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 - Buyers don’t trust your case studies

• Narrative Power - Harness the tension of almost losing everything

• Influence and Framing - Control the language; control the debate

• Crucial Conversations - What do you say when things turn ugly

• Internal Comms - Small messages delivered daily = large-scale trust

• Getting Clear - Plain English makes people believe what you say

• Ask Edith - Handling cultural differences in communication

• The Leadership Imprint - PayPal’s former CEO, Dan Schulman

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

Why Buyers Don’t Trust Your Customer Case Studies

Most Customer Success Stories are sanitised: stripped of the real challenges and dressed in the same bland formula - Problem, Solution, Benefit.

Buyers don’t trust them. Credibility grows when leaders show the messy reality: tough timelines, collaboration hurdles, fixes under pressure - and how competence carried the project through.

Research on the Pratfall Effect shows that sharing flaws builds trust when ability is clear. And when you add that tech buyers rate product demos, their own past experiences, user reviews and testimonials above polished vendor narratives, why wouldn’t you craft case studies / success stories differently?

According to Content Marketing Institute / Informa Tech, many B2B tech buyers are disappointed in the value of gated content, saying, “content becomes trustworthy when it comes with a high-level of detail, and is shared by trustworthy individuals.”

Trust, in other words, comes from substance.

Isn’t it time you asked your marketing team to craft more real customer stories?

Narrative Power – The leadership story playbook

The Tension of Almost Losing It All

The most powerful story isn’t the easy win - it’s the near-ruin, when you or a client clawed back from the brink.

Tension ratchets up a hundred-fold when the stakes are survival.

But it takes courage and finesse to tell this type of story well: raw without reputational risk, vulnerable yet professional.

Think of the entrepreneur who went bankrupt three times before building a billion-dollar business, the company that restored its reputation after millions of dollars of regulatory fines, or the tech giant that rebounded after a key exec faced criminal charges.

These are the stories that connect. Don’t sweep them aside - share them with candour.

Influence & Framing – Small moves, big impact

Shaping Decisions Using Specific Language

“Control the language and you control the debate,” said George Lakoff, political linguist.

Framing shapes how people think, not just what they hear.

In B2B tech, a rollout framed as a “platform for growth” rather than a “system replacement” shifts perception from cost to value.

Positioning a cybersecurity upgrade as “protecting national infrastructure” rather than “patching vulnerabilities” elevates urgency and spend.

Smart framing doesn’t change the work, it changes how stakeholders choose, fund, and fight for it.

Leaders who shape language early shape perception - and the decisions that follow.

Crucial Conversations – Navigating high-stakes comms

The Dialogue Between Loss and Survival

When you can see disaster racing toward you - the moment everything is about to spin out of control - a single conversation can decide whether you lose it all or claw back to sanity.

Crisis is the moment when calm, strategic communication shows its power - especially if ego (and wanting to be right) takes a backseat.

To illustrate, a customer signs a multi-million dollar contract with you, then threatens to walk mid-implementation and take legal action.

Your three communication moves should look like this:

1. Lean in to their fury - “If I were in your position, I’d be furious too.” Walking in their shoes shows you’re not here to deflect or deny.

2. Give ground to gain ground - Acknowledge where things went wrong before defending yourself. Disarming honesty lowers hostility and resets the tone.

3. Name the shared stakes - “If you walk, here’s what you’ll lose - and here’s what we’ll lose. Together we can find a way to recover what matters most.” Shared risk is reframed as a joint path forward.

Naturally, it’s more complex than that, but calm humility, often overlooked, can pull parties back from the brink, while aggression in the moment usually leads to litigation.

Internal Comms – How to connect, not just inform

Small, Consistent Messages Build Employee Trust

Big speeches matter less than daily touchpoints.

A quick Slack reply, a warm stand-up tone, a simple thank-you, these small signals, repeated, show employees what really counts.

Culture is shaped in sentences, not slide decks.

Small pulses, like a steady heartbeat, set the rhythm of trust.

Getting Clear – Communication that cuts through 

The Trust Power of Simple Words

Clarity builds trust. When leaders speak plainly, people can instantly see what’s at stake - no fog, no jargon, no suspicion you’re hiding something.

Overly complicated prose isn’t impressive; it’s evasive.

In B2B tech, the leaders who cut through with simple words signal confidence and credibility.

Ask Edith - Your communication challenges, answered

How Do I Handle Misunderstandings Caused by Cultural Differences?

Q: A team member from another cultural background often phrases things very directly. Others interpret it as rudeness or criticism, and it’s starting to create tension. How do I address this without singling them out or making the rest of the team defensive?

A: Begin by normalising cultural differences: “We all bring different communication styles, and sometimes they can be misread.” Then reframe the behaviour in neutral terms: “Some people are very direct, others more indirect.” From there, coach the team to check intent before reacting: “When something sounds blunt, clarify what was meant rather than assuming tone.”

Privately, let the individual know how their style is landing and offer small adjustments: “Your feedback is clear, which is great, but sometimes softening with a phrase like ‘I suggest’ instead of ‘You must’ helps it land better.” Framing it as a skill-building opportunity keeps it constructive and avoids blame.

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.