44 The Six Secrets of PowerPhrases
You convey purposefulness when you are concise. It shows
that you have things to do, people to see, places to go. It makes
what you do say all the more valuable.
Ellen discovered the value of brevity when she held the
shortest staff meeting in her company’s history. It lasted for
three minutes. Her staff productivity soared. The other man-
agers asked her, “What did you say?”
Ellen replied, “I told them,
We have low productivity. What are we going to do
about it?When no one spoke, I stayed silent. They squirmed, but I was
silent for over a minute. I closed the meeting by saying,
This meeting is over.They all hurried back to their desks and got things done like
I’ve never seen before!”
In sixteen words this manager accomplished more than she
had ever accomplished with hundreds of words in the past!
Brevity got results!
Have you ever been at an event where you were just wait-
ing for the speaker to shut up? Have you been to such a long
meeting that to keep your sanity you had to count the tiles on
the ceiling? Do you suspect people count the ceiling tiles when
you speak too? Too many words weaken the impact of well-
spoken words.
Remember when you were a kid and an adult started lec-
turing you on your misbehavior? Were you hanging on every
word, eager to learn the lesson they wanted to give? I don’t think
so! All you could think about was getting out of there! Effec-