crisply this in today's world is a super superpower to the ability the knowledge skill and discipline of saying things crisply is an absolute superpower we're going to explore why but much more importantly we are going to explore how here's how we're going to do that we're going to do five quick turns of the track this thing's going to go up and down really fast so fasten your seat bels everybody we're going to do do a quick opening where we explore mindset talk a little bit about goals for half a second then we're going to dive into what is the problem that we're trying to solve what what what is the problem that's saying it crisply talking about you and your work in an interesting way what's the problem that gets solved then we'll turn the track once again and we'll talk about how do we actually do this how do we achieve Clarity crispness how do we design for energy those sorts of things and then we'll turn and we'll do a little practice in these first couple and then we'll talk about boldness humility generosity the the practice of this this combination of knowledge skill and discipline how does it balance boldness how does it bring in humility and why are those things an act of generosity and then finally Jess and I Jess is going to rejoin me we're going to close this up with a Q&A I've got some reading recommendations and some stuff for you um which we're excited to tell you about as we go so that's our run of show the purpose of this webinar is to talk about saying it crisply and why it's a superpower what I hope you all gain from this time with the Kellogg Insight team and me are some techniques that you can apply literally today tomorrow next week and next month to acquire that superpower how does that sound that's our plan let's do it so my friend Linda Hill at Harvard I'm privileged to know this woman she's a lectur at Harvard Business School one of our fellow sister schools I love this quote talk about crisp doesn't matter if your intent is Honorable if your impact is not and folks look we are all well- intended we walk into rooms we walk through the airport we walk into restaurants we walk into any situation where we're talking to others and communicating and leading and Our intention is Honorable but as Professor Hill says that doesn't matter if your impact doesn't follow it so that's what this is about I'm going to show you a bunch of quotes from some favorite people she's one of them here's the mindset shift that's required here and this is not easy so as anything we teach at the Kellog sales Institute at my company sales engine this is not trivial there's a from to here it is catching ourselves being ambiguous being loose verbose long-winded how might we rather shift our mindset Dr Carol DW wrote a great book called mindset where she says mindset is a choice how might I choose to be concrete tight concise clear such that I move from vagueness sort of squishiness to being absolutely crisp and clear and again we're going to look at how that happens we're going to start with the foundation I almost never fail to mention this if those some of you out there know me you'll have seen this before I'm going to go really quickly through this being crisp acquiring the superpower is a combination of knowledge skill and discipline it is these three golden threads as my friend Professor muan Suzanne muan an amazing person would say three Golden Threads you weave these together it forms a very powerful rope and here's the thing folks and I'm going to be fairly provocative throughout this webinar you if you know me you know that's true here's the problem that one of the problems that we're trying to address with say it chrisally with talking about you and your work often times when you're talking to other people you have too much knowledge I'm going to let that just sit for a half a second because I'm sure I've provoked I'm sure I've shocked some of you what we don't mean what I don't mean is get Dumber of course what I do mean is we often Over Manifest knowledge and we under manifest skill skill and discipline being crisp is as much a skill and discipline in fact I would argue it's more skill more discipline than it is knowledge you're trying to package something tightly you're trying to be concise not vague but crisp so what are these things things and you might think again this is a strange place to start but we have to start here knowledge is the easy one knowledge is what you know Concepts formulas you all know recipes you know rules you know processes and those are all wonderful knowledge is wonderful but then the question becomes what is skill and if you stop and think about that I think a bunch of you probably are doing what I usually do when I get this question like what is skill how would I Define it here's our definition an ability acquired through sustained effort and continuous feedback to accomplish a complex task so something of complexity that H we have to do something is a skill skill is doing knowing is knowing skill is doing then last question for now what is discipline discipline is choice we think it has a one-word answer psychologists tell us we make hundreds of choices every single day most of them are unconscious to us the act of being crisp is about making choices when someone asked me in a job interview Craig tell me about yourself I have a choice should I go all the way back to my childhood how far back do I go should I list a disconnected you know a somewhat connected timeline of events in my career I would say nope not interesting that's the over manifestation of knowledge how about a different Choice what if I'm crisp and clear and very concise such that I say a couple intriguing things and they ask me a question and now we're having a conversation rather than me talking at them now we're having a conversation these are choices we believe these are disciplines and skills manifesting knowledge so that's the foundation on which we all stand we're moving fast folks let's get to the problem what is the problem we're solving with this webinar at least I hope starting to solve with this webinar I came across this question relatively recently and it just blew my mind and so I wanted to ask you as a way into the problem think of about your life you probably have in front of you well you undoubtedly because we're on Zoom you have a computer in front of you a laptop you also have a phone some of you have multiple phones at least two when's the last day that