The Executive Voice

This is the fifth week of a series called ‘Communicate like a …‘, where we look at how professionals outside of tech communicate and what we can learn from their approach.

Communicate like a DOCUMENTARY MAKER

Most leaders communicate like they’re writing a report. A documentary maker tries to reveal the truth. Or as Werner Herzog says, “a kind of truth that is the enemy of the merely factual.”

Documentary makers don’t usually start with a message but a question. They observe closely. They listen for what people say, or avoid saying, and where they slip up to reveal what’s behind the mask.

While Werner Herzog talks about “ecstatic truth”, Louis Theroux takes a different path. His method is often built around simple questions and giving people space to answer. Errol Morris, one of America’s most respected documentary makers, is different again: more forensic and sceptical, but he avoids adversarial interviews because he believes you don’t learn much that way.

While these documentary makers have different styles, they all lean into exploring the complexity and messy contradictions of people and life.

That’s especially important in tech, where leaders are often told to “simplify the message”, and technical people hear “dumb it down.” But documentary makers don’t dumb things down. They just ask better questions and find the human story inside the complicated system, process, or framework.

A documentary maker also uses evidence by pointing a camera. They don’t just say it, they show it. A tech example would be to show an AI demo video instead of presenting it as PowerPoint slides. Or drawing a process instead of using words to narrate the process.

Documentary makers understand voice, too. One real sentence from someone close to the issue has more impact than five polished paragraphs from a ‘talking head’.

And they edit. Relentlessly.

In documentary making, you can explore widely, interview deeply and gather hours of material. But meaning comes from selection. What content stays? What goes? What reveals the truth?

To help you communicate like a documentary maker, use the WATCH framework below.

How To Sell to the CFO

We need to improve our sales and marketing messages to the CFO within our buyer organisation, as, after the CEO, they hold the power in decision-making.

The modern CFO doesn’t just watch the numbers. Deloitte’s 2026 finance trends research found that 57% of surveyed finance leaders are now among the top leaders influencing organisational strategy, while many are also taking broader responsibility for cost, risk, AI, cloud, productivity, and growth.

Yet, lead with commercial impact, not capability.

That means our message needs to pass three tests:

❶ Does this protect value? (Reduce risk, avoid waste, improve control, or protect margin).

❷ Does this create value? (Increase revenue, improve productivity, open new opportunities or strengthen performance).

❸ Can it be measured? (Can we connect it to the numbers the CFO already cares about: cost, revenue, margin, cashflow, risk or return?)

In a cold email, don’t open with “we help companies transform.” Open with a business pressure the CFO already recognises: rising cost, slow decision-making, duplicated effort, weak data, poor visibility, or expensive technology that hasn’t delivered enough. Then connect your offer to a specific commercial outcome. It’s as simple as that, really, no flubbing the numbers.

In a sales meeting, avoid over-explaining the solution to this leader. Ask better questions: Where is cost leaking? Where are teams making decisions without enough visibility? Which investments are hard to justify? Deloitte notes that finance leaders are prioritising advanced scenario planning, agile governance and AI-driven insights to make better decisions under uncertainty.

In an executive summary, make the CFO’s case for them. Show the current pressure, the financial risk of inaction, the proposed path, the evidence, and the result the business can track.

In a tender presentation, avoid the product tour. Tell the value story the CFO can defend: what changes commercially, what improves operationally, what risk comes down, what becomes faster or cheaper, and how success will be measured. Back it with specific timelines, credible numbers, and evidence strong enough to survive scrutiny.

Don’t bother CFOs with a 'Reimagine a better future’ story setup. They need to see commercial discipline, proof, risk awareness and a clear line between investment and outcome.

Week 3 - Musk V Altman: I’m not a Liar

Week 3 of Musk v Altman continued the fight over whether OpenAI abandoned its founding non-profit mission in favour of commercial power. Musk’s lawyer, Steve Molo, challenged Sam Altman’s honesty, citing ‌testimony from a ⁠former OpenAI board member that Altman fostered a ‘toxic culture of lying,’ and from seven former OpenAI officials who said Altman wasn't trustworthy.” Altman, though, made a few subtle digs at Musk, saying, “I don’t think Mr Musk understood how to run a good research lab …” “He had demotivated some of our most key researchers.”

POV: Throwing insults and disparaging Altman’s character won’t win Musk the lawsuit. Altman does whatever he wants despite his detractors. I doubt he squirmed all that much under Molo’s questions.

Tech, Politics & Fragile Negotiations

Tech and politics collide as the world watched US President Donald Trump visiting China accompanied by tech leaders like Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, with Trump saying earlier in a post on Truth Social, that “I will be asking President Xi, a leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic,” referring to the tech CEO delegation with him. When asked to respond to Trump’s statement, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing stands ready to “expand cooperation, manage differences, and inject more stability and certainty into the turbulent world.”

POV: Between Trump’s flowery, fawning language and upbeat attitude and China’s muted response that sounded vague and a bit ChatGPT-ish, I’m not sure if real conversations will happen. According to Reuters, Trump is on the back foot, so he is communicating from a position of weakness. Ahh, no wonder the kowtowing.

Phrase of the Week

Strategic AI containment is a policy issue and a communication challenge as leaders need to explain AI investment, supplier risk, sovereignty, security and resilience in a market where technology decisions are increasingly shaped by geopolitical pressure.

Answering the Question Behind the Question

The question someone asks is not always the question they need answered.

Strong communicators don’t rush to answer the surface question. They pause long enough to understand what’s driving it.

Try this simple framework to explore the question behind the question: PUSH

P — Pressure
What business, political or personal pressure might be sitting behind the question?

U — Uncertainty
What does this person not yet feel confident about?

S — Stakes
What happens if they make the wrong call?

H — Hidden concern
What are they worried about but not saying directly?

When you answer the deeper question, you build understanding. And when people feel understood, they’re far more likely to trust your advice, accept your logic and be influenced by your recommendation.

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