Communicating with Business People Requires BLUF

On this episode of the Executive Navigator, my colleague Rich Kidd and I are going to talk about how you can improve your communication to business people as a nonprofit leader. And we're assuming that many of the people on your board are business people., and many of your funders are business people. And we believe, we are convicted, it can be better. Aren't we, Rich? Absolutely. Well, I, I think we have a unique perspective, Chip. You and I both have worked in a number of different contexts. You've worked in a local church. I've worked in a local church. You've worked in business. I've worked in business. We've worked for nonprofit CEOs. We've been on nonprofit boards. So in some ways, I think we're between two worlds, and sometimes those worlds talk to each other and sometimes they aren't. You know, I think it's nonprofit leaders are from Mars and business executives are from Venus or something like that. They need to get in on the same page. You know, it's funny because I, even now, like at VOCA, we serve nonprofits and we, we're coaching and training executives and their teams. But I have another business and where we serve business people delivering a lot of the same kinds of solutions. And what is really interesting is that with a business person, I, I've experienced something I call the 15-minute meeting. You know, it's calendared for 30 minutes. It It's straight to the point. We get done, we like blow through a whole list of action items and decision points, and I'm looking down at the clock and it only took 10 to 15 minutes. And then I'm like, wow, okay, that was a great meeting. And then I'm, and, and I don't know about you, but if I get 15 extra minutes, you know, I'm like, I'm a happy man. You know, like I got 15 extra minutes to do something else. And so we say goodbye and that's it. Flip it around. I'm talking to a nonprofit leader or a pastor who's a potential client or is a client. And it's a 30-minute intro, and a lot of times they don't even realize the meeting was booked for 30 minutes, and we get to the end of the 30 minutes and we haven't even talked about what we were supposed to talk about, and it's just a very, very different orientation towards time, and it's a different style of communicating. Yeah. It's really interesting. Well, you know what it means when a pastor says, "In conclusion," right? Yeah, he's going to keep going for another 20 minutes. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we're sort of, sort of famous for winding our way around, around the mountain a couple of times. So I see misses where, you know, business leaders want to help. They want to be engaged strategically. They have limited time and they want to know exactly from an expert where their time and talent and treasures can be best used. And so I'm glad we're talking about this because I think just some, some real simple pointers for nonprofit leaders will help them connect much deeper, much more effectively with the business leaders that are in their networks. Yeah. So let's dive into some, some practical tips and suggestions. I remember one time I was interviewing Bob Dahl, and Bob is very, very successful investment advisor and manager and very, very committed to the cause of Christ in the world on a lot of boards. And Bob just said, "Bullet points would be nice." And my diagnosis is this, that for some reason it's become generally accepted for nonprofit leaders and even pastors, they have a inductive process of communication where they kind of build their case, share lots of evidence and ideas. Sometimes they're not all connected and then eventually get to the main idea. It's called burying the lead. Uh, yeah. And it's also called inductive communication or reasoning. And I, I find most business people, uh, would prefer deductive communication where you state the main point or the main ask or the main idea first, and then you build a case if necessary. And we actually have a name for it. It's a published thing out there in the world called BLUF, which stands for Bottom Line Up Front Communication. I'll just, it's an acronym. So B stands for bottom line first. You lead with your conclusion, your recommendation, the key decision, the key ask. And I've tried to do this now since I've been advocating it, and it actually caused, part of maybe the reason we don't do it is because requires a little more thinking up front. You know, what am I really asking for in this text or this email? What's the main thing I want them to see and learn? So there's a discipline part of it, but that's the first thing. Bottom line first. The second is logic and evidence. One of my mentors said you should have 3 reasons for everything, and I love that. If you don't have 3 reasons, maybe, maybe your conclusion is actually a little squishy, but I A sentence with 3 bullet points under it about why you want to do this or why you're asking this, or boy, your business people will rise up and call you blessed if you could do that. Urgency and action, clarify what are the next steps, when. Yeah, I'm sure you've done SMART goals, Rich, and they're specific, they're measurable, but they're time-bound. There has to be time, like when do you need this by and how are you going to, and the F, so that's, U is, The U of BLUF is urgency, and the last, the F is follow-up. You know, what's the, who's gonna follow up with who and when? So I don't know if you're a bluffer, but what do you think? I mean, how would this simple technique improve things? I love it. I love it. You know, if, if I could just speak to maybe the emotion behind it, you know, I, I remember addressing groups of, you know, business people when I was a pastor or, or, or even worse, we have a huge military community in our area, and I'm talking to admirals and generals and commanders, and I was so intimidated. I shouldn't have been, but I was. And the things that I knew were stories, and I found myself sort of