you were without a device in other words I would argue how many years has it been how many years has it been it's a tough question right and it leads us to a problem that's saying it crisply starts to solve on average you and I speak 16,000 words a day 16,000 words and I don't I don't stand before you saying that that is a bad thing that's just the median that's the average that we speak a day we speak the mean of 16,000 words a day and that's a lot and the if you take that just that average and you then add these two factors to it these two facts there is a real problem I call a disease and there's actually an increasing body of evidence that suggests that we are increasingly dealing with information overload our attention span now has been dropping like a stone for the last 25 30 years since it's been really studied starting sort of in the early late 1990s early 2000s it's now sits at 40 seconds is our median attention span and these are getting worse not better this is tough stuff this is the world in which we operate we're all speaking a lot of words to each other but now because of devices and again devices can be wonderful too of course we get to do this with each other all over the world that's great but it also does call a cause a problem when we're communicating with each other because we are all swimming through this Rushing River of information and being able to communicate clearly is really an antidote the antidote is crispness it's Clarity crispness is cutting through the noise notice what I'm not saying yet I'm not necessarily saying that all of your Communications have to beop oop brief tight not necessarily saying that they have to be interesting often times they have to be brief concise tight but they have to cut through the noise that's rule number one as you create your Communications for your high stakes meetings for the places where you interact we have to be thinking about how do I cut through the noise what does that look like okay so now we're going to do a quick and these are super quick exercis I'm not going to work you all that hard but you're going to feel a little heat here because this is just an odd question where in your week where in your week do you need to be crisp and I'll I'll give you a couple of examples as a way into our first practice session we only have two first practice here is just a very short list of situations I am in a given week where I need to be crisp I do a lot of networking I teach networking so I do a lot of networking constantly learning I'm in office hours with my amazing Kellogg students and my clients outside of Kellogg I'm running tons of meetings I'm doing this I'm delivering a talk whatever it is live or on Zoom I'm leading people in my company etc etc I'm selling these are situations that I'm in where I have to be crisp now also ask yourself okay in those various situations what kind of questions am I answering that demand crisp answers and these questions that I've got listed here might strike you as odd I assure you they're not how are you could you design a crisp answer to that question that has a little bit more energy than just I'm fine could you do that the answer is of course you can do you ever get asked what do you do you probably get asked that at least once a day if not you know or or or more so you get asked this question all the time what's your idea how should we proceed what would you do about this what's the biggest problem you're seeing in the industry right now all these questions can be answered very very crisply so let's do this I've got my watch here I'm ready to put it on for one minute this is going to go up and down really really quickly just think about three situations in the next week that you're going to in so quick s situations label them are you going to be networking next week are you going to be at a meeting tomorrow that's fairly high stakes are you going to be meeting with your boss's boss's boss are you going to be dating whatever demands crispness write them down go I'm putting my watch on at one minute this is going to go really fast write them down capture them in the chat please capture them in the chat too if you would right are you getting a few try to get three these should Bubble Up fairly quickly we're halfway there all right few more seconds I got way behind on the chat so I'm scrolling okay this is great pivoting A conversation I love it Network Board of director visit I saw fly by on the screen awesome leading a business call meeting with a new partner You're darn right yeah Jennifer a one-on-one Sophia yes v a vacation I love that I love vacation oh go there goes my watch okay so so now folks on on a I know you did this in the chat for us and I appreciate that because these are this is the wisdom of crowds happening a strategy meeting final planning audit committee yes yes and yes licensing negotiations these are places where we need to be crisp and what I want you to do is also write these down for yourself if you're scrolling through the chat like I am take some of these great ideas from other people and say to yourself okay I am going to make a choice discipline to get really crisp for that audit committee for that board of directors meeting for that sales meeting uh I'm going to I'm going to be very very crisp and that's the challenge ah had now notice what we haven't answered yet we're still at the situ we're still at the situation stage now we got to jump into okay fine Craig how do you do this and here we have some ideas they are mostly around disciplines the discipline the main discipline of being crisp is distilling distilling distilling run your language run your comms your plan your PowerPoint decks whatever run them through a series of filters and we have a tool tool to give you that I will speak of in a little bit we have a tool to give you to help you do this it's more of a mindset and it's a it's the mindset of of crispness embodied in a tool so how do we do this well you've all heard this quote this amazing guy said I didn't have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead and so the first one thing the thing that I want to say to you as we get into the how of this not the why but the how is that I just want to be direct with you all this is not easy it's hard to write a short letter it's hard to be crisp in a board of directors meeting when there's a lot you want to say we are all smart sophisticated people we have what psychologists call the