Welcome to Lead Different - rethinking communication for strategic minds in B2B tech.
This week in:
Reputation and Trust - Communicate trade-offs clearly
Narrative Power - Transparent stories improve trust in you
Influence and Framing - Voss’ calibrated questions work wonders
Crucial Conversations - Mutual respect & purpose reset safety
Internal Comms - Let employees know why their work matters
Getting Clear - Over-explaining ruins people’s confidence in you
Ask Edith - Grounded honesty is better than forced optimism
In The News - Nvidia responds to criticism when it shouldn’t
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Reputation & Trust – how to earn trust or get it back
Trade-offs Should Be Communicated Plainly
Every major decision comes with a trade-off – and people trust you more when you spell it out clearly.
If you’ve recommended a 6-month go-live and the client pushes for 3, you need to name the trade-offs directly: what will break, what corners get cut, and what risks they’re choosing.
Same with investors – risk management needs simple, active language, not vague promises.
The number of tech companies that fail to explain trade-offs in plain English is higher than you’d think – and it’s why legal issues and client resentment flare.
Trade-offs clearly communicated are a small but crucial step in closing the trust gap.
Next week we’ll look at how grounding your story in real evidence rather than hype, strengthens trust in tech companies.
Narrative Power – The leadership story playbook
Transparent Stories Close The Trust Gap
Transparency in storytelling is not about oversharing, it’s about opening the door wide enough for people to see how decisions were made.
A transparent story shows its working by revealing:
What you got right and what you misjudged
What challenged you and how it changed the path
What you learned that reshaped the next decision
For example:
Opaque version:
“We’re navigating some market headwinds, but our strategy remains strong and we’re confident in the future.”
Transparent version:
“Our growth has slowed for three quarters because two core products aren’t retaining customers. We learned that our onboarding flow was confusing and our reliability wasn’t meeting expectations- insights that changed our roadmap. We’re now rebuilding onboarding, shifting 20% of engineering to reliability, and replacing three scattered product lines with one focused offering. It’s a tougher path now, but it sets us up for a stronger, cleaner future.”
When leaders tell stories that reveal the thinking behind decisions, trust rises dramatically.
Next week, we’ll unpack ‘rich detail’ - the narrative ingredient that makes stories impossible to ignore.
Influence & Framing – Small moves, big impact
Chris Voss: Influence When Stakes Are High
Voss reframes negotiation as a communication problem, not a logic problem.
His method centres on tactical empathy – demonstrating you understand the other party’s pressures, incentives, and worldview more accurately than they can articulate themselves.
This isn’t agreement; it’s emotional intelligence used as a strategic tool.
And it works because it disarms resistance.
Like the use of calibrated questions, which shift people out of defensiveness and into problem-solving:
“How would you like to move forward?”
“What’s the biggest risk you see here?”
“How can we solve this together?”
People in business often assume influence comes from strength, certainty, or having the best argument.
Voss teaches us that influence starts when the other person feels heard, and only then do they become open to your ideas.
Next week, we’ll look at Oren Klaff and how you can shift frames to make your ideas the most compelling option.
Crucial Conversations – Navigating high-stakes comms
Resetting Safety Without Losing Your Point
Once psychological safety cracks, most people default to one of two unhelpful moves: softening the message to avoid tension, or doubling down to reassert control. Both make the other person defensive, and once defensiveness rises, logic stops working.
The authors of Crucial Conversations offer a more effective path: restore safety before you advance the conversation. Two tools matter most:
Mutual Purpose – confirming what you both ultimately want.
Mutual Respect – showing the relationship is intact, even if the topic is tough.
Strong resets sound like:
“I don’t want this to become a win/lose discussion; I want us to solve it together.”
“My intent isn’t to blame; it’s to understand where things broke so we can fix it.”
“I respect your experience here. I’m trying to make sure we’re not missing something important.”
These reopen the path to dialogue without diluting your message.
Internal Comms – How to connect, not just inform
Context Turns Compliance Into Ownership
People don’t do their best work when they’re told what to do – they excel when they understand why it matters.
Context gives people the missing layer: the impact of the work, the risks of getting it wrong, the dependencies that shape timing, and the consequences that follow.
When employees see how their work fits into something bigger, they make better decisions, surface issues earlier, and take initiative without waiting for permission.
Practical tip: Add one sentence of purpose to every request. It’s the fastest way to turn tasks into ownership and direction into accountability. For example:
“I’d like you to take ownership of this client project. If we miss key dependencies or dates, it will impact two other teams and delay the client’s go-live, so I’m counting on you to see around corners and flag risks early.”
Getting Clear – Communication that cuts through
Why Over-Explaining Undermines You
People don’t mistrust long explanations because they’re complex – they mistrust them because they sound unsure.
When you circle, qualify, justify, or keep bolting on extra proof, the audience hears hesitation, not expertise.
Clear communicators state the insight once, directly, then stop talking.
Brevity reads as confidence. Over-explaining reads as self-doubt.
Next week: How to get mentally clear before you speak, so you don’t ramble under pressure.
Ask Edith - Your communication challenges, answered
How to Strike the Right Tone When Morale Is Low
Q: Our CEO wants a year-end update that sounds inspiring, but morale is low. How do I strike the right tone?
A: Skip the forced optimism – it breaks trust instantly. Use grounded honesty instead: “This year has been demanding, even brutal. Here’s what we learned, what we fixed, and how it positions us for a stronger year ahead.” Pair realism with direction, not cheerleading. Leaders earn credibility by acknowledging strain while showing a clear path forward. Inspiration only works when it feels earned, not engineered.
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.
IN THE NEWS
A look at tech leaders and companies in the news, how they communicate, and my verdict on whether they nailed it or missed the mark.
Nvidia Says It’s Not Enron
In the last week, Nvidia sent a private memo to Wall Street analysts pushing back on a Substack article by a little known author that likened its ‘circular financing’ to Enron-style fraud. The memo from Nvidia declared “We are not Enron,” stressing transparent accounts, real products, and genuine demand, while also trying to swat away broader AI-bubble and accounting worries.
My Verdict:
❌ Missed the mark: Responding to a low-repute Substack by repeating the word Enron in an official memo is a terrible move. You’ve now glued ‘Nvidia’ and ‘Enron’ together in every pundit’s brain and given a fringe theory mainstream oxygen. It should have ignored the piece and it would have quietly disappeared.
📌 Overall: This is reactive, defensive signalling from a company that usually scripts the narrative. It makes the company look thin-skinned and quietly plants doubt in the minds of investors and the wider market.
Strategic Insights – For influence-savvy leaders
Deep Dive: For something extra, check out the latest long form editorial: Fear & Loathing in Employee Feedback - Feedback Ignored Becomes Toxic. When Acted On, It Can Drive Change (5-minute read).
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For a different perspective, Subscribe to my other newsletter, THE STATIC, a weekly, 4-minute read that decodes the nonsense in tech comms.
