The SweetheART of Communication

Peter has a sweet tooth. And it's nothing like my chocaholic sweet tooth. His pearly-white goes right for the sugary stuff - Pez, Sweedish Fish, Haribo Gummy Bears, Pixie Sticks, Skittles, and at this time of year NECCO SweetHearts - the iconic Valentine's candy that has been sweetly communicating to us since 1902.

Throughout the past week, he's probably worked his way through a dozen boxes of them. And each night, each box, brings with it a Heart or two for me. I tend to stick out my hand and hope that first, Peter gives me a white one, and second, that it says something cute.
[plunk]
White. 'All mine.' Awww. 
[plunk]

Orange. 'Tweet me' What? They put social media slang on SweetHearts now?  
[plunk ... but this plunk came as we were winding down Gram's birthday dinner with her click of retired friends last week.]
Yellow...
What does it say? 
Yeah, what does it say?  
Read it. 
'Soooo Hot.'
Oh. 
[cringing with embarrassment.]


Anyway, the season of SweetHearts happens to coincide with my year-end review.  And as always, it's one of those tense, anxiety-ridden weeks when you hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I've been filling out my performance evaluation; considering how I've put communications and management best practices to use over the past year; trying to be as direct and succinct as possible when saying 'even though I screwed up that one time, I still did an amazing job;' but it's not fun and I probably don't get my point across in a lot of response boxes.

I keep thinking about those Hearts and how amazing it would be if there was a carefully crafted message for each competency and indicator - a means to swiftly sweet talk my way through the evaluation.

If you think about it, there's a certain communication perfection in a box of SweetHearts. For more than 100 years they've spoken to the American public with syrupy simplicity, without the embellishments of our verbose society. Over the years, they've told each and everyone us how much we are loved, and continued to follow up until their messages truly sank it. Then they made their candy-grams viral - they made opening a box and sharing them into cute, laughable moments that grab the attention of everyone in the room.

So why not? Why not put the tenets of SweetHearts in my back pocket this week? Why not head into my review on Thursday more confident than ever using the stylistic secrets of NECCO. Let's see ... 

Know my audience 
My boss. She wants us to be on the same page about my review. She wants to get the review over with too. The review is probably as uncomfortable for her as it is for me.
[plunk]
'Need a Drink?'

Maximize the finite space
I only have a half an hour for my review. I need to get to the good stuff. The numbers - my grades more or less. Then hope we have the same score sheet.
[plunk]
'4 for Me'
[plunk]
'3 for me?'

Put some heart into it
NECCO gets to put it on a heart, but I don't have that luxury. I do have insider knowledge to my boss' sweet craving though ...
[plunk]
'Icing 4 U'
[plunk]
'4 for U'

Follow up
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Ultimately you will get the one that matches your audience just perfectly.
[Plunk] 
'Promotion?'
[Plunk]
'Raise?'
[Plunk]
'Kidding ...'
[Plunk]
'Gold Star'
Yeah, I'll take that one. 

Make it Shareable 
[plunk]
'Tell the CEO!'

Okay ... I think I'm ready ... But just in case, the first Valentine of the day goes to my boss. The brown-noser in me still lingers. 

Lo.