curse of knowledge someone asks a question even what do you do and our mind are our brains are crowded with information and the the the process of distilling something down is the process of getting to something that is clear and Cor so this is the superpower one of the things that the information exposure and our attention spans falling like a stone one of the things that they create is we have a very hard time you and I dealing with ambiguity there's so much coming at us it's much of it is disconnected and then we get together and I say too much I'm actually causing ambiguity how might we absorb ambiguity and make it who we are what we're doing what we're working on very very clear for people that will then trigger the next question and one of the questions I get when we when we teach this master course from people is Craig you're you're getting you're trying to get us all the way so crisp and that's like all we're saying it's not enough and I never said this is all we're saying so yeah it's not enough but you're giving someone a gift by saying it clearly by absorbing ambiguity and that opens up the possibility it energizes the conversation rather than shuts it down because I'm now just I'm washing you down information you're like oh my God what is this guy talking about that kills the energy of a conversation so you notice I keep using this word energy crisp crispness is not just Clarity but as my amazing friend and teaching partner Professor David chanthal would say he he uses this term Design Energy and I think that's the right term here a Christmas doesn't have to be two words or one sentence christas can also be energy and let me show you an example of this what is the most common question you get asked in your entire life how are you do you have an answer and I know you know there's 2,000 people here like uh yes Craig I have yes I have an answer and I know you have an answer and it is usually a one-word answer or two words I'm fine how are you and you know what there's nothing nothing wrong with that but why be fine why be good when you can be great why say fine or I'm well thank you if you can give it some energy and start a conversation on a much more energetic elevated platform so my friend Jess is here so so Jess you and I see each other you know Walking The Walking The Halls of Kellogg a bunch of times and you're always F fantastic to talk to um would you just quickly ask me how I'm doing oh Craig it's so good to see you here today how are you I am well Jess thank you for asking I'm uh I'm working on three or four the most interesting projects I've ever worked on in my career so Jess I'm I'm tired but I'm having fun and then I would say how are you and in the interest of time Jess and I are not going to play out this entire conversation I noticed Jess as I was waiting for your for your question how are you that someone in the chat said you know too much energy can be off-putting that person is absolutely right that caught my eye because I got my right eye looked at the chat every once in a while you're right that can be or as Leopoldo says too much information yes there is a balancing act here but what I'm trying to correct for here is and and notice this is this is contradicting not not contradicting but this is you may be thinking like there's a tension here Craig you're saying say it crisply now now you're going from fine to this a couple sentences and the answer is yes because I want you to be interesting when you're talking about you and your work I want there to be energy there too much energy is too much energy I absolutely agree with that person TMI maybe maybe not what I'm correcting for is you being boring I'm fine how are you that's just boring there's nothing there it's just it's just a whole lot of nothing why be boring when you can be interesting and look you'll judge this on its merits if this is interesting or not I use this as a designed answer to how am I every word of this is true so it's completely authentic it's authentic to me sometimes if you're a more subdued person I turn down the dial of energy a little bit sometimes if you're like my friend Jess and you're pretty high energy yourself I'll turn it up a little bit we'll have a little bit of fun because the fun Starts Now The Energy starts now and so this is something you can do and by the way as Jess said in her lovely uction to me I wear a lot of hats so I have a designed answer to the different hats I wear they're generally the same but they're a little bit different because I want to have the conversation I want to design a conversation to be interesting and I do believe that this still qualifies as crisp it's just crisp interesting it's crisp energy how about the next one how about the second most common question you get asked in your entire life what do you do once again do you have an answer for this and again I know you do I've been teaching this for a long long time I call this at my sales engine company we call this a sales trailer it's the movie trailer of you this is the second most common question you get asked this is actually the first real question you get asked because we often do how are you like we breathe and again nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with saying how are you but we often do that like we're breathing this is actually the first real question you can ask oh what do you do and the the the the answers tend to Cluster too much or too little and here's how christas can really help so too little is I'm a professor it's boring I mean it's accurate but it's not super interesting I run a company I run a sales consulting firm I'm a consultant I'm a professor so that's too little or I tell try to start telling my life story and I get lost in the rotation of it so I'm a professor at Kellogg I've been at Kellogg seven years I absolutely enjoy I so I run something called the kellock sales Institute and within the Institute we do and I just keep going and that is a mistake we make we make one of those two mistakes it's too little and you're not giving any energy to it or giving somebody the gift of telling them actually what you do or you're saying too much and now you're way over your skis you're over manifesting now knowledge so again if you know Jess and I were meeting for the first time we're at the airport we're wherever and she said so Craig so you know how are you I said three or four most interesting projects she's like oh what kind of projects what