Ideas, analysis and communication insight for strategic thinkers in B2B tech
LEADERSHIP COMMS
How to Strengthen Your Influence as a Leader
Transparency Is Overrated
Is it time to cut the word transparency from your leadership vocabulary, values, annual report, or other company material? Today, the word transparency is often little more than corporate speak, signalling virtue without requiring anyone to be virtuous.
The reality is, transparency isn’t always appropriate.
Be transparent when:
People are directly affected by a decision
Trust has been damaged and clarity about how it will be repaired matters
Expectations, timelines, or risks need to be understood
You want to reduce uncertainty with facts
Openness will help people do their job better
Don’t be transparent when:
The facts are still incomplete
Confidentiality or privacy must be protected
Legal, ethical or commercial sensitivities apply
Sharing too early could create confusion or panic
The issue requires more context or multiple viewpoints first
What matters more is being honest, open where appropriate, and guided by integrity.
Leaders don’t need to perform transparency. They need to exercise judgement.
Because when every company claims to be transparent, the word comes to mean very little.
Communication Power Skill
Use Constructive Disagreement for Better Strategy & Fewer Mistakes
According to research conducted by Harvard Business Review, disagreement isn’t something leaders should avoid. Done well, it hones thinking, surfaces different perspectives, reduces mistakes, and leads to better decisions. But done badly, it damages relationships and can carry real commercial costs.
It isn’t enough to teach people to be open-minded or empathetic. In disagreement, others can’t see your good ‘intentions’. They judge what you say and how you say it. That’s why better disagreement depends less on mindset alone and more on improving visible verbal behaviour.
Verbal Skills to Help You Disagree Constructively
Express vulnerability: Show you’re willing to learn, not just defend your view.
Show curiosity: Invite the other person to explain how they see the issue.
Acknowledge the other side: Reflect back the core of what they’ve said so they know they’ve been heard.
Find common ground: Surface shared goals, values, or observations before pushing deeper into disagreement.
Hedge your claims: Use measured language that allows for complexity and the possibility you may be partly wrong.
Share your story: Explain the experience behind your view, because context often builds more trust than facts alone.
How to Implement Better Disagreement Skills Across Your Organisation
Teach the language skills, not just the right mindset, like ‘listening empathetically’
Model these behaviours and communication skills consistently in everyday forums
Use technology to reinforce better communication (e.g. via prompts, feedback, and smart monitoring across channels like Slack, email, and Zoom)
HBR article. $ A Smarter Way to Disagree
REVENUE COMMS
Communication That Earns Influence
Check-in: Common Sales Questions to Stop Using
Is it time to review your default buyer questions so you don’t sound like every other B2B tech seller?
Some questions land with a negative thud, like “What are your pain points?” It’s generic, overused, and can make you sound as though you haven’t done enough homework to understand the buyer’s business, role, or likely pressures.
Questions to stop using:
What are your pain points?
What keeps you up at night?
What’s your biggest problem?
Do you have budget?
Are you the decision-maker?
Any generic yes/no question that shuts the conversation down
Specific questions about their role, priorities, workflow, risks, or a business area you already know are better.
Good sales communication shows insight first. It doesn’t make the buyer spoon-feed you context.
Sales Communication That Wins
Client Communication Either Builds Loyalty or Quietly Erodes Revenue
If you want more revenue from existing clients, don’t assume they’re happy because they’re quiet. Research shows managers often overestimate customer satisfaction, underestimate complaints, and misread what drives loyalty.
When it comes to IT services, especially, that’s risky. It can cost you renewals, follow-on work, and give a client reason to test the market.
Winning more from current clients requires more than good delivery. It requires consistent communication:
regular check-ins that are not rote but work to deepen connection with the key contact(s) while expanding influence across the organisation
open-ended questions, and ensuring concerns, issues, and requests are tracked and addressed in a timely way
honest conversations about what’s working and what’s not
a mix of qualitative feedback and measurable signals
An obsession with service quality, responsiveness, and communication
As we all know, existing clients are far easier to grow than replace, but only if you stay close enough to know the truth. Many tech service companies do this poorly.
Is it time to review how and when you’re communicating with current clients to avoid nasty surprises in the future?
MARKET PULSE
In The News
This week, we take a look at two tech leaders’ recent strategic pivots, how they’re communicating this to the marketplace, and what we can emulate.
Jensen Huang Widens Nvidia’s Story from Chips to AI Operating System
At GTC this week, Jensen Huang didn’t just launch product. He used the stage to reframe Nvidia as the company powering the next phase of AI: inference, agents, networking, and enterprise platforms. Reuters reported that he lifted Nvidia’s AI chip revenue opportunity to more than $1 trillion by 2027 and pushed the idea that companies now need an ‘OpenClaw plan,’ alongside the launch of enterprise-focused tooling such as NemoClaw.
Comms insight: Huang communicates strategy through scale, inevitability, and ecosystem language. He doesn’t present Nvidia as a supplier. He presents it as the infrastructure layer that companies will need to compete in AI. That’s powerful market messaging because it shifts the conversation from price to necessity.
Satya Nadella Signals Focus, Simplification, and AI Execution
Microsoft has reorganised its Copilot teams, combining consumer and commercial product groups, while freeing AI chief Mustafa Suleyman to focus on advanced model work and Microsoft’s superintelligence push. Reuters also noted Nadella has been pairing these structural moves with adoption proof points, including 15 million annual users for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Comms insight: Nadella’s communication style is less theatrical than Huang’s, but equally strategic. He uses reorganisation to send a market signal: Microsoft is moving from AI experimentation to tighter execution, product alignment, and scale. In other words, the message is not just ambition. It is operational seriousness.
Phrase of the Week
Inference economy: the new phase of AI where the commercial value comes from using models at scale, not just training them. Jensen Huang has been leaning into this heavily, arguing that inference is now becoming the next major engine of AI demand.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
”Humans have never stopped; that’s part of the reason we are where we are. We can’t help ourselves. We continue to train, we continue to search for more. And I think the pursuit of more is just going to continue to drive the appetite for compute.”
SOMETHING EXTRA
Struggling to Communicate Complex Ideas?
Watch this short video for the SPEAR framework. Picture a spear: sharp, focused, and built to land with impact. That’s how your message should work.
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