Jensen Huang is currently regarded as the sharpest mind in Silicon Valley. He’s admired not only for his leadership talent, his ability to introduce cutting-edge innovations, and for building from scratch a company now worth trillions of dollars, but also for his exceptionally effective management and communication style. Today, we’ll focus on one of his communication tools: LUA.
Huang is a demanding boss, and some employees struggle with the pressure he applies—especially when he drills into a topic and fires off question after question. Under this barrage, people sometimes dodge, wander off track, or plunge into needless detail. That’s when Huang says a single word: “LUA.” The acronym stands for three key steps:
L – Listen to the question
U – Understand the question
A – Answer the question
With this, NVIDIA’s chief calibrates the conversation. He cuts off a meandering exposition that’s adding nothing and reminds everyone of three things: first, listen to the question again; next, grasp its meaning; and finally, respond briefly, concisely, and to the point.
Isn’t that the very essence of simple communication?
So, when you’re talking with your own employees, don’t hesitate to interrupt—respectfully but firmly—to point out that your question was about something else.
Better yet, build a culture of straightforward communication within your company, complete with rules for how everyone should interact. Elements of such a culture might include starting every statement with the most important points, giving positive feedback, and, of course, using the LUA method to calibrate questions. We cover all these principles in our simple-communication training sessions, and we go even further when we transform companies’ communication cultures.
Want to elevate communication in your company to a world-class level? Ask us how we can make it happen together.
Piotr Garlej