what do you do I said Jess I run a company called sales engine we help people build and tune their sales engines and again folks you should be judging everything I'm saying right now like it don't like it that's okay it uses a metaphor I actually know nothing about engines but I know a lot about sales engines and so I just have a little bit of fun with this it's just a little bit to dig your teeth into it's a little bit of crispness with a little bit of energy to it and it's a and we believe that it's a good balance between saying too much because I could talk a lot about my company I can talk a lot about Kellogg I love these things I get to do I'm so lucky and I could design all that in but I don't because you haven't asked for that you simply ask me why I do but how might I create something that is more interesting one of my all-time favorites and this language is thanks to Professor schenthal thanks to David uh so I give him full credit for this but he is completely crafted by answer and if you look to the lower so the middle right so David and I teach a Executive MBA course of Kellogg called phase zero and when I'm in a Kellogg context if I'm walking through a business school or the you know our business school or at a conference for education people will say you know Craig what do you do and I say I'm the professor at Kell or my partner David schenthal and I teach a course that demystifies the fuzzy front end of starting businesses and I just love that statement almost always and you have to take my word for this folks but almost always that gets a smile and notice where we are in a conversation and I'll say it even more boldly notice where we are in a relationship we're 30 seconds into a Rel maybe 50 15 seconds into a relationship and I'm already crisp hopefully crisp energetic and interesting in my answer to how are you and just super crisp but has a little bit more than I'm a consultant in my what do you answer to what do you do this is the process to get there we have to distill these down I'm going to run through these couple more examples because I want to get to some Q&A because I know you've got questions because I could see them coming in so you know if there's a problem you know we we spend a lot of time thinking about sales and just notice the language in the upper right and maybe no none of you would ever say this but I bet you've said things like this I have right well we need to you Jess today we need to discuss the multivari reasons for declining sale blah blah blah when I can just say Jess sales are down let's figure out what to do and did you notice that little pause in there one of the things that we don't have time to talk about but it's here it's always here is the power of the pause what crispness enables you to do is draw people in with silence there's no silence in we need to discuss the multiple variables blah blah blah blah blah and look that's okay it's good it's just not great rather Jess sales are down let's you and I figure out what to do or I'm in a job interview with Jess Jess is the hiring boss she says Craig tell me about yourself I have a choice to make and can go all the way and wind all the way through my history which by the way that's what most people do don't be most people and I just gave an example here I believe that my particular strengths would be great addition to your team Jess one strength I have blah blah blah or you can make a different choice you could distill that same thing down into some better language tighter cleaner clearer I think I'm a great fit just for two main reasons first I learn quickly second I take coaching really well and then you do this CU it lets her back into the conversation she is going to ask you the next question with the first one she may or may not I mean she probably will because it's a job interview she's kind of obligated but if we do what most people do and go all the way through the history and then we finally get to you know I have a couple of strengths and I want to share them with you and when I'm on project and I just talk talk talk it gets vague and Squishy okay second practice we're going to do this really fast less than three minutes let's go back a half a step to the answer what do you do because this is something that you get asked probably every day every other day take a shot at this try to brainstorm an interesting answer and once again we would love to have you posted in chat I'm going to ask Jess and the team to share a couple of your examples because I bet we're going to get some great ones here brainstorm a more interesting answer write it down for yourself absolutely and then write it down in the chat or write it down chat and take a screenshot okay go three minutes go putting my watch on again and I'm behind in the chat again so I'm G to catch up to you all right Fernando that's a good start love it I design organizations that's interesting holy crow these are coming in a doctor for companies I saw I like that one I like that one a doctor for companies I fight cancer wow I dig that these are really coming in fast I can't read quite that fast but they're super great there's some really good ones here and I'm glad to see this it's so interesting you all I'm going to give you another minute and a half to do this it's so interesting when we have done this over you know 15 years or so in a classroom people really struggle with this corporate clients struggle with this I was on the East Coast yesterday teaching part of this and a bunch of other stuff and it was a big huge Pharmacy company that you know and one of the women smiled when I got to this point and she said I just tell people I sell drugs and she said it always gets a smile and it always gets an interesting conversation it never fails me now once again to the comments in the chat earlier you know your your personality has to be designed to to you know to take that risk of of doing something like that but it looks like a lot of you are I do worry about and again I'm I'm I'm judging things that I haven't really thought through so I'm being very honest with you all some of these are pretty darn long what I would do and I'm going to show you a way to do this what I would do is take these posts and distill them down even farther try to use metaphors I'm a doctor for companies try to use interesting language that people won't hear every day those are ways you can add a little of what Professor shanthal calls Design Energy to