Prepare pitches or pay the price

If you don’t prepare what you mean to say, you’ll say what you don’t mean.

No actor steps onto the stage without memorizing his lines. Entrepreneurs fare no better than an ad-lib actor when they fail to prepare for critical communications. As Bill McGowan says, “Spontaneity is another word for regret (Mcgowan, pg. 174).”

Jodie Foster’s acceptance speech at the 2013 Golden Globe awards began well. She’d prepared her presentation, rehearsed it, and executed it before thousands. Then she decided to deviate from the script. The result was a diatribe that damaged her image and the respect she’d gained from years of careful preparation (Mcgowan, pg. 172).

While many of us may not have a lofty reputation to uphold, a habitual lack of preparation can restrain even talented individuals from holding any level of influence or gaining traction in their business venture.

Spontaneity is commonplace in business, particularly the tech industry. Open offices encourage employees to give walk-up requests and start conversations that drag in everyone close by. A meeting with 30 minutes of content that’s scheduled for an hour stretches on with off-the-cuff discussions which often don’t apply to the meeting’s subject at all. In this fast-paced environment one must speak quickly, often before he’s considered what to say, before the chance has past and everyone’s moved to the next item. Even meeting scheduled weeks in advance can be hastily drawn together and executed with little preparation and no rehearsal. This style of communication invites costly mistakes and inoculates the company from their only cure; better preparation.

The difference between a prepared meeting or conversation and an impromptu one is visceral. The first leads to concise language and confidence, the second to repetition and anxiety. My application from this insight is to recognize the value of preparation before important conversations and to adjust my schedule accordingly.

As I have applied the call-first principle in last week’s reading, I’ve prepared for my calls with research into the person and company that I’m communicating with. This has made a positive impact, not only in the quality of my interactions, but I enjoy myself more than writing endless emails. Adding on that insight, I’d like to spend more time preparing for internal meetings as I’ve done with external clients.

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