I never thought I'd compare communication to shopping in a liquor store, but here we are.
A while back, my husband became a bourbon collector. Through this journey, I discovered the fascinating world of specialty bourbon. People join waitlists and befriend GMs of liquor stores, all for a chance to get a call when a rare bourbon arrives. These bourbons are expensive, kept behind locked cages, and only brought out upon request. If you're like me, you probably didn't even know this world existed.
One day, I went to the liquor store with my husband to look at this fancy bourbon and listened to a conversation between him and the GM. They were using terminology I didn’t understand, and eventually, I tuned out. My husband was so excited, while I sat there uninterested and ready to go.
I wanted to share this story to illustrate a point about communication. Just like the difference between bottom shelf and top shelf liquor, our communication can either be accessible to many or exclusive to only a few.
The cheapest liquor is on the bottom shelf—affordable and easy for almost everyone to obtain. In contrast, top shelf bourbon is expensive, locked away, and only accessible if you are part of the “club”, know the right people (and terminology), and are prepared to pay a high price.
As leaders, our job is to make sure our communication is like bottom shelf liquor—accessible to everyone. If we use jargon, acronyms, complex ideas, and convoluted sentences to sound smart, we are not doing our jobs and are leaving our employees confused, alienated, and disengaged—just like I was at the liquor store that day!
Does this resonate with you?
Have you thought about the accessibility of your communication?