What would you say if you only had 3 seconds to say it? Statistics show that a person opens or closes his thinking to another person within the first three seconds of a conversation. Think back over the conversations you’ve had today. Did your approach open the other person’s mind, or close it?

In our modern world of tweets and status updates, attention spans are growing shorter all the time. If you’ve got something important to say, it’s more important now than ever that you don’t “bury the lead,” as they say.

Here are a few tips for getting your point across:

• Understand your audience: Different people communicate differently. Before you begin speaking, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. What about the topic you’re about to cover will be most important to him/her?
• Don’t dance around the issue – especially when delivering criticism. Sugar-coating bad news is not helpful to either party. The other person can usually tell when it’s going to be bad news, and downplaying the seriousness of issues will only drag out their resolution.
• Watch your body language: 92% of communication is based on paralanguage, or all of the elements that surround your words. Crossed arms will tell the other person you’re shut off, regardless of what your words are trying to convey.

Remember, you’ve only got three seconds to hook them. Use the time wisely.

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