The Executive Voice

Don’t be a Leader Who Always Has To Be Right. Instead, Unleash The Dissidents.

Being right, or having the last word, in any conversation goes deeper than a big ego or a desire to dominate. It’s about fighting to be heard and validated. Whether you’re the leader or the person having an argument with a leader, you’re looking to be understood and acknowledged. To be heard, however, you first have to listen. Hard to do if you feel your ideas are under attack. Your brain resorts to fight-or-flight, which shuts down the thinking part. You become all emotion: frustration and anger, plus fear if you’re the individual with less power. Fear that you could lose the trust of your leader (say, the CEO) or even your job.

If you’re the leader in any capacity and you’re constantly surrounded by a wall of silence, this doesn’t do much to uplift business performance, solve problems, or foster innovation. “Research shows that 34% of employees remain silent because they fear retaliation when leaders prioritise being right over being open.” You’ve got compliance, but you’re missing out on “the collective intelligence that drives competitive advantage.”

Encourage Constructive Dissent

One of the best ways to encourage your team to openly challenge the status quo about anything is to often and repeatedly say, “I don’t have all the answers, I’m looking to you to solve this problem”. Or, “I know it’s uncomfortable to push back on this, but I value your perspective more than your agreement. What am I missing that only you can see from where you sit?”

In the race to capitalise on the disruption caused by AI, is it time to mobilise the Provocateurs, the Agitators, the Contrarians, and the Mavericks, rather than silencing them or showing them the door? (Especially considering that human ingenuity is what’s left when robots automate everything that’s transactional).

Here’s how I define the ‘rebels’ and how to harness their potential:

For a more in-depth take, download ‘How to Leverage Your Corporate Rebels’

To Win in Sales, Hone the Discipline of ‘Reading a Room’

Reading the room isn’t about sensing ‘vibes’. Attuned leaders, sellers, and presenters know how to scan for patterns, such as who has status, who’s engaged, who’s withholding, where the energy sits, how the room changes when certain topics come up, and where the signals they’re seeing match the words being spoken.

Research on social perception, non-verbal communication, and audience feedback all point in the same direction: humans read rooms by combining cues from faces, voice, posture, gaze, timing and context - not by relying on any one signal in isolation.

Some people are highly practised at this. For the rest, here are some things to do to get better at reading a room because it could help you win over your audience or risk being banished from their presence forever.

First, don’t ask who looks happy, etc. Instead ask:

Reading the Room in a 3-person Client Meeting

Adept sellers can quickly identify the informal leader (sometimes it’s not the person with the bigger title). Second, they track differences among the buyer roles rather than treating ‘the customer’ as a single mind. Third, they listen for what isn’t being said - hesitation, mismatched enthusiasm, side glances, abrupt silence after a claim, or polite agreement without energy.

Presenting to Larger Groups as Part of a Tender Process

Strong presenters widen their lens, scanning the room in zones, looking for clusters of engagement or scepticism, and adjusting their pace, evidence and tone. Research on public speaking suggests that vocal expressiveness and gestures affect emotional response and attention, meaning the best presenters aren’t only reading the room; they’re also shaping it. Something to be mindful of. There’s another layer again when presenting to larger groups: often you’re assuming you’re being understood when you’re not (think larger group, further away, so harder for you to ‘read the room’). Check in verbally also, like, “Does that make sense?” “Is there anything you’d like me to explain further?” “Does that align with how you’re thinking about it?” For larger groups, still read faces but also test for understanding.

Have Everyone Take Turns Reading the Room. Make it a Habit.

Even if you’re good at reading the room, it’s smart not to do it alone. In smaller sales meetings, compare notes afterwards on what each person saw, felt and heard. In bigger tender presentations, rotate the job of watching the room when you’re not speaking. Take notes, compare impressions during breaks, and brief the next speaker on changes in mood, engagement, tension or resistance. When a presentation runs for hours, that shared read can become one of your biggest advantages.

Apple Mantra Still Stands - ‘Less is More’

Apple, worth $5.31 trillion, celebrated 50 years in Australia last week, “staking its future growth on ‘saying no a lot’, following the mantra of its late charismatic founder, Steve Jobs.” As The Australian reported, “This is a big bet. While the company unveiled its AI offering, dubbed Apple Intelligence, almost two years ago, it is perceived as a laggard in the AI race.” The company is on track to pull in around US$1 billion in AI revenue this year, with much of that momentum coming from its ecosystem, which continues to serve as a key gateway to AI through apps built on leading models from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI. It’s also leaning into a more human-centred AI story: one focused on enhancing creativity, not artificially imitating it. That message sits at the heart of its anniversary celebrations, including a Sydney Opera House projection that featured artwork by 10 emerging artists created in the Australian illustration app Procreate.

POV: Two things stand out to me about Apple from a brand perspective. First, they’re not followers, even if some people no longer see them as leading the pack on innovation. Only time will tell whether that view holds. Second, they remain steadfast in their positioning. “We say no a lot” runs counter to what many other tech companies are doing, and it still feels connected to the legacy of Steve Jobs.

While much of the industry is racing to be AI-first, Apple seems to be taking a different path: creating products that “inspire” human creativity rather than celebrate AI-generated outputs. You can agree or disagree with that stance, but there’s something worth emulating here in terms of its positioning: distinctive and easy to understand. “We say no a lot” is what helped them deliver amazing, innovative products.

So, what’s your positioning? Is it simple and easy to understand, yet has depth beneath the surface? Does it stand on the shoulders of a respected and admired legacy?

Phrase of the Week

Essentialism: Focussing only on what matters most and cutting the rest.

You’ve arrived early to set up at the hotel where you’ve booked a conference room for a multi-million-dollar tech presentation. Some members of the buying group and senior evaluators have arrived early, too. You’re nervous, so you play it safe and mention the weather. Not a great start.

Or perhaps your company has paid $3,000 for your attendance at a conference, and you’re expected to come away with some solid leads from the networking event. You awkwardly introduce yourself to a potential client by asking, “Did you enjoy the conference?” Ugh.

Situations like these call for better small talk. Even if, like me, you don’t enjoy it, small talk is an important communication skill because it’s not always appropriate to dive straight into a deeper topic when you’ve just met someone or barely know them.

One of my favourite sales teachers on YouTube, Paul Russell, founder of Luxury Academy, offers some great advice on how to do small talk well. His advice translates surprisingly well to B2B tech sales or any business conversation.

Paul offers a simple way to get better at small talk through his ARE formula:

Here are some examples contextualised for professionals in tech:

Before a formal client presentation

At a conference networking event

For a senior evaluator or buying group member

As Paul says, applying the ARE formula takes practice, but it’s an excellent way to get better at small talk that leads naturally into deeper conversation.

Watch his video here.

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