Lead In 30 Podcast

Three Ways to Communicate More Efficiently

• Russ Hill

Share episode

Strong communicators make strong leaders. In this episode Lone Rock Leadership co founder Russ Hill shares three tips for more efficiently communicating in meetings and in one-on-one chats.

Meetings shouldn’t feel like a maze. We walk you through a simple set of moves that transform wandering discussions into sharp decisions: take a clear, movable position, ask direct questions that reveal where people really stand, and read the story their behavior tells beyond their words. These techniques are built from years of coaching senior executives and observing what actually accelerates results inside complex organizations.

We start by reframing the opening minutes of any meeting. Instead of circling the topic, set a pace by offering a concise position that others can react to. Then prime the room: ask for perspectives, pause to show you’re listening, fill a few seconds while people gather their thoughts, and invite someone to start. When the comments come, validate fast and keep the momentum with Who’s next? This small change expands participation, reduces awkwardness, and prevents the facilitator monologue that quietly shuts a room down.

From there, we show how direct questions cut weeks of guesswork. Whether you’re pricing a keynote, aligning on a product timeline, or negotiating priorities across functions, precision prompts like What range do you need us to be in? and What do you not like about this plan? reveal constraints early and save endless back-and-forth. Finally, we confront a hard truth: most people share only 60 to 75 percent of what they think. To access the rest, ask What else am I missing? and pay close attention to consistent behavior—follow-through, responsiveness, and initiative—as the real signal of commitment.

If you’re ready to lead faster and communicate with less friction, this playbook will help you run better meetings, make cleaner decisions, and raise your value as a leader. If it helps, share it with a teammate, subscribe for more practical tools, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. What’s the first question you’ll ask differently this week?

--
Visit the Lone Rock Leadership Website:
https://www.lonerock.io

Connect with me on LinkedIn or to send me a DM:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russleads/

Tap here to check out my first book, Decide to Lead, on Amazon. Thank you so much to the thousands of you who have already purchased it for yourself or your company!

--
About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



SPEAKER_00:

Three ways to be more efficient in your communication with others. It's such an important leadership skill. And we're digging into it in this episode.

SPEAKER_02:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell. You cannot be serious. Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01:

It's time to end the confusion. Get the new book by the founders of Lone Rock Leadership. See why executives at Lockheed Martin, Cigna, Teva, Chili's, and so many other companies are praising Deliver. Why some leaders get results and most don't. You can download the first chapter right now and request two free copies shipped to you at LoneRock.io.

SPEAKER_00:

