{"id":57486,"date":"2025-06-19T21:46:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T21:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"\/a2weegq\/how-to-be-a-communications-ninja\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T21:46:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T21:46:46","slug":"how-to-be-a-communications-ninja","status":"publish","type":"product-content","link":"https:\/\/www.mindtools.com\/a2weegq\/how-to-be-a-communications-ninja\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Be a Communications Ninja"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been on a conference call that was boring? Or attended a meeting that dragged on for an hour, listening to loads of people talk about lots of stuff, but which resulted in no actions at all? Or watched a presentation, where the presenter simply read out very wordy slides. All of which made you think two things \u2013 \u201cThis is dreadful\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m losing the will\u2026 for you to live.\u201d It\u2019s depressingly familiar, isn\u2019t it? <\/p><p>Communication just isn\u2019t very good. In fact, I\u2019ve found that people think there are two main problems with it:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>finding the time to craft their own beautiful communications   <\/li><li>being forced to wade through everyone else\u2019s rubbish ones <\/li><\/ul><p>Unfortunately, though, this just isn\u2019t the case.  We\u2019re all guilty of poor communication.  So here are <strong>four simple ways<\/strong> for you to communicate miles better than you do now. So that you get loads more done, in loads less time.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NINJA TIP #1: Start at the End<\/h2>\n\n<p>Communication is supposed to cause something. It\u2019s a means to an end. This \u2018something\u2019 could be an action. A decision. Getting some advice. But there has to be some point to it. Or, well \u2026 there\u2019s no point to it. So, when you\u2019re preparing your communication:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Don\u2019t start your prep by thinking about your communication. <\/strong> <\/li><li><strong>Instead, start with what you want the audience to DO after they\u2019ve heard you. <\/strong> <\/li><\/ul><p>Once you know this DO, your communication will be much more likely to get them to do it. Also, <strong>it\u2019ll be much shorter<\/strong> \u2013 because you only include the stuff you need to, to get them to do the DO.<\/p><p>For example, once you know the only purpose of a meeting is to decide whether to do Project X or not, you simply invite the relevant people to a 10-minute meeting, saying, \u201cWe need to make a swift decision on Project X. Please come with your views on whether we should or shouldn\u2019t do it, and why. We\u2019ll quickly agree what we all think, make the decision, then crack on.\u201dTen minutes &#8211; not one hour. Focused &#8211; not vague. Leads to an action, not a Talking Shop. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NINJA TIP #2: Invest Time Preparing a Great First Impression<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here are two indisputable facts:<\/p><p>1. First impressions are incredibly important.<\/p><p>2. With communication, nobody spends much (any?) time rehearsing their first impression.<\/p><p>So we miss a real opportunity every time we communicate. But it\u2019s dead easy to fix. Here are some examples.   <\/p><p>With emails, your first impression is your <strong>subject title<\/strong>. So don\u2019t use boring ones like &#8216;Miscellaneous&#8217;  or the dreaded &#8216;FYI&#8217;. Instead, make them more intriguing \u2013 &#8216;Sandra, a quick question to ask\u2026&#8217; or &#8216;Making sure you get paid this month&#8217; work much better.<\/p><p>It\u2019s the same with meetings. Call something &#8216;update&#8217; and everybody cries off, or turns up late, or hates you. Instead, include <strong>your desired output in the title<\/strong> \u2013 &#8216;Quick meeting to agree next steps with X&#8217;.<\/p><p>And when you get to the meeting? Your opening sentence is your First Impression. So <strong>practice your opening sentence to start positively<\/strong>. For instance, when you say &#8220;Thanks for sparing the time to see me&#8221;, it can sound weak and deferential. Whereas starting with &#8220;I\u2019ve been looking forward to today\u2019s meeting. There are two new ideas that will make a big difference to all of us&#8221;\u2026 well, that\u2019s a much better start.