dropping back to telling stories, which I felt comfortable with. And they can be of limited effect. And maybe we'll talk a little later the best time to use stories. But would you think that it's fair to say that, you know, in light of this bluff communications, nonprofit executives tend to prefer the narrative while business executives prefer more of the metrics? They're looking for ways of quantifying and qualifying what you're looking for and they're just missing each other. Is that, is that fair? Business people definitely are looking for metrics. That's how they understand a narrative actually. You know, they want to know scale, scope, cost, growth rate, decline rate. Yeah. Like they, it's hard to have a story without some numbers. And when they tell a story, it always has numbers. And I think it's another piece of the pie that— it's interesting, I'm just thinking like when we coach people who are changing careers or job searching, one of the things we always have to tell them to do and coach them to do is update their resume with numbers. And it doesn't matter whether a business person or a nonprofit person or a pastor, Numbers show the scope of your responsibility and they show the kind of results you produced. And no matter what world you're working in, you're being hired to produce results. And so for some reason, I think when we flip into story mode, we just must shut off the quantitative part of our brain. But numbers really tell a story. I love that. And so they need to be part of the language that a nonprofit person uses, or pastor even, when they're talking to others. It's almost a new way of communicating. So starting with the bottom line first is a piece of it. Focusing on how to quantify what's going on, how do we measure it, what are the dates, the milestones, and timelines we have to follow. Like, these are all— this is just what results-oriented people do, actually. Well, I love that you're encouraging me to be bottom line first. I was raised in the South, Chip, and we were taught to be nice and it had 2 or 3 syllables to it. And church was— Bless your heart, brother. Yeah, bless your heart, brother. Church was the place where this was hammered to us. Like you get shushed in the pew. You can't really say what you need. You get shushed, right? And then when the guy up there finishes his talk or whatever, you're supposed to say, you know, "Great sermon, Pastor," and smile, right? Because you're supposed to be nice. And then we'd go home and we'd have roast preacher, right? Like everybody would just sort of dissect it. And I was like, "Well, wait a minute. I thought you told him you liked it." "Oh, well, that was, you know, I was just talking to the pastor." So it was Jesus, I'm pretty sure, that said, "Let your yes be yes." and your no be no. And by that, he meant just give the bottom line. Don't beat around the bush. You know, my dad would say, I confess, Chip, I had a tendency to go on and on. I know you will find this so hard to believe. I'm so shocked. You've grown so far. I have a preference for circumlocution. And my dad would say— Can you define that for our listeners? Going around and around the mulberry bush. And my dad would say, 25 words or less, son, 25 words or less. And by that, he meant boil it down, you know, bottom line first. He was a business guy and he didn't want to hear all, you know, all the detail. I got in trouble as a teen when I said, I think it's 25 words or fewer, Dad. He was not happy with that. But, but it taught me I gotta boil it down. I gotta put the bottom line first. And I had to learn that, I think, in my career. You know, it's, I think it might be helpful just to think for a few minutes about what keeps us from this. Because I think as I've worked with CEOs of various ministries, some of it is, some of it is a bit of It's just a lack of dialing into what does my hearer need to hear. You know, it's a— it could even be— we could even call it laziness in a sense of, I just think I could just say it however I want to everybody. And that's naive. And those of you who are really effective out there, you already know that's not true. You know, you have to tailor your message to the hearer, and that's really important. So there could be that piece of it. Another thing that I've observed is that I think a reason why some nonprofit leaders want to give a lot of detail before getting to the conclusion is imposter syndrome. Like they want to have all this evidence out there, all these resources, all these quotes because to prove that they're being really, really competent at their job. And You know, it's interesting to think about that one. Like, what I think the bigger question is, what drives it? You know, why, why do we do that? Why won't we just take a beat and sit down and think through a little bit, what am I really trying to say? What does this person want to hear? But those are at least two reasons I think I've seen. You know, one is, one is just sort of a little bit of a laziness in tailoring the message. The other is more of of trying to outrun that imposter syndrome and proving my competence by all the things that I did and all the things I can show you and all the resources I've consulted before making this presentation. Yeah, well, I absolutely had that. I switched from a pastoral career to a business career and suddenly was thrust into the number 2 role in about a $10 million high-end retail jewelry business. And I was negotiating with the bank and working on landing the largest credit facility that the business had ever had. And I felt like a deer in the headlights. I was like, all I've ever done is recruited middle school youth volunteers. You know what? As it turns out, it was harder to recruit people to be middle school volunteers than to talk these bankers out of their money because I did it. And it was a surprise to me to discover that If I use this kind of communication, the bottom line first, and demonstrating the reasons why, the logic