We are so close to that actually being true. At the time that this episode is being released, we don't have the book quite ready for the public. We've been handing it out to certain clients here and there and gave it out at the event we had in Sundance a few weeks ago. But there are just even today a few things that we we that were identified that we've got to tweak. When you've got almost 400 pages, you you you you've got things that uh that reveal themselves that you didn't know were um were needing to be addressed that need to be fixed. So anyway, we're we're at we're we're doing that. And soon, by the time a lot of you are listening to this episode, what what what was just said is accurate. You can go to LoneRock.io, download the first chapter, and order a couple of free copies to be shipped to you, but it may not be ready right at this moment, at the time this episode's coming out. By the way, welcome into the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we'll give you a framework, a model, a best practice, and experience to share with you to help you more effectively lead others. My name is Russ Hill. I make my living coaching consulting senior executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies. You can find out more about our executive consulting firm as well as our leadership development training that you can buy right off the shelf. Lead in 30, adapt in 30, decide in 30, power in 30. They're all available at LoneRock.io. Okay, so in this episode, I want to talk about three things that that will improve your ability to communicate with others. And I talk about communication a ton because it's so critical. So critical. Whether you're in sales, whether you're in, I don't care what department, functional area you're in, and whether you have direct reports or not, but if you want to lead others, if you want to be a manager, a VP, a director, an executive, um a business owner, whatever it might be, you've got to get good. Well, you don't have to. You could be you could be mediocre in those things and not communicate well, but if you can communicate effectively and become more efficient in your communication, it just increases your value as a leader dramatically. So let's go into these three things. I'm gonna get right to it and then uh break down why I picked these three things. There are lots more than three. And if you go through and listen to different episodes in the past and scroll through kind of the topic list, you'll see lots of episodes around communication that have different skills or different tactics that I'm not gonna get to today that would also fit under this category. But today, these are the three that are on my mind. The first one, some of these you've heard me talk about before, but I'm gonna reinforce them because they're they're so critical. So the first thing that I have to talk about when it comes to being an effective communicator, whether that's with your team, with other executives or leaders on the team, whether it's with customers, whether it's with vendors, whether it's I don't care who it is, you need to take a position. It accelerates conversation so much. When you start a meeting and say, hey, you all, I know we're here today to talk about our product strategy for next year or the next six months, or we're here to talk about our marketing, whatever, or our sales this, or this event that we're planning coming up, or a change to this policy, whatever the topic, whoever the invitees are, take a position. And so I'm not saying come in and tell everybody what you're gonna do, but you want to take a position in order to have people react to that. So, and we teach this concept, right? We teach it as part of decide in 30, as part of our decision-making framework under the topic of discussion, how to lead a discussion on a on a decision. And uh when you're considering a decision, we talk about listen, position, listen. You've heard me talk about that or or teach that in other episodes. And the whole idea is I start the meeting and I say, okay, you all, we're here to talk about the marketing plan for next year. We're here to talk about the product release, and uh, you all saw that on the agenda and whatever. I'm uh as we get started, I'm interested in any insights or perspective or data or um things that you want to share as we get started. And often when you do that, you're not gonna hear a ton unless this is like meeting number four of an ongoing discussion. And then then people are gonna have the background of previous discussions and they're gonna come in with some opinions. But if you're just getting started, this is meeting number one, or it's a it's it's the only meeting because it's not a very big topic or very critical topic, then you're gonna have to do a little bit to prime the pump to get the conversation going. But I'm gonna I I want to demonstrate my openness to your opinions and perspectives and thoughts and feelings as we start the meeting. So, hey, you all, we have this on the meeting. Uh you saw this on the agenda, uh, on your calendar. Um, before I dive too deep into it, what thoughts do you have? What perspective did you want to share? What things have been on your mind? And then when you ask that question, you have to realize you all, I've seen this mistake all the time. No one, hardly anyone, hardly ever will someone be ready to answer your question, to raise their hand, to speak up, to come off mute the first time you ask a question. So don't anticipate, don't expect that anyone's gonna have something to say. So if I come, if I hit you out of the blue with, all right, y'all, thanks for coming to the meeting, what do you have to say about our product timeline? Well, you