I am looking for a tactful way to help a team member improve their communication skills to be more concise and direct.
I'm trying to introduce a daily standup into a startup team of 3, which will soon be growing.
The challenge is that one of our team members has a tremendous amount of difficulty in being concise, and getting to the point. As soon as he begins his update, he goes off on wild tangents outlining whatever he's been thinking about recently, whether or not his thoughts or well formed yet.
This leads to meetings that take up to 45 minutes, which of course makes daily meetings unsustainable. We often don't do them, which I believe is due to the perception that they'll always take way too long.
He is aware of the issue, and acknowledges it when asked to "get to the point", but doesn't seem to be making adjustments.
Although the hierarchy is very flat, he is by title and ownership the most senior team member. Both of the other team mates take turns reminding him, so I'm afraid that eventually he will begin to feel undermined, defensive or embattled.
To me, this is a rather serious issue, as it also spills into meetings we have with external parties. Frankly, it's also just annoying, and unbecoming of a leader.
I would like input on how to address this in a tactful manner so that our scrum meetings are more efficient and productive, and hopefully work with him to find a polite cue which we can give to remind him to be direct and concise.