An IT manager kept overwhelming her boss with multiple explanations for a sales decline. The coach pushed her to pick one clear answer instead. One focused point shows you've thought it through and lets your boss actually do something about it.
A few weeks ago, I was coaching an IT manager. She wanted to sound more articulate. So I asked her, imagine your boss asking you a question, hey, why are our sales dropping in this quarter? What would you answer? And then she said, well, you know, there are a number of things which are happening. The economy is unstable. We just got a new marketing agency. The rollout is not going as planned, and we have new technology coming up, and I had to stop there. Whoa, seems like you have poured a number of things on my head. Why don't you just show me one true picture? She understood the message. You see, when somebody asks you a question, instead of dumping them with a lot of data, a lot of fact, a lot of figures, focus on the most important thing. When you do that, it shows that you have the clarity of thoughts, and then you are able to take the next best action which is required in that situation.
