Welcome to Lead Different - rethinking communication for strategic minds in B2B tech.
This week in:
Reputation and Trust - Ask this one question to improve trust in 2026
Narrative Power - More story formats .e.g. Overcoming the monster
Influence and Framing - How to engage with both brain systems
Crucial Conversations - When emotions arise, stop persuading
Internal Comms - Give feedback that builds confidence not wrecks it
Getting Clear - Stick to one core theme if you want to persuade better
Ask Edith - The smart way to tell a client you can’t meet a deadline
In The News - OpenAI goes ‘code red’ as Google flexes its dominance; Victorian government pushes to legislate WFH
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Reputation & Trust – how to earn trust or get it back
How Trusted Are You, Really?
In many organisations, leaders assume that competence automatically earns trust. It doesn’t. Competence earns respect. Trust is different.
Trust is an emotional judgement about whether your words, actions, and decisions line up over time – especially when it’s inconvenient.
In 2026, the best leaders won’t treat trust as a vague ‘nice to have’ measured only through NPS, brand sentiment, or engagement scores. They’ll look at the patterns underneath the numbers for:
Clarity of communication – Do people actually understand what you mean, or are they guessing?
Visible follow-through – Do promised changes show up in ways people can see and feel?
Ethical consistency – Do your principles hold when revenue or reputation is on the line?
Behavioural consistency – Do leaders show up the same way on a bad day as they do on stage?
You must then be willing to ask one uncomfortable question: What are our customers and employees afraid to tell us? If they’re filtering, softening, or staying silent, that’s your trust gap.
Your willingness to invite the real answer and act on it then becomes your trust strategy.
Next week: why giving people a real say in innovation builds trust faster than any campaign or town hall.
Narrative Power – The leadership story playbook
Add Vibrancy & Colour To Your Story Wardrobe
Most tech companies think they have ‘lots of stories,’ but they’re usually just repeating the same safe arc: problem → solution → happy client → quote. It’s fine. It’s also forgettable.
You need narrative variety by borrowing from the story formulas that make films and novels compelling. For example:
The Quest – The long, hard pursuit (new market, new product, major transformation) where the journey changes you as much as the result.
The Thriller – High-stakes, high risk gambles: obstacles, villains, wrong turns, near misses, last-minute saves - all resulting in high-reward.
Rags to Riches – A client or product that starts from nothing and makes it big in revenue and market domination.
Overcoming the Monster – The brutal legacy system, the hostile takeover, or internal blocker like toxic leadership you had to defeat.
Voyage and Return – Entering a ‘foreign land’ (new market, new tech, big pivot) and returning wiser.
Rebirth – A failure, or public misstep that forces a reset and leads to a better version of you.
The Underdog – You (or your client) winning against a bigger, better-funded competitor.
The Anti-hero – The unconventional leader or team who breaks the ‘rules’ and still gets the right outcome.
Romantic arc – ‘Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back' as: we won the client, lost them, then earned them back through different behaviour.
The Fool – When you (or a leader) get it wrong, look a bit ridiculous, own it publicly, and grow from it.
Comedy – The near-disaster that everyone can now laugh about… and what it taught you.
Tragedy – The deal, project, or strategy that failed miserably and the honest lesson you took from it.
Mystery – The puzzling pattern in the data or customer behaviour you had to investigate and decode.
And many more…
In 2026, narrative power won’t come from presenting a beige case study template. It will come from a wardrobe of story types that reveal tough challenges, resilience, values, culture, attitudes, and growth from different angles.
Quick test: put your last 10 stories on a page. If they all follow “we delivered on time and on budget,” you don’t have narrative variety, you have the same outfit in slightly different neutrals.
Craft stories of imagination and inspiration - because these are the stories that change how your audience thinks, feels and acts.
Influence & Framing – Small moves, big impact
Kahneman: How Fast, Slow Thinking And Bias Shape Buyer Decisions
In tech, we like to pretend big buying decisions are rational: business case, requirements, scorecard, decision.
