Summarizing the Conversation Adds Value and Trust

• 00:04 So your meeting is about to finish.
• 00:06 You can tell the person speaking to you, briefing you, talking to you,
• 00:10 has pretty much said everything they want.
• 00:13 There may come a point when the person says to you, okay,
• 00:18 you got it, any questions?
• 00:20 Don't try to be Mr. or Ms. smarty pants and say, nope, I got it all, no questions.
• 00:26 Now's the time to try to summarize, let's make sure you actually got it.
• 00:32 And this is the perfect time to glance down at your notes.
• 00:35 Look at your notes, look back at the person, you can just say,
• 00:39 if I'm understanding you correctly, what you really want me to do is bom, bom, bom.
• 00:44 Now, you've got a couple of options here of what could happen.
• 00:47 Let's say you got something wrong, now you're not spending the next three weeks
• 00:52 on some project that was not the focus of what your boss or client wanted.
• 00:56 It can be corrected right away.
• 00:58 And typically someone speaking to you is happy to put you right
• 01:03 on the best track and to correct you.
• 01:06 They appreciate the fact that you really listen, that you took notes, that you're
• 01:11 trying to get it, and you need a little bit of a course correction, a calibration.
• 01:17 So there's no damage done in the eyes of the person speaking to you.
• 01:21 In fact, your respect will go up in their eyes,
• 01:24 because you were trying so hard to get it, and they're able to help you more,
• 01:29 even mentor you more in some office situation.
• 01:32 So that's great.
• 01:34 On the other hand, if you're getting what it is they're talking about and you're
• 01:39 throwing back to them the summary that's exactly what they wanted you to get.
• 01:44 Especially if you use some of their words and it's clear that you understand them
• 01:47 and you're not just using buzzwords, they're going to think you're a genius.
• 01:51 They're going to think, finally I've got an employee here, or a vendor,
• 01:56 or a consultant who actually gets it, who actually listens to me.
• 02:01 So many people in life feel like nobody listens to them.
• 02:06 And when you can summarize what somebody says, and not just a sentence or
• 02:12 two, but in a descriptive way, it's very powerful.
• 02:17 You have to use your judgment, of course.
• 02:18 If the meeting is running way over and it's after 6:00 on a Friday,
• 02:24 now's not the time to spend seven minutes summarizing the previous
• 02:28 half hour presentation, or meeting, or briefing.
• 02:32 But certainly, you could spend 30 seconds on it.
• 02:36 If it's not a rush situation and it's an incredibly important presentation,
• 02:41 if your boss just talked to you for two hours about a whole new strategic shift,
• 02:46 and it's 11:00 in the morning.
• 02:48 I certainly might want to spend five minutes summarizing
• 02:53 my notes to the boss to make sure that I got it exactly.
• 02:58 So summary is fantastic, because it further cements the ideas in your head.
• 03:05 If you know you're going to be doing it, it forces you to listen more actively.
• 03:10 It's a chance to correct anything you got wrong at no penalty.
• 03:16 Imagine in college, you can just give out your answers and say,
• 03:19 is this the right answer?
• 03:20 And the teacher says, no, that's the answer.
• 03:21 Well, you'd make an A on every test.
• 03:24 You gotta look at it this way, this is a way to get an A on every test.
• 03:28 You just ask the person speaking to you,
• 03:31 the role of the teacher in this case, are you getting the right answers?
• 03:36 And they'll tell you whether you are or not.
• 03:39 Either way, they're going to like it.
• 03:42 And they're going to like the fact that you're trying hard, and
• 03:47 especially if you get it.
• 03:49 As I mentioned,
• 03:50 if you tell them exactly the message they were expecting using some of the words,
• 03:54 they're going to think you're a genius, and you'll be in great shape.
• 03:58 So don't forget in business communication, summarize again,
• 04:03 pretty much anytime unless you have severe time constraints.

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