MONDAY BYTES — October 19, 2015
Could your words be holding you back?
Your ability to express yourself well in words can directly affect the outcome of your grant proposals, teaching opportunities, fundraising campaigns, community education programming, as well as your own concert bookings and promotion.
When you think about it, your ability to communicate also helps determine the quality of your teaching and of your ensemble rehearsals.
The rationale that “you’re just not good with words” doesn’t let you off the hook.
So how specific and clear are you (or could you be)?
It struck me recently how rarely any of us stops to think before we speak or write, “What specifically am I trying to convey here?” or “What is it I REALLY want to say?”
Taking even a split second before we speak or a few seconds to read and edit an email before we send it can make a huge difference in the impact we make on others.
All too often, in our poorly edited written and spoken communications we end up with clichés, generalizations, and vague language that lacks focus and prevents us from making the impact we could.
Let’s look at the issue of word choice in the context of CVs / résumés used in applying for teaching and/or arts leadership positions. You’ve probably seen lists of recommended words for use in résumés. Unfortunately, what’s often missing from such lists are tips on how to use these.
For this week: There’s a good “recommended word list” from the terrific “Find A Job” site. Print the 100 great words list and then with a highlighter mark those words you could appropriately use to detail aspects of your teaching, administrative, or leadership work.
Just doing this may get you feeling more clear and confident about what you have to offer. Go further: try putting the words to work in your CV/résumé.
To detail your teaching and/or entrepreneurial activities, I recommend using bullets (those solid black circles) to highlight the specifics of what you’ve accomplished under each job listing. After each bullet, use an active verb from the list to detail particular aspects of your work accomplishments. Starting with an appropriate (and impressive) active verb will help you focus on the specifics you want the employer to find out.
The value of the recommended words is that they are impressive, specific action verbs. In any language the power is in the active verbs — the energy is in the doing. This is what employers want to know: what have you actually done.
So using more powerful language is NOT about adding overblown descriptive language — fancy sounding adjectives or adverbs. No, it’s the active verbs that pack punch because they point directly to the object—the actual work. What specifically did you teach your students? What projects or curricula did you manage, create, launch, build, or assess?
This week: use the 100 great words list to boost the impact of your CV / résumé.
More help on this topic:
the #1 Problem with CVS
The So What? Test
5 Reasons for Rejections
As always, I love hearing how people are doing, what’s working for them, and what other tips or strategies they recommend!