Kahneman’s work says otherwise. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, he shows two big things that matter for B2B deals:
Our brains run on two systems.
Our judgements are bent by systematic biases - shortcuts that feel logical but subtly skew decisions.
At the core is his distinction between:
System 1 thinking – fast, automatic, emotional, story-driven
System 2 thinking – slow, analytical, effortful
The formal business case your buyer takes to their steering committee is written in System 2.
The decision they argue for in the room is heavily shaped by System 1 and the biases beneath it.
Framing is how you speak to both systems at once, while working with (not against) the biases that show up in every complex deal.
Biases That Matter Most In Big B2B Tech Deals
There are dozens of biases. A few are especially important in enterprise sales:
Loss aversion – Losses hurt more than equivalent gains feel good. E.g., “If this goes wrong, it hits my budget, reputation, and career.” Or, “You’re currently losing 1 in 5 customer interactions to downtime.”
Status quo bias – Doing nothing feels safer than changing. E.g., “The incumbent may be imperfect, but at least it’s known.”
Anchoring – The first number or narrative sets the reference point. E.g., The first price, ROI model or risk story becomes the benchmark everything else is judged against.
These biases shape how your deal feels, even when the spreadsheet says one thing.
How to use framing intelligently (and ethically)
You can’t remove bias. But you can frame your message to work with how people actually decide:
Frame the risk of inaction, not just upside
Don’t only sell improvements. Show the ongoing financial and reputational costs and risks of doing nothing. (While Loss Aversion is now common knowledge, sellers in tech could wield it more strategically).Position your solution as risk reduction
Tie your offer to fewer surprises, fewer crises, and fewer escalations, not just ‘better performance’ or ‘more features.’ (Reducing risk is the most important evaluation score in B2B tech proposals/tenders).Set the anchor early with a strategic frame
Anchor the conversation around protecting revenue, reputation, and competitiveness over 2–3 years, then discuss price and features inside that frame. (Anchoring is not used enough in B2B tech sales but is one of the most potent tactics to win).Offer clearly framed choices
Show a ‘minimum change’ option, a ‘strategic’ option, and a ‘do nothing’ scenario with explicit consequences. Make it easy for System 2 to compare and hard for System 1 to feel good about the status quo. (This technique isn’t used enough but positions the seller to win more often).
If you ignore bias and framing, you’ll build a perfectly logical argument that loses to a flashier story or a safer-feeling incumbent.
Crucial Conversations – Navigating high-stakes comms
Safety First, Logic Second
In Crucial Conversations, the authors are blunt about what happens under pressure:
when emotion rises, intelligence falls.
The brain simply can’t process nuance or complexity when it doesn’t feel safe. In that state, we’re not listening, thinking, or collaborating – we’re defending.
So in high-emotion moments, the goal is not persuasion.
The goal is regulation and safety so that the real conversation can resume.
Use these stabilisers:
Name the emotion
“It sounds like this has been really frustrating – is that right?”
Putting words to emotion lowers its intensity and shows you’re actually paying attention.Slow the pace
Ask one question at a time. Pause. Let silence do some work.
In crucial conversations, pauses are strategic, not awkward.Return to shared purpose
“I want us to get to a solution we both believe in.”
This reminds both nervous systems that you’re on the same side of the table, even if you disagree.Lower your volume and tempo
Calm is contagious. Your tone and pace signal ‘this is survivable,’ which lets the other person’s body relax enough for their brain to re-engage.
Seen through this lens, emotional escalation is a cue, not a threat. It’s the dashboard light that says: “Safety is gone. Slow down and restore it before you do anything else.”
Treat it as a signal to create safety, not a reason to retreat, shut down, or overpower.
Internal Comms – How to connect, not just inform
Feedback That Builds Confidence, Not Anxiety
People grow fastest when feedback is specific, timely, and delivered with clear belief in their potential.
