Leadership Ingredient Nr. 3: Precise Communication

I learned the hard way, why precise communication is key. Not only in business. If you’re not very specific on your message, you won’t get what you actually requested. Here is how I learned the simple method of

1. Situation
2. Complication
3. Solution

When I was an IT consultant at Accenture, we had a client meeting concerning a new project pitch. It was the first time, that my manager didn’t participate at the client meeting so it was kind of a new situation for me. I had to take over the lead of this meeting.

In this meeting the customer wanted an answer on a specific topic, but we did not have any answers to that. So, I asked for a 5-minute-break to think about it and to call our managing director. Within this call I tried to explain the context of the problem but I couldn’t manage to communicate the actual problem and how he can help me out.

He was very overwhelmed by my call, so I had to repeat my questions several times. Then he said: “Ok, let’s take one step back. Please explain me first, the situation, then the complication or problem of this situation and afterwards some potential proposals, how we can solve this complication.” And actually that was the key for me, to get the answers I requested from him. This three-step-model of communication can be transferred to any kind of situation. In detail:

1. Situation: Explain the current situation you are currently in. E.g. I’m currently in a client meeting with the persons xyz. We are pitching to sell a project to this customer.
2. Complication: Explain, what is the current challenge of this problem. E.g. The client asked me, if we can provide additional services on a different topic. Because I don’t have all the insights about our available resources, I couldn’t answer the client. I need from your side an answer on that.
3. Solution: If you have some answers in mind, describe your thoughts. E.g. There are two potential answers on that: a) Yes, we have resources and we have checked, that they are available, b) we have resources, but they are not available, c) no, we don’t have resources.

In this case, you gave all information required to take up a decision. You will make your life and the life of the decision maker much easier.

A simple tool, that helps to speed up communication and to be very clear on the expected outcome of a discussion.