Have you ever left a meeting thinking, “I should have said that differently”?
Have you frozen while presenting results to your partners? Watched a good sale slip away because the explanation was too long, or too vague?
None of this shows up on the balance sheet. But it costs:
- deals that don’t close, because the client didn’t understand why to choose you;
- a misaligned team, because the instruction was only clear in your head;
- an insecure investor or partner, because the story behind the numbers didn’t hold;
- energy lost in the frustration of not being understood.
And the worst part: many people think communication is a “gift.” You either have it or you don’t.
You don’t. It’s like any skill: it can be developed. (Anyone who knows the idea of a growth mindset knows what I mean.)
What usually works, in order:
- Know what you want the other person to do after hearing you.
- Pick one central idea and cut the rest without mercy.
- Tell a story, not a pile of data.
- Rehearse out loud, because speaking is different from thinking.
- Ask for feedback from someone who will tell you the truth.
The fifth is the rarest. Almost no one around an owner or an executive evaluates how they communicate.
That’s what the online 1:1 Executive Communication sessions are for: guidance, tips, instructions and an honest assessment of your communication model, at the pace of your day-to-day.
Before that, try this: record yourself for 2 minutes explaining your business to a client. Listen. What would you change?
Do you say what you need to say in the way it needs to be heard? If this text poked at something, a conversation might be worth it. See how the Executive Communication sessions work or write to me.