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 - Why your partners’ reputation can ruin yours

• Narrative Power - A storytelling shortcut that gets people’s attention

• Influence and Framing - They’re resisting you? Reframe it as input.

• Crucial Conversations - How to help people disagree with your ideas

• Internal Comms - Communicating support to struggling employees

• Getting Clear - How are you confusing your B2B buyers?

• Ask Edith - We’ve got a great product but no one can explain it

• The Leadership Imprint - Communication lessons from Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google & Alphabet

Already subscribed? Great to have you. If not, subscribe to shape bold moves.

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

Why The Reputation Of Your Partners Matter

In B2B tech, your partners are a mirror of your judgement. Back an AI outfit with shaky ethics, a SaaS vendor that treats privacy as optional, or a cloud giant under human-rights fire, and your trust equity takes a hit. Stakeholders connect the dots fast - back to you.

That’s why partner choice isn’t a side issue; it’s a business-critical decision. Consider:

• 67% of those surveyed plan for their revenue through partners (‘indirect revenue’) to grow more than 30% year-over-year.

• Deals involving partners close 46% faster than traditional, direct-only sales.

• Roughly 80% of B2B deals involve some form of partner influence, underscoring how your reputation is tied to theirs.

Bottom line: Audit your partner list. If you wouldn’t vouch for them as a ‘trusted’ partner today, you might not want them shaping your reputation tomorrow.

Narrative Power – The leadership story playbook

The Storytelling Shortcut Leaders Forget 

Great leaders know that contrast is the fastest way to make change feel real. It’s a simple narrative move - show the before and the after - yet it’s often overlooked.

E.g. 

For B2B buyer decision-makers

Before: Months lost juggling three incompatible systems. After: a single platform cutting project cycles by 40%.

For Staff

Before: constant fire-fighting and missed deadlines. After: a clear roadmap and the resources to deliver ahead of schedule.

The ‘before’ builds urgency; the ‘after’ shows the prize. Grounded in real moments, it turns abstract goals into felt progress.

Influence & Framing – Small moves, big impact

Reframing Resistance as Input

When someone pushes back, they’re not always resisting you, they’re resisting how your story feels to them. That’s insight, not friction.

Great influencers don’t counter resistance with defence. They lean in and ask: “What would make this easier to support?” That one question reframes tension as collaboration. It signals confidence, not retreat.

When leaders treat objections as data, not defiance, they turn scepticism into shared ownership, and build trust in the process.

Download the tip sheet below 👎 ‘Reframing Resistance - By Role and Audience’

Crucial Conversations – Navigating high-stakes comms

When Silence Signals Fear, Not Agreement

A quiet room can look like buy-in, but nods often mean, “I don’t want to disagree because you’re the boss.”

The tells? No follow-up, vague next steps, disappearing ownership. That’s not alignment, it’s avoidance.

True buy-in sometimes requires respectful dissent. Silence from your leadership team isn’t golden here. Break it by making disagreement safe: ask, “What’s missing from this plan?”

Your job isn’t to collect nods - it’s to create a space where people can challenge you without fear of being dismissed, undermined, or punished.

To help you get people to warm up to disagreeing with you without fear or favour, download the ‘Safe Dissent Toolkit Questions and Gentle Follow Up’ below.👎

Internal Comms – How to connect, not just inform

Kind Words, Clear Boundaries: Talking Health at Work

Supporting employees through health challenges like mental health issues or serious medical conditions such as cancer, can feel like a minefield. You want to show genuine care, but the business still has to function.

On one hand, compassion is essential; on the other, expectations and legal responsibilities still apply. The key is to express empathy while being clear about support options, workload realities, and boundaries.

What it sounds like across the business:

• HR: “We have mental health leave and counselling available - here’s how to access it. If you’re unsure, we can walk through it together.”

• Line manager: “I know things are tough right now. Let’s talk about what’s realistic this week and where I can help shift priorities.”

• C-suite: “We care about your wellbeing and we also need to deliver. If you need support, ask early. We’ll do what we can, but transparency helps everyone.”

It’s not easy but clarity delivered with kindness builds both trust and accountability.

Getting Clear – Communication that cuts through

If You Make Things Clear For Buyers, You’ll Beat Your Competitors

Right now, the biggest clarity gap for B2B buyers in tech isn’t just ‘what problem you solve’, it’s how your solution actually works in their world and delivers the promised impact. 

What’s confusing buyers:

• Abstract promises (“transform”, “empower”) with no operational link.

• Feature overload without clear prioritisation.

• ROI claims without a believable path to achieve them.

• Weak connection to current pressures (AI disruption, cost control, compliance).

What’s missing:

• A clear, buyer-specific line from current state → friction → your intervention → measurable business result.

• Context that shows you understand their industry now, not as a generic market.

• Proof that your approach is low-risk to adopt and fast to show value
  

It’s fundamental, but at least 50-60%% of sales conversations, presentations, demos, proposals and tenders fail to address this and get ignored.

If you take the time to work through the above, you’ll win more than you lose.

Ask Edith - Your communication challenges, answered

One Product, Three Languages, Zero Clarity

Q: Our tech is genuinely good, but no one here can explain it the same way. Engineers talk features, sales talks hype, product talks roadmaps… and the client just looks lost. It’s slowing down deals. How do we fix it?

A: Sounds like you’ve got a ‘three stories, one product’ problem. First, lock in a shared core story - what it does, who it’s for, and the business problem it solves. Then tailor the details for each audience, (technical v business owner) - but never change the core. Multiple and unaligned stories aren’t just a communication gap, they mean your product can’t state and repeat its one true value to the market.

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.