Here at On-Demand Leadership, we respect a mullet as much as the next person. However, we must respectfully disagree with the Mullet Motto: Business in the front, party in the back. To the contrary, when it comes to communication it is essential to have business in the front and business in the back. The beginning and the end of conversations are both critically important, although for different reasons.
At the beginning, people are sizing up what we are saying and trying hard to determine if they should keep listening to us. The beginning is also when we have some of their most focused attention, which makes it the best time to hit them with our best evidence if our goal is persuasion. For all of these reasons, we need business at the front.
But we need business at the back as well. Endings give us an opportunity to conclude conversations and leave people with something to think about. Depending on when we will see them again, our endings could be the last thing they remember about us for quite some time, and nobody likes dud endings. Finally, (almost) no matter what has happened during the conversation, endings provide us with one last opportunity to restate our main point and get the last words in an interaction.
Because both the start and the end of conversations are so important, we need to modify the mullet motto: Business in the front and business in the back. May this communication advice never go out of style.