just finished another meeting, you just came out of the restroom, you just you've got, you know, an email or text that you just received on your mind. You're not even here mentally yet. So I'm catching you off guard. There's no way in the world I can expect you to answer that in 2.4 seconds. So I never, effective communicators never expect, anticipate that anyone will answer a question the first time they ask it. You're asking the question the first time to prime the pump, to lay the foundation. So it sounds like this. So you all think as we start the meeting, I'm interested in getting your perspective about our product timeline. So what questions, observations, data, whatever it is, however you want to word it, do you have as we start the meeting? And then I pause a second or two. And the reason I'm pausing right there is not for them to answer. The reason I'm pausing one or two seconds is so that they know I actually intend to listen. What questions do you all have, or what data or observations do you have? One, two, three, pause. Now speak again, and here's what it sounds like. So what I'm looking for, and what you're doing here is you're elaborating a little bit and you're filling time, knowing that now they're thinking. So you need to fill 15 to 30 seconds, not five minutes, not a ton, because then they're gonna think, oh, well, you you didn't really want my perspective. You were just asking that rhetorically, and you're now you're gonna go on your monologue. No. So I'm not giving insight, I'm not answering anything. I'm just I'm filling some time and I'm priming the pump. I'm giving them time to process. So after that one, after that three-second pause that I come back and I say, So, what I'm looking for here, you all, is as we get started, we're gonna dig into this topic over the next hour, and I'm interested in what questions you have. I know you all have been thinking about this. Like this has been on our minds. I've had lots of good discussions with many of you over the last few days, last few weeks about this topic. I'm filling time. And and and so um I'm interested here to have the uh conversation where where you all will bring up some of those things and we can dig into it. So who wants, it's not, does anyone want to say something? Who wants to start us off? Now, this time, you're not speaking. You're totally comfortable with silence. Who would like to start us off? The only time I might ask the question a third time is who wants so so I say, so who wants to start us off? Nobody speaks. I wait about five seconds. I'm looking into the camera if I'm on a virtual meeting, I'm looking at the group, if I'm in person, I'm looking into their eyes, looking around, not staring at any one person, but I'm surveying them so they know I'm actually looking for it, that I'm expecting them to speak. And then if I need to, I'll say, I know you all have lots of opinions, somebody start us off. And then you just let there be silent. Someone will speak. So what here's what happens a lot of times, it's just cringe worthy. All right, you also'm really interested in getting your perspectives as we start the meeting. Who wants to start us off? Uh, and then we make a lame joke, or we look way weak because we laugh and we feel uncomfortable and we make everybody cringe because we feel uncomfortable, like maybe they don't want to speak or whatever. So we say something like, I guess you guys don't have anything to say, or I know that that's really whatever, or um, you know, maybe I didn't ask the question the right way. We look, we start making fun of ourselves, we start making a joke, we whatever. You appear so weak, so weak in that moment. Like with senior executives of the world's biggest companies, if I did that, they would boot me out of the room. I look bush league, I look amateur, I look like, oh my gosh, come on, Russ. So I'm not making fun of myself, I'm not making fun of them, I'm not I'm I'm not make saying anything that's cringe worthy, I'm not laughing like uh, you know, the uh nervous laughter, like I thought that you all might have something to say. I guess there's not a lot of opinion on this, and so I thought there would be a lot, but what stop it. You look small. You look bigger when you say it the way that I've said it. So I know you all have and and you come back and you restate when you expect someone to weigh in the first time you ask a question and then you start filling the space, or you go, I guess there's not a lot of topic or a lot of feedback on this, so I'm just gonna dive into whatever, whatever. Small, not true. They have opinions, they've got perspective. You haven't done an effective job getting them to speak. It's on you. So you've got to, again, don't anticipate they'll ever answer the first question. I never do. Sometimes you'll get hands up immediately. That's a bonus, that's a gift, that's awesome. I never expect that. Whether I'm on stage in front of 500 or 800 or 2,000 people, or I'm in the room with 10 executives. I never expect anyone to speak immediately. And the look on my face, my body language is that I'm totally comfortable with it. And then I do everything I've I've taught you so far. Okay? That's critically, critically important. So um, so now let's go back to so now you hear, you've done all that. Now there's some conversation going. Thanks, Linda, for starting us off. I really appreciate that. You don't need to react to everything that's said. In other words, Linda speaks, and now you go off on a five-minute monologue about what you think about what Linda said. Stop. We're not looking for you to react to everything. So it's simply you, but you've got to validate what Linda said. Otherwise, people