your Christmas okay they're still coming in hot and heavy this is great I fulfill my client's dreams that's a really interesting one I'm sure that a whole bunch of you on on this Zoom would never find yourself saying that and again that's fine but give yourself the chance take I I I'm I'm going to say this later as we wrap up for questions embrace the risk of being interesting embrace the risk of being different I help people fulfill their dreams I'm a doctor for companies I help machines and humans understand each other Natalia that's awesome okay Jess I'm coming to you again my friend what did we get here yeah I mean I'm trying to uh catch fish through the same quick moving stream as you but I did pluck out a pretty a couple good ones um I liked I cool down the oceans that's a good one I would want to ask I create things that don't exist I reimagine outdoor spaces I build cool places to live I bottle a turn knowledge for future use I mean I'm intrigued by that great metaphor I'm the future of work building access for black and brown communities one relationship at a time love that phrase I help people 50 up sit up and sort out their career future I make bioscience understandable these are fantastic Jess thank you for for capturing something I I missed every single one you just you just uh said so uh I see one just coming in uh I it already passed me uh mergers and Acquisitions I'm going to press on you all that's not an answer to what do you what do you do and and and maybe it is for this person but I would say that's not that's not an answer give it some energy what about m& do you do and I think Jess your examples from this team are fantastic I'm so glad we got these because folks these are ideas for everyone what we just ask you to do I'm going to put a label to it what we just ask you to do is to build a prototype and what I would suggest that you do what we know about teaching entrepreneurs and what we know on the research on gr entrepreneurs whether you're an entrepreneur or not doesn't matter what we know we can borrow from entrepreneurs what the best ones do is what David and I say in our course they build a prototype and they take it for a spin and what I'm suggesting with these situations and where you need to achieve Cris crispness is that you build a prototype and take it for a spin I cool the oceans yes that's a great prototype and look when you take it out if it's TMI or people look at you weird or they're horrified by it or you get bad feedback then build a different prototype I bet that'll work though I bet it'll work the way that you want it to and I bet it will surprise you here's the other way to think about saying it crisply why wouldn't you be the person in my day that I think about at the end of the day like I met some woman named Jess love and she said she cools the oceans I would probably tell my family about that at the end of the day why wouldn't you want to be that person and does this take some tolerance of risk you bet anything in life worth doing takes some tolerance of risk so why not do it okay let's keep going we got one more turn of the track to do and then we're going to we're going to close up for questions so we've got to practice this and we did just a couple of practice sessions just to get the juices flowing what we try to always design into our learning at Kellogg and at sales engine is what we call Little F failures little F not big failures but when you when I probably asked you you know how would I answer the question how are you and more interesting well you probably felt a little tension right that's a little makes like a little burn like wait what he's so weird why would I do this right you felt a little bit of heat that's good right we have to practice practice is all about getting the muscles to fatigue but we get such benefits from this this is probably my all not probably this is my all-time favorite quote I wouldn't give a fig for Simplicity on this side of complexity but I'd give everything my I own for Simplicity on the other side of complexity folks this is what we're after we're all smart we all accumulate knowledge and accumulating knowledge is a wonderful thing that's a wonderful thing full stop but when we Over Manifest knowledge when we're loose or vague or clipped that's a problem it's not a lack of knowledge it's it's the reverse it's the over manifestation what we need to develop to get through complexity to the other side to Simplicity is tremendous skill and discipline now if you're looking that this on a phone or a screen you're going to be horrified but here's my promise Jess and mine and the amazing Kellog Insight team we're going to email this to you so this is a tool that we built for um for our ability to distill things down and say it crisply and here I'm just going to point you to it's a two-pager there's a worksheet on the back page there's a couple of examples on the front page and what we're g what what I want to point your eye to are the clocks so one of the way I see in this chat a simple tool uh it actually is very simple if you want to take a look at it so you'll see the clocks uh Professor Carter cast and I worked worked this sort of image up a while back and had a designer draw it out for us think about it this way you're going to be in a situation next week all those situations that you captured early on today in the chat and you're going to have an opportunity to say your peace and oftentimes that starts with too much remember Twain I didn't have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead so what you can do is exercise the muscle by Flex the muscle by writing down for the high stakes things you're going to do or even the answer to what are you what what do you do you can write down your typical answer then by just looking at the stopwatch you know what we're asking you to do now cut it in half distill it down now distill it down even more and then I hope what I've done in the last 15 minutes or so it drip some extra secrets to you make it interesting give it some energy use a metaphor make room for silence so if you think about this and I want to lead us into boldness and humility and then we're going to take some questions so if I blow this simple tool up what you've seen what you're seeing now is a question is a job interview question if I said to Jess now I'm hiring and I said to Jess you know Jess um tell me about yourself that's your typical job interview question you're all