Steady Communication in a Fluid Landscape

Any person on the receiving end of a message wants to know: What’s in it for me? Even those who aren’t looking for a personal advantage need to know if they’re being kept up-to-date, are there as a sounding board, or will be involved in next steps.

With increased reliance on asynchronous communication, business platforms with built-in communication tools, and the unpredictability of life, strengthening your communication skills will help you get your point across. It might even…

• decrease the number of emails or messages you send,
• shorten the amount of time you’re in meetings,
• improve the quality of workplace output, or
• keep you from having to repeat yourself. Again.

Strive to replace empty talk with concrete action:

🧭 Four Pillars of Merchant Method™: Trust in retail relationships
📚 Merchant Skills: Simple but significant communication
✏️ Your Assignment: Realist approach to build communication skills
📌 Bulletin Board: “Relationship Rescue” resources

🧭 FOUR PILLARS OF MERCHANT METHOD
Communication is a key part of building trust

Effective communication is the foundation of retail relationships — with customers, team members, and other businesses. This week’s Merchant skill focuses on the People pillar of The Four Pillars of Merchant Method.

New to the Merchant Method or need a refresher? Get oriented.
 
📚 MERCHANT SKILLS
Get to the point but don't compromise the message

​Context is essential to every conversation because it improves alignment and decreases misunderstandings. A reliable three-point communication agenda helps you focus your thoughts and get to the point. Effectively.

The keys to using a simple outline is ensuring each of the points are related and comparable.

Let's explore effective three-point agendas:

• Completed work, current work, upcoming work
• Insights from last week, this week’s goals, next week’s focus
• Expected performance in: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days
• What would you like me to: continue, start, stop?
• Seasonal plan, seasonal results, response for upcoming season

You can use these types of agendas to guide internal and external conversations to meet a range of goals.

This approach requires you to think about who you’re speaking with and for what purpose. Challenging yourself to develop a simple yet effective agenda like the ones above will move your conversations forward.

✏️ YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Practice makes permanent

​Identify the person or people you communicate with the most and in what context. Choose one of the communication models above or develop your own three-point model. Use it at least three times per week for the next three weeks.

📌 BULLETIN BOARD
Like therapy for your business relationships

• Is there a misunderstanding or is it a genuine conflict? Learn how to clear things up in the workplace.
• Has your favorite working relationship become a headache? Find out if a high maintenance partnership is worth fixing and how to salvage it.
• Don’t enter a creative collaboration — even with a business bestie — without learning about what it takes to successfully work with another creative.