LEAD DIFFERENT

Welcome to Lead Different - delivering strategic communication on the edge of AI and upheaval - helping you shift thinking and mobilise change.

This week in:

• Reputation and Trust - Show the experts that will fix the mess

• Narrative Power - A short story retold helps embed a new strategy

• Influence and Framing - Why the first 60 seconds matter

• Crucial Conversations - Three simple steps to deliver tough feedback

• Internal Comms - How to get teams onboard with your new strategy

• Getting Clear - Show what the numbers really mean

• Ask Edith - Speaking to grief and anger with mass redundancies

• The Leadership Imprint - Communication lessons from the abrasive Elon Musk

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Reputation & Trust – how to earn trust or get it back

When Trust Breaks, Who Shows Up Matters

Rebuilding reputation takes more than words.

Imagine a tech company whose CEO has just been charged with financial fraud. The brand’s credibility doesn’t hinge on the crisis statement, it hinges on who steps forward next.

Bring in credible fixers.

A respected forensic accounting firm signals independence and rigor. Inside the company, the CFO and Head of Compliance stepping up shows accountability and operational control. Together, they form the scaffolding your trust message alone can’t hold up.

In the aftermath, people want to see a visible repair crew, leaders and experts shoulder to shoulder, working steadily to put things right.

Narrative Power – The leadership story playbook

Narratives That Reshape Thinking

Strategy won’t stick unless the story behind it does.

If you want people to think bigger, say, shift from SMBs to enterprise clients, you need a clear, repeatable story. One that anyone across the business can retell using a simple arc: problem, action, outcome.

Here’s how that might sound:

“Enterprise buyers saw us as too small. So we rebuilt our value proposition to highlight scale, not just flexibility. Within months, we landed three national accounts.”

That one short story can be used everywhere, from leadership updates to sales decks to onboarding.

You don’t need an overblown manifesto like ‘We’re pivoting from chasing projects to defining the market”. What you need is a memorable story or anecdote, repeated until it reshapes how people see the strategy, and their role in it.

Influence & Framing – Small moves, big impact

Set the Frame, Shape the Outcome

What you say in the first 60 seconds shapes everything that follows.

Start vague, and people fill the gaps with suspicion or doubt.

Start clear, “Here’s why we’re here” and you lower defensiveness, focus attention, and align intent.

Purpose sets the tone. It doesn’t need to be long, just clear:

• “This is a decision-making meeting, not a status update.”

• “We’re here to explore options, not assign blame.”

We’re all rushing from meeting to meeting, but leading with intent creates the conditions for change to land and take hold, especially when the message is strategic.

Crucial Conversations – Navigating high-stakes comms

Tough Talk Test: Is Your Messge Clear Enough To Land?

Dreading a difficult conversation coming up?

Use this 3-point guide to deliver tough feedback or navigate high-stakes moments, without flinching or flubbing the message.

1. Is it SHORT?
   • Can you say it in one sentence without qualifiers?
   • Have you removed fillers like “just,” “maybe,” or “sort of”?

2. Is it NEUTRAL?
   • Have you stripped emotion from your tone and phrasing?
   • Are you describing a situation, not judging a person?

3. Is it SPECIFIC?
   • Are you pointing to a concrete behaviour, result, or outcome?
   • Would the other person know exactly what you’re referring to?

Internal Comms – How to connect, not just inform

How To Embed A New Strategy

Need your pivot or entirely new strategy to land fast and stick across the org? Here’s how to help managers make it real, and get their teams onboard.

Keep it:

1. Outcome-focused (what success looks like)

2. Team-relevant (how their work contributes)

3. Actionable (what they can do this quarter)

Support with:

• A 1-slide visual (PowerPoint or Canva) showing the strategy’s flow from vision to team impact

• Team-tailored talking points

• A simple infographic for ongoing reference

Make it easy to understand and share. And harder to ignore.

Getting Clear – Communication that cuts through

Obsess Over What The Numbers Mean

Boards and buyers don’t make decisions from spreadsheets; they decide based on what the numbers mean to them. So when presenting pricing or costs, be clear and tie every figure to business impact.

Explaining costs to the board:
“Costs increased this quarter due to onboarding three senior AI engineers to accelerate development of our new proprietary platform. This investment positions us to own the IP, reduce future licensing costs, and build a defensible revenue stream.” 

Presenting price to a buyer:
“This replaces six separate vendors with one fully managed end-to-end cyber solution, including a 24/7 SOC. It simplifies oversight, improves response times, and reduces both your cost and risk. Your investment is $XX, but the savings from vendor consolidation alone, are $XX.”

Don’t just show the math. Show the meaning. Clear, straightforward numbers build trust, but it’s the link to real-world value that gets a yes.

Ask Edith - Your communication challenges, answered

Mass Redundancies: Speaking to Grief, Anger And What’s Next

Q: We’ve just gone through one major round of redundancies and now we’re going through the next round - even more brutal. Morale is flatlining. How do I communicate with empathy while still making it clear this had to happen?

A: Start with what many tech companies skip: real conversation. Acknowledge the loss clearly and directly. Then explain what you can: why this happened, what the business is trying to stabilise, and what comes next. No generic emails. No vague optimism. And definitely no vanishing executives. Also, the worst you can do is placate people and tell them it will get better. Don’t. Just sympathise - genuinely and as much as you can. Give them space. What it comes down to is treating those who are currently being let go and those still here with basic dignity and respect.

Got a communication challenge you want answered in the next issue of this newsletter? Reply to this email with your question and I’ll give you my perspective.

THE LEADERSHIP IMPRINT

30-second read on what great, and not so great, leaders reveal about communication: what to emulate, what to avoid and what to apply today.