going to answer that question a million and a half times in your life well the typical person might say something like at the top and I'm not going to read this to you but if you did if you measured if you said this at a normal speaking Cadence it's 30 seconds and then I said to myself okay if I'm that if I'm this person how would I distill that down and so I took out a bunch of stuff I got it down to 15 seconds but now what I want I'm going to change the framing on you a little bit because you're probably thinking Craig you would really distill a question tell me about yourself into that tiny little answer at the bottom yes I would because that is an act of boldness and humility Jess says Craig you know I've learned so much at Facebook I'm grateful for that experience competing with the likes of Google and Tik Tok had made me a better leader I think I'm a great fit here for two main reasons first I learned quickly and second I take coaching really well and then she stops most of you I would bet are saying to yourself This is not enough in an answer to a question it's too little I disagree because being crisp is both boldness and humility and those are magnetic qualities in you I'm hiring you because I want you to be bold but I don't want you to be arrogant so how do you design in boldness and humility here's how you do it Jess says to Craig in an interview Craig you know I've learned so much at Facebook and I'm grateful for that experience when you use a word like grateful that's humility she follows it with you know what competing with the likes of Google and Tik Tok May me a better leader that's humility and then she finishes strong I think I'm a great fit here blah blah blah that's boldness tell people why you're the Fit And for those of you who are still thinking that's not enough man this is not enough I would just say to you she can't I I can't help asking her the next question I'm intrigued like what talk to me Jess talk to me about this you're drawing people towards you one of our favorite words at sales engine at the Kell sales Institute is the word magnetic draw people towards you with crispness I promise you they will ask you the next question think about the metaphor of a mixing board the big dials are there are three big dials knowledge skill and discipline when you're being crisp dial down the knowledge for now and up the skill and discipline so a way to think about this is the knowledge is and you already did this work you already did it today know your situations know your audience what does Jess need to know versus what does Pam oampo need to know what does Randy Paulson need to know know your audience those are knowledge things knowledge is hugely important but don't forget skill and discipline skill is cut the right stuff not the wrong stuff cut it again leave only the key points and then discipline choose Clarity Embrace risk which is risk here is differentiating yourself being different that is an act of generosity in a noisy distracted World okay last point and Jess you and I are going to head to questions here in a second what do you get from doing this what accurs to you well you're the person that becomes known in your company or in in your circle as the one who absorbs ambiguity you know for some reason Jose John Randy Pam they always make it just they like absorb ambigu they just make everything so clear I love hanging out with Pam and and and Hosea because he just makes it so clear it also makes you memorable it makes your ideas portable remember you can't carry around a 10,000 PB thing but you can carry around a one pound thing so make it portable by being crisp you also become inspirational this is an outcome that acrs to you and the most important outcome is you're different you're the one that stands out you're the one that breaks through okay as we turn to questions here I want to offer some readings and once again I want to repeat Something I Said So Jess and the Kellogg Insight team when they package this up this video they're going to send it along with an email send it along in an email with that tool that I showed you so you can just you know print that out put it on your laptop so you've got it reading recommendations I have three favorites the art of explanation which is by a journalist a former journalist uh my friend Joe McCormack in Chicago another chicagoan um brief fantastic book and a book I read relatively recently called weekend language which talks about something I've not talked about which is plain language don't say multivariate when you can say sales are down just say it just speak plainly finally I post a lot of stuff I have been having some interesting a couple of years and so I've been posting a lot on resilience on LinkedIn if you like or value any of this stuff please join me on LinkedIn I'd love to see you there we have a darn Vibrant Community I'm so thankful for that finally before we go I'm not going yet but I do want to say thank you because we're going to end this uh fairly quickly but not until we've taken some questions um and it looks like the chat is just is is is is going and Blake thanks for for posting the LinkedIn link please hit me up on LinkedIn I'm so thankful for all of you let's do questions and I know you know one of the rules of thumb that we always operate by at both sales engine and Kellogg sales Institute is you end meetings either a couple minutes early or on time given that this is a webinar we're going to run pretty close to the time but we wanted to end with questions I know you're all busy you're getting back to your mornings evenings or afternoons so thank you thank you thank you for being with us Jess let's you and I talk about questions what do we got all right sounds good um and for folks who are entering their questions now is the time to switch over to that Q&A box if you haven't already because it seriously is like catching fish if it is in the chat box um so we had a number of questions uh come in during the webinar and I'm sure we're going to get a few more as well but a lot of people pointed out that um your kind of original example about how are you um at least you know here in the United States it's pretty common for that to be a throwaway question but we had a number of people point out that in other cultures that's not necessarily the case and so I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about cultural differences in the crispness that we expect in how that might be