and the evidence, and, you know, I laid out the plan for each store that we had and they, they bought it. And I was, I was surprised at how logical and bottom line focused business people were. I didn't have to get stuck and bogged down in all of this sort of emotional appeal, if you will, logos overshadowed pathos, if you will, in business communication. In terms of my rhetoric, I was able to emphasize those metrics and the logic, and they bought it. So it was a real shift for me. Yeah, that's really interesting. I think about my own shift. And 'cause, and it's, it's come from a lot of different sources, but earlier, early on, I think, so I started out in business, then I was a pastor for a while, for quite a while, two decades. And I think there's some assumptions I had as a pastor that, that didn't always serve me well as I transitioned into more of the business world. And one of them was that people are, are, are by default skeptical, and the way to overcome their skepticism is with lots of information. And I found subsequently, especially getting trained as a coach, that actually, yeah, people are skeptical, but if you listen to them, if you laugh with them, um, if you just give them enough to think about, it often overcomes their skepticism. Yeah. Another thing that happened for me was, well, Another thing, I'll just say one more thing and then we'll go back to you on this. But was that when I, when I, I moved from Pennsylvania, the suburbs of Philadelphia to New York, I came to New York and people didn't give you time, uh, even on the platform. And so, you know, I would be told like, you're gonna do the wrap up for this program and you have 2 minutes, so you get one question to ask everybody and it better be good. And that's exactly what I was told like that, that, that all exactly all those things. Like you get 2 minutes and it better be good. Or I, um, I got to speak week at a conference and I got 90 seconds. And I'm like, you know, I was used to doing a 35 to 45 minute sermon that I spent all week preparing. Yeah. You know, and that's, that was going to change the world. So I remember that 90 second thing and I was like, I only get one thing to do and I have to make it, it has to be bottom line. That's all there's going to be. And, um, I came up with something that I thought was really, really of an effective way to share what we were doing. And people remembered it. They remembered there was a whole day of programming and they came up to me that I did, people I didn't even know, and they remembered it. And one of the things I learned, uh, in my executive coaching training was that the last third of any interaction is actually the most productive. And it doesn't, it's a brain science thing from Columbia University, and it doesn't even matter how long the interaction is. Like, You can have a very, very productive conversation in 10 minutes, and it's gonna be the last 3 minutes that are the most focused and productive. So it really doesn't matter. You don't need more time. More time isn't more. And that was a whole revolution for me in the way I think about communicating and all this stuff. It was kind of counter to the way we were formed in seminary way back when, 3 decades ago. Ah, yes. Well, we're 2/3 through our podcast now, Chip, so we better bring it home. We gotta land the plane, right? This is the most important. Important third, I think one area I've seen this is in management. And if you're always supposed to be nice, if you're always supposed to be kind, it's tough to say negative things, even if it's about people that are driving you crazy. And Brené Brown is sort of famous for saying clear is kind. The Proverbs say it this way, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So, so it, it's actually kind to tell someone where they're falling down, where they're not achieving the goals. And in, in nonprofit, you know, where we're measuring impact of lives saved or water brought to, you know, areas that don't have water or all the amazing things that the nonprofits that we serve do, it is even more important that individuals are carrying out their part of it. And I see in management all the time nonprofit leaders, in my opinion, over-functioning. That is, they're trying to cover over or make up for the lack of production, the lack of accomplishment in workers. And they like to sort of complain to their board and say, well, you know, so-and-so's not doing what they're supposed to. And the business leaders just really, they don't relate to that. They're like, well, if there's a problem, put them on a PIP, tell them what the problem is, help them to get there. And I know as a coach, you've often come in in performance improvement situations, get 'em a coach, tell 'em where they're at and help them get to where they need to be. And if they can't get there, then move on. Do you see that in nonprofits worse than in businesses, or is it just the way people are? Well, actually, I think in both worlds, senior leaders, the thing that keeps 'em up at night is what to do with key people. Yeah. And unless they're a psychopath, and unfortunately there are psychopaths in both worlds, they don't like firing people. That is true. And so they burn a lot of cycles on those key kind of decisions. So I think that's fair. I think that's real in both sides. But like you said earlier, clarity is kind. One of the resources we recommend for everybody who's managing is The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard. It's terribly written. Like, it's very corny, but it's simple. And it's like 1 minute goal setting, 1 minute praise, 1 minute redirect. It's short, to the point, focused. It's a great tune-up for anybody that has supervisory experiences. It really is. So. Well, another area that I see nonprofit leaders talking to business executives is in the area of fundraising. And they'll have a case for support, right? That's that logical reason that they're presenting in front of people. And