One Superpower EVERY Corporate Person Should Master

Clarity. That's it. You could stop reading, if you want.

And that's my point. The ONE thing that nearly everyone working in a complex corporate environment is starving for every single day is time. Thus, the filter YOU should think through at every turn in the road should spit out this outcome:

• How do I make things easier/better for the people who I interact with?

For my boss, I break things down into tight bullets. He's a CEO. He often can't sit for the entire backstory. That's actually my job. Thus, I have to "chew his food."

Gross, but think about it. I have to break things down to their simplest form so that I leave him with the part that is MOST necessary to convey. It's either FYI or a decision. Right?

FYI. Decision.

This is true for most levels of an org.

So where does it go wrong?

The Curse of the Back Story

For reasons I've yet to fully understand, nearly all humans feel deeply compelled to explain a long and detailed backstory before getting to the part they really want to know about. This is how storytelling works. "It all started when I was a kid." or "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

Backstories are great in fiction. They're sometimes useful in life. In the corporate world, it's overhead. It's time spent that I might or might not need to help you get what you really want.

What you really want is either a decision or for me to be updated on something of importance.

For you: keep the backstory in reserve until you're directly asked for it, or if it is absolutely VITAL the person understand something extremely complex.

I have terrible news for you: nearly nothing is all that complex.

Leave your backstory in your back pocket.

In Fact, Start with This Subject All the Time, No Matter the Format

Update

or

Decision Needed (Or Action Needed)

Then, put that at the top.

Update - we're getting pushback on our budget request, but I've got what I need to push it through.

Decision Needed - we're not going to get what we want. Do you want to go push on that, or do we just suck it up for now?

See how this works? Easy, fast, powerful.

Consider the Audience

Earlier this week, I was at our Board meeting, which is a room full of REALLY smart people. But they're also super busy people. We HAVE to give them some backstory, but it doesn't have to be long and drawn out.

"As a reminder, we have a portfolio of over 100 apps across four major ecosystems, and our engineers almost all work on more than one app." Quick. Snappy. Thus, we can move from a sentence like that right into, "Our topic for discussion is whether we do X or Y. I've brought materials to help us decide."

That's it. It's easy because they're smart and because there's not a lot of emotion required at the Board level most of the time.

HOWEVER, if you're talking about something that requires emotion, sensitivity, kindness, THAT is where you deploy some time. We have a cultural imperative at Appfire to Be Human. It's our first core value. Part of that is by being kind, by talking with each other personally and personably.

That's where you use time. That's where you use your patience. That's where it's good to move slow.

I remind one of my favorite fireflies all the time that bedside manner is crucial in their role. They have to sit with people while the other person absorbs what my friend has to say. It's a great use of time.

But for the rest of the time? Clarity. Which is brevity. Which is simplicity. Which is "chewing the food" before giving it to others.

That's the super power.

How are YOU with boiling the ocean for people?

Chris...