Daily insights to help you change minds and drive action. Bi-weekly premium essays that dive deep on how the world’s best leaders communicate.
What if you’re not a charismatic speaker?
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“I’m not a charismatic speaker. Really. I’m an operator.” I hear this “apology” all the time. Usually from the people who actually run the business. They say things like “I’m too quiet. I’m not funny enough. I hate the spotlight.” Good!, I say. Because your team doesn’t need another entertainer. They have Netflix for that. Don’t forget that you aren’t doing a TED Talk. You are doing Leadership. A TED Talk is designed to entertain strangers for 18 minutes. These are two completely different sports. And if you care about your business … if you truly give a damn about getting this right, you have the only “fire” that matters. You are an operator? Perfect. That means you care for how the machine works. You care for what matters to your team, your customers, your partners. That means you aren’t selling a dream; you are engineering a reality. A quiet person speaking the plain and simple truth is infinitely more powerful than a funny speaker shouting a fancy slogan. An operator explaining why we need to change is more inspiring than a motivator saying that we can do it. For example, regarding your strategy what your team needs to know is:
No theater necessary to explain this. You don’t need to light up the room. You just need to light the path. Keep doing that, __ If you like podcasts but not the 2 min intros, my podcast “Irresistible Communication” is 2 minutes overall and always comes with an actionable insight you can try right away. |
What the Best Leaders Say
Daily insights to help you change minds and drive action. Bi-weekly premium essays that dive deep on how the world’s best leaders communicate.
Strategic clarity at the top. Confusion below.That’s the status quo in too many organizations. The CEO knows exactly what she wants. The board refines and approves it. It sounds brilliant. But then the relay chain takes over:Directors “translate” the business terms → managers “interpret” what it could mean for everyday tasks → and teams can only guess what the strategy actually is. Every layer adds a thought, nuance, perhaps fear and no one can really explain the original intent. But why does...
There’s a very simple reason why most messages don’t spread. It has nothing to do with how smart the message is or how polished and elaborate your argument is. Me and you have seen too many smart, polished, and elaborate arguments fail. The reason is much simpler: People are selfish. They treat their message as if it’s their own. They want others to spread it exactly as they said it. And then they wonder why no one repeats it. Here’s the problem: Sharing is not about you. It’s about what the...
Is this the biggest lie we tell ourselves:“I’ve made it very clear”. Well, not in the strict sense of the word, of course. It’s not technically a lie. You did make it very clear. But we both know that clarity is not really what happens on the stage (or in the email). Clarity is what happens in the hallways, two days later. The actual lie is this: It’s the middle managers’ fault. They just didn’t get it. They passed it along wrong. Spinned it. Mis-quoted you. Which they did. Only that it...