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ADEPT Communication: A Model of Communication for Young Professionals
ADEPT Communication
A Model of Communications for Young Professionals
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By: Jonathan Burman, The Best Workplace, LLC
You are starting out in a new company or new career. You want your light of positive energy and ideas to shine out like a beacon, compelling others to listen! You want to you tell the world about your skills and do it in a way that conveys your identity and style. How do you communicate that you are knowledgeable and unique? This is a tough balance.
You can do this by considering the Audience, being Dynamic, Engaging, Projecting, and Telling (ADEPT) in your communications. The ADEPT model was developed to ensure clarity of content and conveying a compelling style at the same time.
Audience
If you want your written and spoken words to stick, you need to adjust your style and language for your audience. Consider this: If you live in France, you need to speak French to be understood. Seems like common sense, but we forget the simple idea of adapting our speaking and writing to the style/culture of the listener. If your listener is an engineer, they may want more specifics, so provide an appendix or attachment with details. If they are someone in sales or marketing, they may prefer a lively conversation via Zoom or the phone. While this will not apply with everyone in every position, the idea is to put yourself in the shoes of the person receiving the message.
For instance, most executives are short on time, and they have many competing priorities. When you are communicating with them, Keep It Short and Simple (KISS), write and speak in bullet points, and be prepared for pointed questions to which you may not have a ready answer for.
A general rule for business communications is if you don’t know the person or audience at all, default to formal and succinct (bullet point summaries). Keep you messages to three main points such as Problem, Solution, Proposal or What, Why, How and always be prepared to say, “I don’t know, and I will find out and get back to you.”
Dynamic
I am often in a classroom or virtual meeting setting. During presentations, students and sometimes seasoned professionals will stand stiff as a plank and speak in a long flat sentence often overly peppered with “umms” and “likes.” of the greatest communicators throughout history (Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, Oprah), and you will find that their written and spoken style was very dynamic. They all used the pause for dramatic effect. The pause allows the audience to “digest” the information. You can do this in written form by “chunkifying” and writing shorter sentences. Don’t cram. Break your ideas down to bite-sized chunks. Another thing the pause does is it allows you a chance to breath and gather your thoughts. When I coach leaders to pause, count to 4, and take a breath … their “umms” and “likes” magically disappear and they appear (and feel) more confident.
Engaging
You will often hear people say this about an effective speaker, “They were so engaging!” What does that mean? Generally it means people felt like the speaker was talking straight to them. This can be achieved through direct eye contact, using hand gestures, changing your facial expressions often, and asking questions of the audience. A great way to develop the ability to be engaging is to take an acting class or attend Toastmasters.
How can you be engaging in writing? You can use “grabbers,” which can be a funny story, alarming statistic, powerful quote, or thoughtprovoking question. We see this every day, often in the form of headlines such as, “Are you prepared for Armageddon?”, “75% of Americans Are Stressed by Headlines” or “Dr. Phil DESTROYS Dr. Oz”. While dramatic phrasing is eye-catching, humorous and uplifting stories can help you stand out and create positive messaging.
Projecting
This is mostly for in-person communication, but it is often overlooked by many young professionals. By projecting I mean taking deep breaths, speaking from the diaphragm, and not allowing others to talk over you.
In meetings, classrooms, or Zoom people will often talk over one another. Guess who gets heard the most? Yes, the person with the loudest voice. Women are frequently the injured party in this scenario, so it is especially true for young professional women to learn these skills. To overcome this, we need to learn how to project our voices and learn to deal with interruptions tactfully.
If someone is talking over you, take a deep breath and say assertively, “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me ... I wasn’t finished.” Another variation of this, which I use, is repeating “Please let me finish” over and over until they let me finish.
Telling in this context means using stories, interesting facts, humor, colorful language and metaphors. Again, think back to some of the greatest communicators you’ve ever heard. They are probably telling a compelling story using the “story arc” of “once upon a time there was peace - then there was a struggle and we banded together - then there was peace again”. Or they relayed a funny story about putting together a gas grill (let’s say it ended with me having a singed new hair style), or told a joke about the magic pig with a wooden leg (punchline: “you don’t eat ‘em all at one time”). The world’s best communicators are also very adept at using colorful language and metaphors. Consider this opening passage from Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech:
“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”
It flows with incredible visual language using the metaphors of shadow, beacon light, flames, and the long night.
Recently I received an email from a client who wrote, “Sad to say our UX (user interface) is a journey that few people want to take. The seemingly endless tabs and sub-menus leaves them lost, confused, and not wanting to take the trip again.” This was to describe a poor web design for a medical office, but it sure was telling and engaging at the same time.
Consider for your next communication, whether it be written, virtual, or in-person, how can you use ADEPT to find you voice? We need to hear you. For you, dear future leaders, are truly our beacon light to guide us into the future.
About the Author
Jonathan Burman is a talent
development professional with 25 years of leadership and talent management experience. As a consultant and employee he has worked with such firms as CIGNA, MASCO Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Pep Boys, and Koch Industries. His is currently a Performance Coach and Instructor for Emory University’s Continuing Education. He received his Masters Degree in I/O psychology from LaSalle University, is a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt, Project Management Professional, ProSci Change Management consultant, and Certified Master Coach.
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