interpreted have you gotten any feedback from maybe attendees of your class in the past from different cultures who have said this might work a little bit differently you know in in this situation where I'm from you bet Jess and and folks I don't I don't know if I have an entirely satisfying answer there I want to start by an acknowledgement that is going to be obvious to all of you I an American I I learned how to lead and sell and communicate in the United States from a very uh in my my started my career a very American company called IBM so so there's that I can't get out of my own skin so I just want to acknowledge that second there are some great resources for this so there's a great great book that I read called the culture map which really helped me understand the differences so that's that's just another you know I know I'm giving you a lot of homework I'm a professor I can't help myself the third thing maybe maybe a little bit more helpful helpfully is you know there there are differences and so In some cultures that I have taught and and spent time in the answers to questions like what do you do have to be very functional because doing anything else would be off-putting and again this is where my americanness sort of fails me because you and I put it straight back on your shoulders I'm not going to be helpful here because you have to know that you're from that culture or you're operating that culture go get the culture map read the book figure it out but I'll just give you an example I was teaching in the Middle East and I was teaching a a version of this and at some point I said something and they all started laughing and I thought oh boy here I go I've got in trouble I've said something stupid which I routinely do and they said Craig your answer your how are you is really interesting and I said you're laughing what's wrong with it just be honest with me I can take it be direct and they said no no no it's interesting in the in the Arab culture it's not enough and I said wow tell me more and they said we want a lot more there we do business based on how I understand you as a person your family your family relations and I you know my reaction as an American was like that's lovely that's so super cool and they said so you just kind of apologize for spending a little bit more time in the answer how are you we want a lot more time and then I get on a plane and I go to Asia and it was different for some countries in Asia so it was much more like no a little bit more functional Craig not as not as sort of don't I wouldn't design in that energy so again there's a range of things and there's some really great books like the culture map that are emerging to help us deal with these things as we become which is great is the world's getting smaller we can all be with each other I mean I saw Mumbai I saw all kinds of places in this chat today which just warms my heart so I hope that's helpful again I'm mostly putting that back on your shoulders well like my my best guess is that your your response might be similar if we're talking not necessarily about um other International cultures but even like here in the states different companies different organizations can also have different cultures do you absolutely yeah yeah yeah absolutely I I got so just a quick side Side Story Jess and you all so speaking of different cultures within the United States I was in Texas the other day and I said to someone bless your heart and I didn't know this as a midwesterner but bless your heart is often like you're you're pushing somebody off you're so you're kind of tapping on my head like good try bless your heart instead of what I meant was bless your heart that's really nice of you to say they were like looked at me like uh oh so I had a moment just even in the United States going a thousand miles um so I'm gonna switch topics here uh we had an interesting question how can we transfer some of the tips that you gave us today to written Communications are there different rules or do you approach an email in a similar way uh so we have a another Master course on writing so this is hard for me because this is a whole other webinar and a whole other Master course and workshop let me just steal a couple of things and I I would say it is it is a first cousin to what we're doing right now Jess sorry my watch is going off again it's the it's the first cousin to what we're doing now writing so um we spend 28% of our time time you and I on average 28% of our week reading emails so this is another this is the same body of research that taught us that the average words we speak a day is 16,000 so we spent a lot of time reading how might you be generous bold and humble in your written Communications so again if I have a higher Stakes email that I need to send and I'm going to do two I'm G give two answers Jess one on email just fast Communications once again be very be very concise crisp and clear use metaphor take half out take half out again because again if that person is interested in what you need to need to say they will Foster a longer conversation in other words you will earn the right to a longer conversation with a briefer email one of the mistakes we made and one of the reasons we spend 28% of our week reading emails which is insane is we put wait he like oh Jess needs to know all this stuff no she doesn't that's just me being undisciplined that's me being Mark Twain w a long one because I don't have time to write a short one that's on me that's not Jess and my my dear friend and teaching partner Tiana Clark Professor Clark at the Kellogg sales Institute one of our newer members a couple years ago she's amazing she has this great line she says you know you know what's and I'm going to twist it for this eventuality she says what's arrogant is expecting that people are thinking about you cuz she she'll say you need to be bold and talk about your accomplishments and he and then she says you know that's because people say well isn't that arrogant you're being bold and talking about your two main strengths and she says no what's arrogant is thinking people are just going to be thinking sitting there thinking about you and I apply that to writing as well what's arrogant is I think Jess is going to Wade through three paragraphs of my stuff no I have to distill it down that's one the second one longer form Communications a trick that we have for long in my company sales engine that we have for longer form