Leslie’s Articles
Build Your Own On Ramp
We kinda take the entrance ramp for granted. We are so used to getting on the ramp that we fail to see its value.
Think about the purpose of the on ramp. Its purpose is to facilitate a car going from street to expressway as quickly as possible. The goal is to be at cruising speed by the time you enter onto the expressway from the ramp.
A challenge that many accomplished professionals have is how to put themselves into a communication with many people vying for the spotlight. They need an on ramp to accelerate their entrance into the communication whether it is a Board Meeting or a conversation at Starbucks.
We can create a figurative on ramp in our daily conversations and communications. To build an on ramp you need to first decide on the length of your ramp.
To quickly answer any question, decide on the length of your ramp. Will it be one, two or three points? The more points the longer the ramp.
Begin, “there are three things to know about this topic”, or “there is one point I want to leave you with”.
I believe that I could ask you about any topic from your favorite dessert to the best quarterback and you could come up with one to three things to say about any issue. The point is that you have to believe that you can build a ramp on any issue:
Three things you like about apple pie, favorite TV show-Netflix and Amazon included, why I should hire you, best coach, history teacher or city. We could play this game all day long.
Build your ramp so that you can accelerate into any ongoing communication. Most people want to be at cruising maximum speed on any expressway. In order for that to happen, someone had to build a ramp. If there was so ramp, there would be no acceleration.
Most people want to be heard. They want to be effective, want a seat at the table. Do the hard work and build your ramp. The work is not that back breaking. The heavy lifting is in the mental discipline to build a ramp before you can accelerate to the goal of fulfilling your agenda.
