THIS MOMENT COUNTS · ISSUE 02 Has the show finally won over substance? Wednesday, April 29, 2026 · by Dr. Michael Gerharz In the past months, several of my clients all brought up a very similar question. One that troubles them deeply. It goes something like this:I've always wanted to be the thoughtful, honest, no bullshit communicator. And it worked well enough. But now every event I go to, I see polished and loud and confident speakers and I'm standing there thinking, have I lost? Like, has...
about 4 hours ago • 3 min read
THIS MOMENT COUNTS · ISSUE 01 Should you explain it simpler? Wednesday, April 16, 2026 · by Michael Gerharz At some point in your career, you sat in a room where someone was presenting something important. A strategy. A proposal. A decision that was going to affect your work. You understood exactly what they were saying. Every word was clear. And you wholeheartedly disagreed. You didn’t say anything because something about the room, the dynamic, the stakes, the relationship, made disagreeing...
7 days ago • 2 min read
This Moment Counts I have a problem with useful. For years, useful was my standard. Is this useful? Will this help someone? Can they apply this to their work? The answer was almost always yes. So I published it. And people appreciated it. And I kept going. Useful served people. I believe that. But useful is the wrong word for what happens in a room when a leader finds the exact right words. You don’t walk out of that room thinking: that was useful. You walk out thinking: everything just...
14 days ago • 2 min read
What the Best Leaders Say Issue 11 There is a skill most leaders wish they had more of. The problem is that it leads to a behvior they should be worried of. This issue is about that behavior. About where it comes from, what it costs, and what becomes possible when you trade it for something that feels, at first, almost reckless. It might turn out that, after reading this, the skill you wish you had more of, is almost the complete opposite. Table of Contents Essay PDF Version Readers’ Corner...
18 days ago • 9 min read
What the Best Leaders Say Issue 10 At some point, every leader faces a version of the following decision: double down on what's working, or bet on what’s coming. This issue won’t tell you which to choose. But it will change how you see the choice. I highly encourage you to forward this to your strategy team and to your exec team to start a disucssion on this. Because today, one of the most important questions you can ask is: Are we set up for the future? Regardless of what it will bring?...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
A strategy statement has one job: It must help people decide.Every day across your organization, teams face choices about what to build, fund, prioritize, or abandon. Strategy exists to guide those choices.Sounds good in theory, but we both know that in practice, it’s almost never that simple. You’ve certainly been in a meeting where that became obvious. The one that got tense when two execs came to opposite conclusions and both of them justified it with “the strategy.”But you know what? That...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
What the Best Leaders Say Issue 9 Strategy discussions often revolve around the search for the next big idea. When performance stalls or alignment loosens, leadership teams frequently respond by changing the strategy in search of that big idea. Yet in many organizations the deeper problem is not the absence of a new idea. It is that the existing one has never been refined enough to guide decisions. This essay explores a pattern visible in companies as different as Yahoo, IKEA, Google, and...
about 2 months ago • 10 min read
Look at any message that actually moved people. You will find the same four properties every time. Plain and simple so people understand it immediately.Actionable so they know what it means for them.Transformative so something actually changes.Heartfelt so people believe it. Conveniently, the four spell PATH. Once you see the pattern, it feels almost embarrassingly obvious. Which makes this hard to explain: Why is it so rare? You would expect to see it everywhere.Strangely, you don’t. Most...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Here is something most leadership communication advice completely ignores: The higher you rise as a leader, the harder it becomes to say things plainly. Which has nothing to do with skill. The reason is much simpler. And it hurts a little: Clarity creates consequences. Plain and simple words force a choice. If a CEO says: “We will exit this business within two years.” Everyone knows what that means. If they say: “We are exploring strategic alternatives to sharpen our portfolio.” Everyone can...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read