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NINJA TIP #3: Be Interesting<\/h2>\n\n<div class=\"ew-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"How To Be a Communications Ninja 2\" data-name=\"migration-HowToBeaCommunicationsNinjaIMGB2.jpg\" data-size=\"38548\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/nova-live.imgix.net\/\/migration-HowToBeaCommunicationsNinjaIMGB2.jpg?q=60&amp;fm=webp&amp;w=700&amp;h=394\" width=\"700\"\/><div><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><p>I cannot believe I have to include a tip saying \u2018Be interesting\u2019. It just sounds so obvious. Since the world is full of such boring communication, \u2018being interesting\u2019 might be common sense. But it sure isn\u2019t common practice.<\/p><p>The easiest way to do it? Simply identify things that people find interesting\u2026 and then do some of them! For example:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>People like interactivity<\/strong>. So prepare questions to get them speaking.   <\/li><li><strong>They like humor<\/strong>. So go on Google\/YouTube and find something funny you can include.   <\/li><li><strong>They like relevance<\/strong>. So ask them in advance what content they want you to cover. And then focus everything on that.   <\/li><li><strong>They like trivia<\/strong>. So include some.   <\/li><li><strong>They like variety<\/strong>. So make sure your slides look different from each other.   <\/li><li><strong>They like brevity<\/strong>. So make it as short as you can. <\/li><\/ul><p>I\u2019m not saying you have to do all these things. But, if you want people to think you\u2019re interesting, you\u2019ll have to do more than none.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NINJA TIP #4: Make It Shorter<\/h2>\n\n<p>Nobody loves needlessly long comms. Doing Ninja Tips #1-#3 will ensure you:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>are crystal clear on your Call To Action, and your content is geared to achieving that   <\/li><li>start interestingly, so people engage from the start   <\/li><li>keep being interesting, so they keep being engaged\u2026 <\/li><\/ul><p>\u2026 so things will be much shorter anyway.<\/p><p>But you can <strong>still do more<\/strong>. Set yourself up for shorter communications. Don\u2019t schedule meetings that\u2019ll last an hour. Instead, try, say, 45 minutes. And then challenge attendees to finish in less. Making these tiny changes makes a massive difference. Check out this maths\u2026<\/p><p>If you reduce one meeting every day from 60 minutes to 45&#8230;<\/p><p>&#8230; you save 15 minutes a day.<\/p><p>That\u2019s over an hour a week&#8230;<\/p><p>&#8230; Which translates to over 40 hours a year. By doing this just once per day, <strong>you\u2019ve saved one working week per year<\/strong> that you would have spent in sub-par meetings. An entire week! What\u2019s not to love about that?!<\/p><p>And so let\u2019s end with your Call To Action\u2026<\/p><p>The minute you finish reading this article, you\u2019ll communicate with someone. It might be a chat, an email, a meeting\u2026 Whatever it is, apply at least one of these Ninja Tips to it.   <\/p><p>And if you\u2019re only going to do one of them? Do the first \u2013 know your Call To Action. After all, when you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, you tend to end up somewhere else. But when you know what you want people to DO&#8230;  everything\u2019s quicker. Everything\u2019s easier. And it\u2019s much more likely to work.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Author<\/h2>\n\n<p>Communication expert Andy Bounds wrote this article for us. To become even more of a Communication Ninja, check out his:   <\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>weekly email tips on <a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.andybounds.com\/tips\" href=\"http:\/\/www.andybounds.com\/tips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.andybounds.com\/tips<\/a> <\/li><li>online video club on <a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"https:\/\/andyboundsonline.com\/\" href=\"https:\/\/andyboundsonline.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.andyboundsonline.com <\/a> <\/li><li>or just email him at <a class=\"ew-link\" data-url=\"mailto:andy@andybounds.com\" href=\"andy@andybounds.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">andy@andybounds.com <\/a> (but make sure your title\u2019s good!) <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four top tips on getting your message across.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"product-content-category":[7053],"product-content-type":[2580],"reading-time":[5149],"class_list":["post-57486","product-content","type-product-content","status-publish","hentry","product-content-category-communication-essentials","product-content-type-article","reading-time-4-minutes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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