In a country where everything is all about speed and the faster we go the better we feel, did anyone ever take time to notice how stupid we look moving at these speeds? We stand in long lines and hurry up and wait for “fast food”. We stay connected 24/7 so we don’t miss anything. We move at a rate of speed that few can match. The simple fact is that moving this fast can sometimes make us look stupid. Hopefully, the examples provided below will give you reason to pause (pun intended) and slow down. Take a look at the last 25 emails your wrote or responded to and see how many typos you made. I do this all the time, and I don’t always catch my errors before I hit the send button. Someone needs to invent a recall button that works for stupid. Spend a few minutes now to read the emails and see if you actually made your intended point or responded to what was being asked of you fully. You might be surprised with what you find. We blaze through emails, our primary means of communication today, like we are racing to a mysterious checkered flag somewhere. By slowing down when we write, we will make fewer mistakes, have less reason to apologize, and look more intelligent to our recipients. As a recruiter, the number of applications, cover letters, and resumes I receive with typos or poor grammar might surprise you. This is the ultimate first impression for you that speaks volumes about you and your abilities. Formatting is not nearly as important as being able to spell recieve versus receive. While the invention of spell checker is great, you have to seriously watch out for the word replacements it chooses. You would be amazed at some of the choices based on how bad you mistyped the initial word. Because of this, it is vital to proof read everything. Moving from written communications to the spoken word doesn’t get any easier. When we do actually have verbal communications, we tend to try and jam everything but the kitchen sink into the conversation. As a sales guy, I love to hear myself talk just as much as any other sales person. I am giving my best effort to be slow to speak and quick to listen as a person and sales guy. I am personally working hard to listen to my kids before barking orders or corrections at them. Try and spend some time to have a conversation with your spouse or good friend. You might learn something you never knew about them. Finally, remember the tortoise (thank you spell checker) and the hare? The steady and slow one wins the race while the spaz running around a mach speed doing twenty things while running a race loses. Speaking as one of those spaz people, I get very overwhelmed with work and life trying to keep up with everything that has to be accomplished. But when I slow down and just put one foot in front of the other, I seem to get more done. I also get things done to a higher quality and at the end of the day, more efficiently. I challenge you all to slow down just a bit and see how much you are missing in business and in life.
Slow Down……You Look Stupid