are like, oh, I'm not speaking up because he didn't even really seem to pay attention to what Linda said. So here's what it sounds like. Linda, great comment. Totally appreciate you speaking up and sharing that. It's great insight. Who's next? See how that works? Linda's like, okay, that's it. Yeah. And and I might even ask Linda a follow-up. So Linda, can you say more about that? I do this all the time. And in especially in the room with people. So Linda will speak up and she'll say, I just don't really know whether this is the right direction. And then the simple response is, Linda, say more. Linda, give us some context. Linda, um, can you elaborate? Like a very short response. I never have had, never have had someone say, Um, I that's really all I got. They always have more to say. Linda, great comment. Thanks for that perspective. Um, say more about that. Because I want to, and then she's gonna pause and go, well, and typically she's gonna tell a story. Well, we I was with Mikey last week, or we were with the customer, or this, whatever, or she's gonna provide data. You know, I was looking at our reports and whatever, whatever. Now she's gonna make the case a little bit more. And now I come back and I go, Linda, really good comment. Thanks for that. That's that's really valuable. I appreciate you starting us off. That's all I'm saying. Okay, who's next? Because what happens is so often you, me, all of us, when we're leading an ineffective discussion, now we go off and react to Linda for five minutes and everyone else forgets what they were gonna say. Or now I'm going down a rabbit hole on just the one topic or perspective Linda brought up when I want to still hear everybody. And the next few comments have nothing to do with what Linda said potentially. So I don't want to sidetrack the conversation. Great comment, Linda. That's and I'm validating. She needs to feel like I actually heard her. I really appreciate you sharing that experience with the customer. That's valuable. Ten seconds max in my response. Who's next? And you might have to wait a minute. I know a lot of you all, I know a lot of you, again, I'm second time. I know a lot of you have pers uh uh opinions on this as well. Linda, thanks for starting us off. Who's next? And you just look at them. And then Mike speaks up, or whomever. Okay, great, same thing. Mike, totally good. I I thanks for thanks for sharing that. Totally appreciate it. I'm not going anymore. Next. And now there are exceptions to the approach I'm talking about, but generally speaking, this is really valuable. Now I'm gonna offer my position, right? And I take a position to um to um to speed up the conversation. So it would also look appropriate. It would also be appropriate for me to come into the meeting. It doesn't have to be listen, position, listen. It can be position listen. You with me? You all, as we start this discussion, I'm gonna take a position. I'm totally movable on this. That is such a critical word when you're taking a position. And don't use it if it's not accurate. So I'm totally movable on this, but in order to accelerate the conversation, really get us going, give you something to react to. I uh I've got a couple of slides that I want to show you where I'm I'm gonna offer one path we could take as it go as it pertains to the product timeline next year or whatever the topic is. And then you take a position. I'll give you an in uh, for instance, of what we do. One of the ways we do this as a firm is in front of an executive team or any setting, we often use a slide in our first conversations with a group that uh that says this. The slide says the natural state of teams is dysfunction. Because we're there to talk about leadership development and whatever, whatever. And so to get the group talking, we come in immediately in our first slide, often in a deck, is the natural state of teams is dysfunction. All right, you all, um, talk to somebody next to you, pull up a chair next to somebody, circle in groups of three or four, depending on the group we're with, right? React to that. Is it true or is it not true? And then we unleash this conversation in the room about whether or not this statement's true. And so often we'll say to the group in the room, we actually don't know if that slide's accurate. And they laugh. Like, we just wanted to get you talking about the natural state of teams. And it just unleashes this conversation and immediately gets someone to react because we take a position. I I talk a lot in the past episodes about my experience leading in being a leader in the media space. Great media personalities. I'm not saying this is about news, because news is something different, and we don't have time to get into that today. But in like a sports talk show host, you come on, you're paid to take a position. The Dallas Cowboys need to fire the coach. The whatever, whatever have they they shouldn't be in the top 10. Like I'm taking a position because it forces the conversation to move forward. You're like, oh, really? Like, as opposed to going today, we're gonna talk about this, that, and the other, and then you take a position five minutes into the show, you've lost all the viewers or listeners. So you come in guns blazing with the position. Here's what I think. Boom! I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm making that announcement so that I can accelerate the conversation. Okay, let's get to the next thing. Item number two in uh in efficiency and communication. I want you to focus on, it would be awesome for you to focus on asking more direct questions that reveal where someone else is. I do this with our potential clients or even clients all the time. So we're in