they usually have fundraising staff that have done all the prep work. But ultimately, it's that top leader who's the top salesperson, if I could be so crass. Who's putting in front of an investor an opportunity. And the ones that I see excite business leaders are the ones where the ROI is very clear. I'm thinking of one particular nonprofit that establishes low-cost medical clinics, and they quantified it and said, our research indicates that at approximately 24 months, occasionally as much as 36 months, these medical clinics become self-sufficient. Well, that catches the ears of the business leaders that support them. And in some cases, very, very influential business leaders have become supporters of their cause because they know their money is going— it's good money after good money. If they invest in this nonprofit, the service that they provide is going to become self-funding over time. And because they've done that research, because they present it clearly, there have been repetitive investments by entrepreneurs, business leaders, people that say, look, I've worked hard for my money. I want to make it count. And as a result, they have disproportionate number of entrepreneurial business leaders who become supporters of that nonprofit. That's really good. My friend Raymond Harris wrote a book called Enduring Wealth, Enduring Wealth by Raymond Harris. And Raymond is a businessman and he talks about looking at different giving opportunities as investments. And it's really a window in how a high functioning, successful business person looks at their giving. And one of the things he says I love is he is like, can you do something with my dollar that I can't do? Something worth doing. You know, 'cause if, if you can't, if I can just do it, then I don't need you. You know? And, and that sounds kind of cold, but again, it's kind of that clear is kind, candor, ROI. By the way, ROI means return on investment. It's this idea like, what are you gonna get out of this? And like to our donors at VOCA, we'll talk a lot about how they give a dollar, but we also have a whole fee-based side. And if they help us build a program, we're gonna sell that program over and over and over and over again. So it's got this multiplying effect. And they love it when to hear that as a nonprofit ministry leader, you're thinking that way. You're thinking about the economics and the sustainability and not just asking for money. So I, I think that's really good. What are some other, do you see the other best practices before we close? Like that, yeah, that nonprofit leaders can do to, to up, up, up, up their level of communication, which will have a downstream effect of increasing the amount of joy and engagement you get from the business people that are traveling with you. It, it's, it's pretty simple, but I hear it from business executives all the time. Respect my time. Respect my time. If you say, And you covered this in your 15-minute meeting, but it, you know, if your agenda says that we're going to start at 10 and we're going to end at 11, I don't really want to still be on at 11:30. And I'm just, I've watched people try not to use, you know, unkind language because they've planned for a certain amount of time. And in some cases, they're flying all over the world, they're doing things, and because the nonprofit leader is unable to be succinct, unable to use bluff communications, and really dives in too deep into the weeds of nonprofit management, which really isn't the purview of boards. And they don't set the table and say, this is what I need you for. I need your wisdom and insight. I see them, they want to give wisdom and insight when asked,. But they just say, look, respect my time, set the agenda, keep your timetable, and I will guarantee that that will make for some happier business executives. I agree. I think, yeah, board meetings should start and end on time. It's a big deal. We've tried a couple other things that we've gotten a lot of great feedback about. I'll just share them. Every year we do a 7-minute update on our ministry. That's it. 7 minutes, and it goes with a slideshow and it covers who we are, who we serve, our finances, what we achieved this past year, and where we're going in the next year. And we do it in 7 minutes and business people love it. They really, really love it. They're like, unbelievable. We do an annual kind of gala, kind of stakeholder gathering in New York, and the program is an hour. Wow. It's not 3 hours. Like for the whole gala? Does that include the silent auction and the— Well, we don't do a silent auction, but, and, and the cocktail hour. Gosh, Chip, how can you even get anything done if you don't? So, well, we have, we have a, like a 45-minute reception before that hour and we have at least a half an hour or more afterwards. 'Cause people want to be together and they want to talk to each other and they want to talk to you. And, because your funding group is actually a community. And so we want to make community, we want to, we don't know, budget community time. We also just think we need to just tell the story in an hour. Like that's, and we've been, I'm sure you have too. I've sat through some 2.5, 3.5 hour gala/pitch meeting and it's just the rubber chicken circuit. Oh my gosh, it's so hard. So I think those are all all disciplines you might want to consider in your organization. Like, how can you, how can you focus on the essential message and cut away all the extra stuff? I want to close with a scripture. It's from 1 Corinthians 14. It says, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? That's amazing. And I think that's what we're talking about. As a leader, you need to deliver a clear call. And if you do, it's going to create momentum. It's going to create buy-in, and it's going to give a lot of business people a lot of relief as they journey with you. I love it. Thanks, buddy. Good stuff. Good to see you, brother. We'll, we'll see you again on our next episode.