imapMyTeam Blog

Minimize Message Misfires

Tick, Tick, Tick… the minutes pass like hours and your attention has expired too.
Tick, Tick, Tick… some people seem to be getting this more than I am, why?
Tick, Tick, Tick… note to self – get someone else to present next time.

We have all been there. Someone presents to us, or we present to them and it goes over flat. You wonder why.

Or,

10 minutes into the report or presentation you think – wow they missed the mark. You are frustrated. It’s not that you can’t follow the content; it is the way it is put together that makes it difficult to get to what you need. You think you would have done it differently.

Have you been there? Sure have; we all have and here is why.

The simple truth is what attracts and interests us as people is varied. We each have a unique filter of what we let in or block out. That filter will:

1) influence the way we are inclined to transmit messages and
2 ) dictate the way we prefer to receive others messages to us.

When your communication filters are in sync with those you are communicating with, the message clicks naturally. While that natural connection is great; more often than not we have differences that cloud the communication creating a potential message misfire.

For example if you really love data and prepare a detailed number-centric communication to someone who is not interested in data two things will have happened. One is that your message will not be as well received as you want and you wasted your time putting all of that detail together for that person.
Another example is written communication. If you love to write you may be tempted to write quite a bit -use too many words (in their opinion) and you will have created a document that other person will unlikely read in its entirety. A high level summary would have sufficed. Once again, the message is muddled and you spent time on something you did not need to.

We have added a new report to imapMyTeam® called Your Communication Blind Spots that will give you insight to the areas you may overuse, or underuse because it is something YOU like or don’t like, rather than what the other person prefers. Ideally, you are creating the presentation or communication to what appeals to them, not you.

Use the insights from Your Communication Blind Spots when you are getting ready to select a method to communicate with others for a more on-target and readily accepted message.


Save time, prevent message misfires, get others onboard quickly. You have to like that message!