a conversation. Let me tell you how the sales process often goes. And so you're meeting with, let's say it's an ex, it's uh it's an HR leader on the training side of our business. We're meeting with an HR leader, human resources, or an LD learning and development leader, and they're new to us. And they want us to come speak at one of their meetings. They've got this sales conference or a an a manager's conference, virtual or in person, and first quarter. They want us to keynote or come speak to this, or or can we help them plan whatever content? And uh, I just did this with a Fortune 10 company and uh a four-hour, or I can't remember if it was three or four hour um virtual um leadership summit. What do they call that thing? It's not a leadership summit, but a uh leadership forum. And they wanted me to come in and speak for the last hour. And this is an organization that was new to us, we haven't worked with them before, and uh, and and and so I'm on a call uh and or one of our team members, I can't remember who's on the call. And um, but this happens all the time. And I'll say to them at the end, um, well, let me let me play it out uh how it how it used to be. This is how I did it five, ten years ago. All right, thanks so much, Lisa. Great call. I appreciate it. Yep. Thanks for your interest in us. We'll get you a proposal that um we'll uh that will lay out what we can do for you, and then you let us know. Okay, great. Yeah, that's so great, Russ, or whomever. Um, thanks. Yeah, send that to us. And I'm thinking, I don't know where Lisa is on price. Like, do I quote$5,000 to her or$500,000 to her? You know, I'm being extreme here, right? And um just forget the figures, but I I'm I don't know what her budget is. I don't know what her organization has allocated for this event. I don't know whether she she we send a proposal to her for$5,000 and she's gonna go, oh my gosh, that is so low. Like, are they gonna suck? Or she's gonna get the$5,000 and go, holy cow, I thought they'd do it for$100. You know, again, I'm making it up, I'm exaggerating. And so um, so then we we just kind of guess and we talk amongst ourselves, you know, in every organization. We're like, okay, I think the price is this. Yeah, that's what we typically charge. Go with this rate, but give them an option two of whatever. So we fire off that email. And then Lisa doesn't even look at it, probably for a week. Um, this is, you know, in some instances, and then Lisa, then Lisa opens the email and she she looks at it, and and we don't know when she opened it and and what, or, or maybe we have a tracker on there, and we can see that she opened it and she opens it, but we have no idea on her reaction, and then we don't hear from her for two weeks. I'm saying this is about any organization, right? I you know how this process plays out, those of you in sales, and then you don't hear from Lisa like, I guess it was too high. I guess we didn't hit on the right things in the proposal, I guess whatever. And then you don't hear anything, and then Lisa finally emails you back and then says, Hey, I want to talk to you about whatever. And there's all this ambiguity. It's total inefficiency in communication. So, how do I do that now? Here's what it goes. Hey, Lisa, great call. Totally appreciate your interest. So um, let's talk investment for a second, what this is gonna look like. Do you all have a budget for this event coming up? Yeah, we do. Okay. Well, what range do you need us to be in? Well, I need you to be between um, well, between uh$20,000 and$30,000. Okay. Yeah. Well, then, so$20,000,$30,000. Um, that's that's what you all have budgeted for this? Yeah, we do, but I've got some other m some of that money I want to use for something else, and we got a whatever. Okay. So what I'm thinking we'll do, Lisa, is we'll give you a proposal. We'll give you two options. And one will be$20,000 and one will be$30,000. So one on kind of the lower end of that, and one on the higher end, and then you decide, oh, that would be so helpful or whatever. I've just saved us a month. A month of total communication going back and forth. We're not guessing anymore. This isn't just about sales, you all. And by the way, some people will be like, well, we don't really have, they'll be sly on it. Well, we don't have a lot of money allocated for this. Actually, we have no budget, but I think I could scrape something up. Well, what range do you need us to be in? Well, I don't really know, to be honest. We need to be okay, now we're just totally inefficient. We're gonna play a guessing game, and this is really gonna take a long time. And so I am such a fan now in communication of where are you at on this? Forget sales for a moment. So, um, Jeff, great conversation about the marketing plan. Um, where are you at on this? How do you feel about um what we what we what we propose? I think it's really good. I think that the uh the approach you guys are using is um is right. I think the strategy you laid out is a smart one. Jeff, what do you not like about it? What what needs to change? What part of the pro of the plan that we just showed you um are do you have some concerns about? Well, you know, there is that one piece great. Can you say more about that? Like, just ask questions. Direct questions that reveal where someone is. The customer, the vendor, your boss, your direct reports, your colleagues, the other department heads, the functional area leads. Just ask them a direct question. It accelerates conversation so much. And if they don't ask you a direct question about it, tell them. Let me give you know what that was a great presentation, um um, Sam, and I wanted to react to it. Um, are you open to some feedback