Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want

to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking

about being concise. Todd, Chief Information Officer at a Worldwide Food distributor,

had coaching goals that were absolutely clear.

His boss, Richard, the CEO, said plainly,

get him to talk shorter. He's driving me nuts. If he can't stop over

talking, he's going to have to find someplace else to work. I knew Richard was exaggerating only a little. Being

concise is a critically important skill and extremely difficult to

accomplish. As proof I only have to look at my client's coaching goals over the past 15 years.

The need to be more concise is one of the top five.

And these aren't the goals of budding young professionals.

These are goals of extremely

successful senior leaders in virtually every industry. They just can't stop

talking. What's going on? Todd's situation is a perfect example to learn from.

When I asked him what he knew about this issue of over-talking, he said,

I really only do it when I feel strongly about something, or when I want to make a point,

or when I feel like my expertise is being challenged, or I smiled and interrupted him, you do it

a lot.

After a pause he smiled too and said,

Yeah, I guess I do.

I asked him, what stops you from talking shorter?

...