Vague critique: “You need to be better at communication”, doesn’t help. It shrinks confidence and sends people into guesswork.
Precision does the opposite: “Your update was strong. Next time, tighten the summary so the decision is clearer and faster.”
High-quality feedback does three things at once:
Names what worked
Points to one or two concrete improvements
Stays focused on the work, not the person
Always anchor feedback in behaviours, not identity:
Not: “You’re stubborn.”
Instead: “In key meetings, you often won’t compromise, even when we’re up against time.”
When people know what to adjust, not who to be, they improve faster and stay motivated instead of defensive.
Next week: why recognition, done properly, is one of the most powerful productivity tools you have.
Getting Clear – Communication that cuts through
Persuasive Deals Are Anchored By One Core Theme
In B2B tech sales, buyers are juggling risk, features, politics and legacy pain. One clear theme, for example, “protecting your revenue over the next 3 years”, acts like a rail that everything else runs on.
It keeps demos, pricing, architecture and objections tied back to what matters most, so you’re not just answering questions, you’re continually reinforcing a singular, well-thought out value story.
Too often I see bid teams running with four or five ‘win themes’. Fine for internal brainstorming, but externally you should distil this down to one core theme and build your persuasive argument around it. It keeps things simple, not simplistic, and lets you go deep where it matters most to the decision-makers at the buyer.
Ask Edith - Your communication challenges, answered
How To Tell A Client You Can’t Meet Their Timeline
Q: We’ve realised we can’t meet a major client’s preferred delivery timeline. How do I say this without damaging the relationship?
A: Lead with partnership, not panic. Try: “We’ve stress-tested the timeline against the quality and stability you expect. To deliver an outcome we can both stand behind, we need to adjust the schedule. Here’s the risk if we don’t, and here’s the path that protects quality and your long-term goals.” You’ve moved the conversation from “we’re failing you” to “we’re safeguarding your success.” Most clients will accept change when it’s clearly framed as risk mitigation, not incompetence.
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 weekly look at tech news across government and tech companies - how topics are communicated, and my verdict on whether they nailed it or missed the mark.
1. OpenAI Goes ‘Code Red’ as Google Flexes Its Dominance
Sam Altman recently declared a “code red” inside OpenAI, a company-wide push to improve ChatGPT, just as the company launched GPT-5.2, billed as its strongest model yet across writing, coding, and reasoning. The timing is telling. It comes as high-profile tech leaders like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff have publicly shifted allegiance from ChatGPT to Google’s Gemini, saying on X, “I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back. The leap is insane.“ This kind of loud, influential switch would be hard for Altman to ignore.
My Verdict
✅ Nailed it: OpenAI is treating ChatGPT like a start-up again: renewed focus, priorities, resources, and a clear signal to the market that it won’t coast.
❌ Missed the mark: A ‘code red’ can read as reactive and running scared.
📌 Overall: Altman is at least facing the reality of what’s happening and responding with focus, instead of pretending OpenAI is still comfortably ahead.
2. Victoria Moves to Legislate WFH. Zeller CEO Calls It “Damaging”
The Victorian Government is proposing “right to work from home” legislation: if an employee can reasonably do their job from home, they’d be entitled to work from home at least 2 days a week. Zeller CEO Ben Pfisterer has slammed the idea as a blunt, blanket policy that risks undermining the way high-performance cultures are built, especially in startups where speed, collaboration, and in-person problem-solving are core to execution.
My Verdict
✅ Nailed it: Pfisterer articulates a strong argument in opposition which is that collaboration and culture are operating inputs not lifestyle perks, and startups live or die by them.
❌ Missed the mark: A “blanket policy” critique lands, but it can gloss over why governments are pushing: inconsistent access to hybrid work for some employees and unequal bargaining power in ‘negotiations.’
📌 Overall: Pfisterer says what many CEOs are thinking: governments shouldn’t be negotiating employment terms from the outside without visibility into what actually makes a company succeed. He makes a strong case, whether you agree or not.
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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