This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication:

• The Most Extreme Leadership Transformations I’ve Seen ​
• On the Show: Become a Timeless Presenter ​
• Book recommendation: Algospeak​

The Most Extreme Leadership Transformations I’ve Seen

Extreme leadership transformations are real. I see them every month.

You can do it too.

I’ve coached 300+ founders and CEOs and 11,000 leaders from 100+ countries.

The best have one thing in common: the habit of speed. They may not agree on much, but they agree on this: “Slow is fake”.

If no urgency exists, they impose some.

When it comes to leadership communications, this approach can lead to extreme transformations.

It usually takes a wake-up moment that makes communication their number one priority.

They then contact me and want me to guide their transformation – fast.

Here are the 7 shifts that make the biggest difference in the shortest time:

1/ Ramp-Up the Energy

99% misjudge their energy level. I ask them to present, then rate their energy from 1 to 10.

They say 7 or 8. We review the recording and they realize they are a 4 at best.

It’s the comfort paradox: If it's comfortable for the speaker, it's uncomfortable for the audience, and vice versa.

2/ Create Charisma

Important realization: We are not born with charisma. It is a set of behaviors you can learn.

The key: project confidence and warmth simultaneously. Many leaders are confident and competent but lack warmth.

Since most leaders are good people, it's easy to inject more likeability.

3/ Shift from Rambler to Raconteur

Many leaders provide data, details, and background instead of telling a story.

I give them a few simple storytelling frameworks like “Goal-Problem-Solution” (aka GPS), “Excite-Disturb-Assure” or ”Vision-Commitment-Execution” that takes their communication effectiveness to a new level.

They work because humans think in stories, not facts.

4/ Bury Boring

Most leaders aren't boring people. They're often rather interesting characters.

However, at some point they've internalized that it's okay to speak in a boring way. It’s not. Because the brain ignores boring things.

Just ask yourself: how can I make this email, meeting or presentation a bit more interesting? That tends to open the floodgates.

​5/ Speak in Quotes ​

We make their vision, mission, and strategy stickier than honey.

How? We take their statements and compress, contrast and inject cadence.

6/ Make Them Want to Do It

Management is telling people what to do. Leadership is making them want to do it.

Shift from “inform” to “inspire” by putting yourself in their shoes. What would motivate you?

7/ Listen More, Talk Less

Most leaders like to talk – even though they already know everything they say.

On the other hand, listening earns you respect, provides fresh insights and increases initiative in the team.

What is the bottleneck to transforming your communication? Hit reply and I'll send you specific resources to help with your challenge.

ON THE SHOW

Become a Timeless Presenter

▶️ Episode 325 with Andrea Pacini on Youtube, Spotify or Apple.

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Says Andrea Pacini, author of “Confident Presenter” and the brand new book “Timeless Presenter”.

Here are the fab five Andrea shares in this week’s episode of Speak Like a CEO:

1/ Don't start with an agenda or title slide – start with a promise

I've already applied this idea. It works like a treat.

2/ Find your 1%

Your audience will forget 90% of what you said – even if it goes well. So before you build any presentation, get clear on your one big idea. Everything else is scaffolding around that 1%.

3/ Don't fight the brain

Work with biology, not against it: one idea per slide, story before data, fewer points delivered better.

4/ Clear is kind

We would never say "inflated spherical object" when we mean "ball" – but in business presentations we do this constantly.

5/ The worst thing you can do is tell an audience what it already knows

They will naturally assume that they also know everything that follows and stop listening.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Algospeak

Social media is transforming our language, with online words increasingly used IRL. And when I say social media, what I mean is short-form video content, which has become the primary pacemaker of the internet.

It has given rise to entirely new accents, dialects, and grammatical rules that are changing quicker than any millennial or GenXer can figure out what Rizzler means (glad you asked: a person with rizz, i.e. charisma).

Is this relevant for you and me? I believe so because algospeak is now part of our collective identity. Plus: Adam Aleksic is a serious linguist and content creator posting as the “etymology nerd”.

Maybe I don’t need to know what 6-7, skibidi, sigma, delulu and chad mean. But as a communicator and leader of younger team members, I don’t want to lose touch with what's being said.

Algoworld is deeply paradoxical. Social media has homogenized mass culture. But it has brought about a simultaneous renaissance of niche interest. Regional dialects disappear while every community online creates its own dialect. Our language is more guarded IRL, but more unhinged online.

Algospeak isn't a story about algorithms, but a story about how humans adapt to algorithms. As always when new technologies emerge, we adapt in very human ways.

Have an inspired weekend – hopefully without algorithms,

Oliver

Eo Ipso Communications GmbH

c/o Mindspace

Uhlandstraße 32, 10719 Berlin

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