Entrepreneurs are perpetually racing against the clock. An assistant can alleviate some of that pressure by processing, completing, and delegating your directives to the rest of your team.
But when you are on a time crunch, how do you communicate your directives with efficiency and clarity?
Here are 10 simple tricks you can use to maximize the clarity and efficiency of your communication:
1. Take Pictures of Your Receipts and Written Notes
With the click of a button on your phone, you can capture paragraphs of information. With a couple more clicks, you can send it to your Assistant through a messaging or email app.
You may want to convert the contents of the photo into written text. If you use Evernote, you can take advantage of Evernote’s writing-to-text functionality.
The application automatically analyzes your images and detects the text, so to locate the image, you can search for specific words in the image and find the file in your results. There are also a number of writing-to-text apps which you can use to convert your text.
Evernote Search Functionality
2. Record Meetings with Your Team
Record the meetings with video or audio. Your team can go back and review the meeting’s recordings or transcripts to ensure they have retained all important information.
There are many applications, such as Zoom, that provide automatic transcripts of your meetings.
3. Use a Tablet to Draw Visual Concepts
When you are trying to communicate your vision for a graphic, outline, or any other type of visual project, words fall short.
Instead, sketch out a rough version on a tablet drawing application.
4. Streamline Delegation and Idea-Sharing by Recording a Video
Next time you are completing the task, simply record yourself and send it to your assistant – you may need to throw in a few explanations as you go.
Your assistant can clean up the video, document the process, and use it to explain the process to others.
When you are not with your team and have an inspired moment, record yourself talking through it.
5. Send Voice Messages When You’re on the Go
Voice messages provide the expediency of a voice call with the convenient check-when-you-can nature of a text or email.
Voice Functionality on Slack
Many apps allow you to speak while they automatically convert your words into text. The accuracy of this dictation is not perfect, but for day-to-day communication, you can save time by speaking instead of typing out emails and texts.
6. Use Clouds and Document Sharing
Speed up the feedback and collaboration processes by using shared documents and cloud services.
These sharing tools allow you instantly see how your team is progressing, eliminating the wait time during the feedback and adjustment process.
7. Communicate with Simple and Consistent Templates
When you receive information in a familiar form, you can jump directly into the essential information – no wasted time on decoding how the information is provided. To get you started, we suggest the Daily Bullet, a daily synopsis of completed and upcoming tasks.
8. Stop Yourself
Do your communications drag on longer than you would like? Next time you are explaining something and you finish a sentence, stop. Let it breathe.
It will feel uncomfortable initially, but you will often realize that you have already effectively communicated your idea and do not need to continue rehashing what you were saying.
9. Encourage and Use Summary
When you are dialoguing with a team member, actively take moments to summarize what you understood from them. You can also prompt them to do the same. This technique allows you to quickly realize when you have reached an understanding.
10. Embrace Organic Communication
Identify where your communications systems and techniques are actually slowing you down. No need to add another tool or technique.
Natural and simple communication is best. Identify what feels natural and gets the job done. It may be unconventional, but if that process works for you and your team, there is no need to implement changes.
Conclusion
These are ten high-value communication tricks you can implement today. What are your best tips on how to communicate efficiently? Feel free to comment below!
Interested in finding your ideal Executive Assistant, someone who can facilitate communication with your team and help you scale up your business?
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