Listening Leaders Archived Edition

March 21, 2007

LISTENING LEADERS BLESS BREVITY

Listening Leaders® bless brevity.

Many busy folks believe in the benefit of brevity on the assumption they do not have sufficient time to consume lengthy messages. In addition, they blissfully ignore the wisdom of Horace, the Roman poet, who representing many writers and speakers said, “When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.”

In addition, they ascribe to the Spanish writer Baltasar Gracián’s conflicting views, “Good things, when short, are twice as good.” and “Yes and No are soon said, but give much to think over.” To cement their belief, they add the opinion of Shakespeare when he wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” and “Men of few words are the best men.”

Yet a two-pronged challenge for all skilled Listening Leaders® lies ahead, for an ongoing challenge involves developing the required stamina and skill to listen to, and through lengthy presentations. Truth be told, for a vast majority of speakers, the devil lies in excessive details. Slogging through speaker’s verbosity in order to discover the “Value Moments of Listening (VM of L) is often a tiresome, yet basic, requirement of today’s Listening Leaders®. The task requires thoughtful endurance. Although numerous examples of verbose speakers exist, Benjamin Disraeli said it best when he described Gladstone as “A sophistical rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.”

On the other hand, a second listening challenge resides in listening to speakers who pride themselves in being messengers of few words. For speaker brevity offers its own challenges to the listener, as it is often difficult to understand and evaluate minimalist messages and unstated thoughts or facts. To correct Shakespeare, “The men of few words are often not fully understood.”

Thus effective Listening Leaders® face the simple fact that when sitting on the “listening log” there will always be speakers on opposite ends. Speakers who favor brevity and speakers who favor verbosity. Both offer benefits and both offer challenges. Yet the power of ultimate control resides with all effective listeners as they rise to the occasion and adapt to each. In listening to short and seemingly incomplete messages, more information must often be requested. In listening to verbosity, it is often reasonable to control the message flow and to call for a “cut to the chase.”

LISTENING LEADER KNOWLEDGE NUGGET: Listening Leaders® relish responsibility and take control.

Listening Leaders® are blessed when speakers say all they need to say in a few short words. At times a few words are enough, as illustrated by Oliver Hazard Perry in 1830. Perry commanded the U.S. fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie and for the first time forced the British Navy to surrender a squadron. Perry’s post battle announcement quickly became a staple of U.S. military legend: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” In the same laconic and precise vein during World War II, U.S. Airman David Mason radioed his base a simple 4-word message: “Sighted sub. Sank same.” Of course he could have been 50 percent less verbose by simply saying, “Sank sub.”

Listeners must remember that speakers speak from many perspectives. Some are speakers of few words. Like President Calvin Coolidge, brevity is their hallmark. When a lady at a dinner told Coolidge that someone had bet her she would not get more than two words out of him, Coolidge simply responded, “You lose.”

On the other hand there are speakers of many words, as the 17th century British poet and dramatist John Dryden noted: “But far more numerous was the Herd of such, Who think too little, and talk too much.”

Every wise speaker believes the force of brevity lies in preparation. Experienced and thoughtful speakers know that it takes excessive time to reduce the length of every presentation. In 1657, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote a friend, “I have made this letter long, only because I lacked the time to make it short. Two hundred years later, Henry David Thoreau wrote another friend that a story he was considering need not be long, but that “it will take a long while to make it short.”

In the same sense, Woodrow Wilson established the importance of preparation time for all speakers. As the former President of Princeton University, Governor of New Jersey, and President of the United States, Wilson was a refined speaker. When a Cabinet member asked Wilson how long it typically took him to prepare a speech, Wilson responded: “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation. If fifteen minutes, three days. If half an hour, two days, and if an hour, I am ready right now.”

Golden Circle Listening Leaders® will discover great merit in analyzing the predictable and habitual speech patterns of every speaker they regularly listen to. For then, and only then, can one be prepared to positively impact the ever changing and challenging listening moments.

LISTENING LEADER TIP OF THE WEEK: Study speakers.

GOLDEN CIRCLE LISTENING LEADERS QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short ~ Confucius The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom ~ William Blake
Least said is soon disavowed ~ Ambrose Bierce
When you have nothing to say, say nothing ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Maximo in minimo ~ Friedrich Hšlderlin

A LISTENING LEADER GIGGLE:

Will Rogers was the Baron of Brevity and offered short and timeless advice to all.

Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.
Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
There are 2 theories about arguing with a woman and neither works.
Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.

LISTENING LEADERS KUDOS

Thanks to our responsive subscribers, Dr. H. Stanley Jones of Hawaii and Sara Shuster of Edina, who periodically send helpful messages about their busyness and reinforce the value of brevity. We appreciate everyone’s feedback and ideas.

Please know if we had an extra day or two or three to write each ILLI Newsletter, we would heed the advice of Dr. Seuss aka Theodor Seuss Geisel who wrote, “It has often been said there’s so much to be read, you never can cram all those words in your head. So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads. That is why my belief is the briefer the brief is, the greater the sigh of the reader’s relief is.”

Kudos to Stan and Sara for the helpful reminder. Now, if we weren’t quite so busy, we would be much briefer!

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WE ARE LISTENING and invite your action

Together, we can change the listening attitudes, skills, and knowledge of leaders throughout the world. We appreciate and invite your assistance in expanding our listening leader’s connections. Eight simple steps in advancing this important movement include:

Deal with the message length of different speakers.

Send us your listening leader insights, examples and stories.

Start a Listening Leaders Reading and Discussion Group. Invite your Librarian to purchase our Award winning LISTENING LEADER book.

As meeting, conference, and convention attendees spend the bulk of their time listening, please let others know of our availability to Keynote Conventions and customize Listening Leader Workshops.

Invite us to identify specific needs for listening development of leaders in your organizations.

Ask about our proven listening leader training programs and our customized in-house train-the-trainer strategies and our new Certification program.

We can help, we are committed, and we are listening.

Listen, Lead On & Make Today Count! – Manny & Rick

__________________________________________________________________

LISTENING LEADERS: THE TEN GOLDEN RULES
TO LISTEN, LEAD & SUCCEED

By Dr. Lyman K. Steil
& Dr. Richard K. Bommelje

Publisher: Beaver’s Pond Press
(ISBN 1-59298-073-2)

A pioneering book that directly connects listening with leadership.Based on more than 50 collective years of work with listening leaders throughout the world, Dr. Steil and Dr. Bommelje have created 10 practical, proven, and priceless rules to enhance everyone's listening and leadership success. Although outstanding leaders are outstanding listeners, most leaders have neglected the development of their listening attitudes, skills and knowledge.

“This is the most significant book ever written on listening and leadership and will profit leaders at all levels in all types of organizations and enterprises.” Dr. Ralph Nichols, Father of the Field of Listening

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Dr. Lyman K. (Manny) Steil
25 Robb Farm Road
St. Paul, MN 55127
651-483-3597
LKS@ListeningLeaders.com

Dr. Richard K. (Rick) Bommelje
8530 Amber Oak Dr
Orlando, FL 32817
407-679-7280
RKB@ListeningLeaders.com

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