about it? Yeah, I am. Well, um, I'm not sure that we're gonna be able to launch the product on the timeline you're saying. Wow, you just saved Sam so much guessing. Organizations and teams that move at a faster speed and with greater efficiency have leaders that ask direct questions that reveal where someone is. And when you ask the question, you pause and let them answer. And then when they they dodge or they weave or they vaguely answer, you ask a direct question again. What range do you need us to be in? What parts of it did you not feel good about? What would you adjust if you were us? Last comment uh in this podcast. My third area. So I uh area number one, take a position. That's a that's a massive unlock for efficient communication. Item number two, point number two, ask direct questions that reveal where someone is. Number three, you've got to realize I just need you to acknowledge this. I don't care who the other person is, there are a few exceptions, but not many. I need you to realize that people say 60 to 75 percent of what they're really thinking. People say 60 to 75 percent of what they're really thinking, and it's almost never above 90%. So do not ever be fooled to think they are saying everything. They're holding back. Now, some of the people that you're communicating with, you've got a great relationship and a lot of history with them. They're still not giving you more than 90%. I mean, hardly ever. They're outliers to this. You know who they are. You know, you you know if you're one of them, but the vast majority of us, we're holding back on a comment or two. We're saying most of what we think. But there's some additional things that we're holding back on. When I'm in front of a client, and whether it's a senior executive team, it's a large crowd of people, whatever it might be, or it's one-on-one with a leader, I just know that they're only giving me 60 to 75%, and they can turn on me at any moment. You know what I mean, right? Yeah, you can be their best friend, the greatest person in the world to them, but that could change in a nanosecond. And so I know that they're giving me 60 to 75% of what they're really thinking. And so if I want to get a little bit more, I'm like, what do you what other feedback would you give me? What other thoughts do you have? I really appreciate you being direct and honest and candid with me. Is there something that I'm missing here? You know, you you can dig a little bit deeper in that, but just know that that's human nature. All right? That saves you so much. Because so I so many times I see leaders at all levels of the orchard that think, well, they they said this. Really? We had a I'll tell you one example. Again, back in the world of sales, we had a leader, an executive who a few years ago, this is like three or four years ago, we had this big deal um in front of him. It was it was seven figures, right? Over a million dollars, and it involved a ton of leaders and a ton of work um on on uh from our firm. It was a you know, a Fortune 50 company in a in a big scope of work. Really, really, really big scope of work. And um, and so we we had talked with this leader about this a seven-figure proposal, and he constantly said, yep, yep, oh yeah, we're working on that. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It never happened. Never happened. And this was someone who was pretty direct and honest with us, and but he just he didn't people don't want to tell you no. They don't want to, they don't want to say, well, actually, whatever. And so those of you in sales, especially, you know, it's so rare the client that just says it happens sometimes. It says, actually, I don't think we have any interest in this right now. Oh, blus you. Like you just saved me so many emails. You saved me so many phone calls, or in meetings between departments and functions. Actually, for right now, that's not something that we're gonna prioritize. Oh my gosh, that's so helpful. Thank you for saying that out loud. You saved us so much work. And and and and so, yet that's so that's so rare. Um, usually people will tell you what they think you want to hear. And knowing that is super helpful. And uh I always tell you know, my colleagues at our firm, you know, my especially my my the my business partners in it, um, I just always tell them, let the behavior speak louder than the words. The behavior of the person. Are they responding to the emails? Are they are they leaning in? Are they asking questions? Are they getting things done on time? Are they showing initiative? Are they are they doing whatever? Who whomever this is, client, team member, uh, prospect, whatever, their behavior, consistent behavior, not the outliers. There are things we all screw up from time to time. So I'm not talking about the outliers. You ignore that stuff, uh, generally speaking. But their consistent day in and day in, uh, day out behavior, let that speak louder than the words. That's television. You 100% of what uh of what they think. Anyway, effective communication. It's so critical. I hope I've given you something in this episode in the last 30 minutes that's causing you to think about an adjustment you can make. These are things that I have unlocked in a lot of years of studying communication and in working really, really hard to become more effective in it. It's a game changer in affecting your market value as a leader. Effective communicators are valued so much higher in the marketplace. I don't care what marketplace that is, effective communicators are valued more than those that don't communicate effectively. So some things to think about in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.

SPEAKER_03:

Your sentence.