Coaching

To be effective, key messages need to be several things at once. They need to be

• brief
• positive
• clear
• consistent
• credible and
• durable.

They need to be positive because it’s hard to remember negative statements. That takes abstraction, and that means your brain needs to work more. That’s because back when nature’s engineers designed the structure of our mind, they mostly copied what was already there in animals. And since animals aren’t really good at abstract thinking, at the subconscious level, we aren’t either.

For proof, consider Richard Nixon’s famous statement at the height of the Watergate scandal when he said: “I am not a crook.” The result was that everybody remembers him as a crook even though he clearly said he wasn’t one. That’s how our memory works.

Key messages also need to be brief and clear: too long or too complicated, and the audience simply does not get them. Key messages need to be consistent. If they contain contradictions or beg questions, your audience will start thinking, and that means they’ll stop listening.

Above all, key messages need to be credible. You are only going to convince people if they find you believable, so you need to be the first one to believe what you say or people will tell. They will tell from how you look and how you sound more than from what you say. 55 per cent of your audience’s attention goes to your visual appearance, 38 per cent goes to your acoustic performance. People will trust your body language and the sound of your voice more than your words.

So take key messages seriously. Work on them early, formulating them as complete sentences. Memorizing them should be rather easy, because they will connect to something you already believe in, or they will simply not work. And when you’ve got those key messages down pat, the rest of your interview, your presentation or that all-important meeting will be easy.