Talk Less, Say More

I know coming from me, a subject line like that must be hilarious for those of you that know me. But, I thought I would share some kind of interesting insights. As MBA students, it’s really is to get wrapped up in everything we know how to do and show of all our analysis skills. Yesterday I had a nice little reminder of what Don Atwater calls “make your report executive friendly.” I worked on 30 slide presentation with all these graphs and charts and thought I was totally awesome. Luckily, I had one of my co-workers take a pass at it and he made me realize that I had basically created a form of kryptonite known to cause a condition called “death by powerpoint.” So, what’s the takeaway from this? Talk less, and say more. That’s’ the reason when you write a b-school essay they make you tell your life story in 600 words.