This is Terry Lee; please leave a message – I’ll call you back today. If you were ever to call our most tenured sales leader, Terry Lee – this is what you would hear. And I love it. Direct, sets an expectation, and the truth is he delivers on it! It got me thinking about expectations. In many of the discussions I have with executive leaders in their communication, much of the frustration is really around expectations. Their own expectations of what they expect, or their team’s potential disappointment with their expectations not being met. One of my life principles that I tie into our communi ..read more

As business communication coaches, one of the most common questions we are asked is, “How do I get over nerves when speaking?” We love the question because there are so many tools we can provide to tackle nerves, and if not eliminate them altogether, to tame them, and even harness them for increased performance.  Here are just some of those tools:  1. Explore the feeling Getting in touch honestly with WHY the nerves come about is a useful first step. Almost always, as humans, we are simply afraid of being judged. A fear of not “measuring up” is often what’s fueling that fear. Impost ..read more

Opportunity #3 – Loosen Up! The Opportunity: One primary challenge is that speakers appear too stiff and mechanical. Influential communications have an energy, and too many communicators lose their natural and expressive energy when it counts most – when they need to engage, inspire, and motivate an audience. Communicators emphasize their content, often thinking, “If I just say the right words, people will get it.” Or worse, in the moment, they attempt to recall the lessons that have been imparted to them on “effective communications,” sacrificing the real focus – their message. The result: t ..read more

Opportunity #4 – Skipping Opportunities to Tell Stories The Challenge: Decision makers and their audiences are continuously inundated with facts and figures. You are pressured with the minutiae of the day; operating daily in response to market demands, you tend to think in facts, tasks, concepts, numbers, etc. The challenge is that facts and figures don’t stick in the spoken medium. The very nature of communicating data makes it implicitly challenging to gain and hold attention at precisely the moment you need to engage and influence your team. Action: Influence, not inform. Leaders are the v ..read more

If you are like most C-suite executives, you woke up this morning faced with a range of decisions, some that you will lead, others where you need to negotiate or influence others. Perhaps today is your quarterly board meeting, maybe you are addressing an industry conference, or possibly you are meeting one-on-one with one of your direct reports to review their year-to-date accomplishments. Regardless of the scenario, as you prepared to greet the day, it weighed on your heart and mind how you would approach these interactions, who you will communicate with, and what outcome you seek to achieve ..read more

We are back with the final tip in our better communication series exploring how to solve business problems through better communication. Let’s dive in with our final tip. (introduction | tip 1 | tip 2 | tip 3) Your Business Problem: Our work culture is friendly, but I don’t feel safe challenging an idea that came from above me. In fact, I don’t feel comfortable sharing ideas with our leadership in general. Workplace trust – often referred to as psychological safety – is like oxygen: you only know it’s absent once you’ve started to choke. In our coaching sessions with clients, we often hear th ..read more

We are back with the next tip in our better communication series (introduction | tip 1 | tip 2), exploring how to solve business problems through better communication. Let’s dive in with tip #3 Your Business Problem: People are checking out during our meeting. I have no idea if they are engaged or not.  You can lose your audience’s attention in 8 seconds.  In the virtual world, it’s probably even shorter. Yet how often do you open meetings with “Hi, thanks everyone for joining today’s call. Today we are going to talk about…” giving our audience an excuse to tune out. We call this LB ..read more

We are back with the next tip in our better communication series (introduction | tip 1) exploring how to solve business problems through better communication. Let’s dive in with tip #2 Your Business Problem: I don’t have time to prepare. I’m in back-to-back meetings all day long.  TIME! We never have enough of it. This nonrenewable resource can cause urgency in our workday. Instead of focusing on your lack of time, start by prioritizing what’s important. You will waste more time repeating yourself, rambling, or not being clear on what you’re asking your listener if you don’t take time to ..read more

This week’s Axios AI newsletter does a good job highlighting the pitfalls in communicating about AI. Problems arise when advancements in technology outpace the ability of technology companies to effectively communicate their value. Given the speed of AI-driven innovation, it’s clear that tech companies of all sizes are having a tough time getting their AI stories to resonate with buyers.   Here are some recent examples we’ve seen:  The start-up promises AI-driven supply chain optimization, but they can’t get buyers to understand how the AI-optimization differs from what t ..read more

Last week we kicked off a new series focusing on how your business problems can be solved with better communication. This week we start with our first tip. Your Business Problem: We had a meeting; I said all the right words, but no one listened to my direction, and we still haven’t hit our goals. Communication is more than saying the “right words.” If you want to get people to take action, you need to understand your listeners and get them to care. Likability has been proven to be the most significant factor in electing Presidents or in any voting for that matter. If you don’t like someone, y ..read more