Communications let's say we do a five-page report we actually the last step is so we we do all that stuff we try to make it really tight but there's a lot we have to communicate we make it very visual with pictures and the last step we do is we send it to our designer n she makes it look beautiful so there's icons there's visual there's color there's bold there's sections there's insets we spend the time doing that we actually build in an extra week to get it to Nell so she can design all that does that take time these things yep it does and I just want to be honest with you about that um switching topics yet again um I had a couple questions coming in about people uh For Whom the answer how are you or what are you doing now what are you working on is not a positive one so for instance maybe you are not doing well um something is going on in your life or uh if you have lost your job for instance and you are not currently working on any projects how can you Embrace some of the skills we talked about in today's webinar if if maybe you're not working on three of the four most exciting projects in your career I will give you an abstracted answer you all it's a great question and I'm going to give you a really concrete example so the the abstracted answer the sort of the the the the algorithm if you will is to be directly honest if you just lost your job you know and Jess you say hey what do you do and I say you know what um interesting that you ask I am I have just been caught in a reduction in force and I'm I'm sad about it and then what you do is add Design Energy that is Forward Motion forward looking you say that because that's absolutely honest and don't BS people and then say what's what's the better news is I there's two things that I am pursuing that I'm quite excited about one and two because now what you're trying to do is recruit someone to help you that's why I don't want you to finish with you know I'm sad or I'm bummed or I lost my job add some energy Forward Motion so that's that's the rule of thumb uh Jess knows this you all so concrete example uh when people asked me you know about six months ago how I'm doing here was my answer and it will shock some of you uh but there it is I'm I'm if I'm anything I'm real I said you know I've had an interesting year um about six months ago I lost my leg to cancer so I am working on understanding the nature of resilience and what's interesting is I'm having a lot of fun because I'm actually learning a lot and it's helping me on an hour by hour day byday basis how's that for an answer because again you see both components I'm dead honest and there's Forward Motion here always Forward Motion it's compelling answer um so register my friend is just chatted my dear friend John register I didn't know you were here who is a fellow ampute he said are overrated John you just made my freaking day you were the best um there is a risk uh is one of our questions in using the power of the pause could you for instance be talking to someone who is likely to hijack the conversation and the question is if you think you're in that situation how do you own the pause how do you kind of signal this is going somewhere don't interrupt calmness Pres eye contact and Jess those are the those are that's the how those are the those I believe are the answers I'm going to go back to the first thing you said I actually disagree with that I mean can someone if I pause can someone hijack the conversation of course they can of course that's going to happen but I'm going to keep pausing what's my alternative in other words what's my discipline what's my choice I'm just going to raise my volume and talk at you that's not going to be constructive so I'm going to stay in the question I'm going to stay in the pause I'm going to stay present and I'm going to hope that me modeling the right Behavior calms my counterparty down and so they get the message and look let's take it all the way to the toughest place if that person doesn't get the message then I'm going to execute a different form of thing I'm going to execute what we teach at kog in another Master course I'm going to have a difficult conversation I'm going to say you know you and I are like this we're missing you seem to be talking over me I trying I'm trying to understand this is is not happening I think we should pause here I'm going to be very direct um we have really like time for one more minute from you so I'm going to give you a little bit of a of a an exercise yourself uh courtesy of one of our questioners um in this final minute could you give us an example of a boring and a crisp answer to what are your flaws or weaknesses sure uh this is a great question so uh um a boring answer I'm not sure boring is the right word but a very common answer is you know well my my biggest flaws is that I I work too much and I care too much and and I again I'm being a little physici with you all but that is the nature of like people say my biggest strength is I just work myself to the Bone you know I work myself to to to craziness and it's some flavor of that because we don't want to actually answer the question um um I would say once again this will not surprise anyone I would be absolutely direct lean into lean into whatever your biggest flaw is um you know Jess it's a great question I'm going to be directly honest with you my biggest flaw is I'm I'm struggling right now with time management I have a lot going on I I'll I'll start I'm starting to figure it out but it's a it's a flaw and I just want to be super honest about that just tell tell it like it is and look straight in the eye because what you're gaining actually in that moment of being both bold and humble is you're gaining credibility not losing credibility you're gaining credibility I cannot say that strongly enough well speaking of time we are at time thank you so much to all of our wonderful attendees from around the world great questions today thanks of course to Professor Craig Wartman and please consider joining us for nor K's webinar on May 9th leadership in a politically charged age take care thanks all [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music]

Channel: Kellogg School of Management

Views: 2,670

Keywords: kellogg school of management, kellogg school, MBA, EMBA, FTMBA, PTMBA, executive education, business, management, research, insight

Id: PBLN7h9pZjM

Length: 62min 26sec (3746 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024