The ONE Communications Skill That Sets Apart Experts From Authorities

Whether you want to level up your comms skills because you realise that your message doesn’t cut through, online and/or offline or you want to increase your influence and with that, impact you can make on your team, department, organisation or industry, no matter your title, then this episode is for you as I share with you the one trait that sets apart technical experts from trusted authorities in their communication.

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To give you some context to this topic, I want to share with you a short scene of the movie ‘don’t look up’ which honestly – hits the nail on its head when it comes to confusing vs cut through communication. If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it! It’s really good and highlights so many aspects that we’re going to discuss today too.

The scene is when the university professor played by Leonardo Di Caprio tries to explain to the Chief of Staff of the white house what happens with the comet that’s approaching the earth. So let’s listen in:

That’s exactly what happens in most everyday situations also:

Technical experts speak their language with decision makers who don’t have their background and definitely not the know how they have. And yet- they still through jargon and technical terms around that just leaves people staring at them like a deer in the headlight. 

I’ve experienced that many times even with my partner who’s in the army. Don’t get me started as this is another world. Difference however is that a) I’m not a decision maker in that case and b) I can be quite abrupt in asking him what he’s actually talking about. In most situations, you can’t address the problem that heads on which leads to not only many misunderstandings but even financial losses.

Don’t believe me? Then let me give you some examples:

A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit analysed how poor workplace communication can hurt the success of a workplace 

• Failure to complete projects — in 44% of the cases;

• Low employee morale — in 31% of the cases;

• Missed performance goals — in 25% of the cases;

• Lost sales — in 18% of the cases.

That’s quite an astonishing number across the board if you ask me.

So the question is – how do you get better with your comms to not only avoid misunderstandings but use it to your advantage and position yourself as the Go-To in your industry?

Before we get into the strategies, we need to set the scenes and look at trends that impact the way we work, live, act and of course- interact. It gives you context and helps you understand the challenges you’re facing in today’s and tomorrow’s economy: 

They are in a cliff hanger format (and we’ll get back to them in more details shortly):

-       Digital-first economy with tech-driven communication

-       Cross-cultural teams with different native languages and with that, interpretation of the same word or phrase

-       Work has become more project-based rather than role-based

1.) Digital-first economy and tech driven comms: Whilst the biggest advantage is being able to communicate with people from all around the world, at any time, more and more communication happens asynchronous which means that we’re not always able to see or read body language or can interpret a message based on the tone and voice.

It makes a massive difference if I say: You haven’t submitted the project yet (once caring, once angry).

So being able to cut through to the core of the message without leaving ambiguity what else it could mean is important as the Trusted Authority 

2.) Cross cultural teams

You’ve already seen this. More and more companies have trouble finding the staff they need to complete their work. What they have to do is be more flexible. They have to give people opportunities to work remotely. 

Coming from different background and cultural understandings also means that phrases and sayings can easily be misinterpreted. Establishing common language by ensuring simple words, short sentences and examples is key to get everyone on the same page.

3) Work has become more project-based

Whilst I’ve been preaching about the importance and benefits of having a portfolio career before it was a thing and anyone was interested, it’s becoming more and more the norm as also a requirement. More companies are mindful not only about the difficulty to find specialised skill sets but also about the fixed overhead costs so engaging specialists to solve a certain problem or who come in to contribute to a particular project without having to have the obligation long-term in case of economic downturns, changes in the economy, another pandemic outbreak 

This means that being full-time employed with one company is slowly but surely replaced by having multiple engagements across multiple companies, using multiple skillsets and deliverables. The one outcome however that is underpinned in all those different engagements is the focus on a project outcome rather roles. Different projects require different types of abilities and skills in different measures so putting together a project team that includes freelancers, vendors, management consultants, and other contingent workers in addition to traditional, in-house employees is already on the rise.

So these are just a few of the reasons and over the next week, we’ll focus a lot more on future of work trends that impact the type of communication skills we need.

Looking at those changes that create a lot more complex also impacts the level of communication skills that’s required to cut through the noise.

Whilst I’ve seen that over and over again, literally in all the different roles and companies that I’ve ever been and worked at, it really become most obvious when I got into recruitment. Now whilst I had the marketing background and the technical understanding, many of my clients who hired my candidates didn’t. So coming back to the scene out of ‘Look up’ that we started the episode with, that exactly happened to my clients and I’m sure, you’ve been in those situations also were you just switched off because you didn’t understand a word. And this is where the experts come through. They are all about their own knowledge and technical understanding.

However, if you want to cut through the noise, increase your influence no matter the title you hold and become the trusted authority in your field, you need to become the translator in literally every aspect.

It starts with you being able to translate your experience, expertise, education and knowledge into results, outcomes and benefits.

Think about how we purchase – we make decisions based on emotions, and we justify it with logic. Same goes when hiring a skill set in any shape or form, may it be as an employee, as a consultant, as a contractor. We don’t look at how many qualifications someone has. We are paying attention to those who speak our language and show that they understand what we’re struggling with. I’ll give you one example:

Would you rather hiring someone who says: I have an MBA, have worked in strategic management positions for the last 20 years and led large teams.

Or someone who says: One of the biggest challenges for companies is the lack of focus in terms of their offers, their talent attraction & retention strategy and of course, their customer experience. This is exactly what I’ve specialised in over the last 20 years: I work with companies who’re in complex industries with not only high staff turnover but also who have to deal with constant regulatory changes and keep them focused by defining and following through a well thought out strategy. In fact, one of the projects I recently worked on is [xxx].

See the difference?

This goes for every profession.

Marketers with 20 years experience – Marketer who supports SaaS companies to generate consistent cashflow through a multi-channel marketing & comms strategy

IAC certified Leadership Coach with 10 years experience – Leadership coach who specialises in working with leaders in high pressure environments to build and retain global talents

Website Developer who’s proficient in 5 coding languages – Designer who optimised websites to double conversion rates 

Real estate agent who’s sold 100 houses – Agent who helps buyers get their dream house in 2 weeks or less or sells your house in 2 weeks or less

I could go on and on but I hope you already see the difference.

No one wants to buy the actual credentials. Everyone wants to buy the result and if you can specify what you can do and for whom, you already cut through the noise.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Once you’ve either defined your specialisation and/or you want to change direction- it comes down to connecting the dots from your past and -here we go again – translate the relevancy of it to your future decision maker.

When I say I’ve worked across 2 continents and 5 industries. What does it tell me? Not much, does it?

However, when I say: having worked across 2 continents and 5 industries, the one thing that I’ve realised over and over is the lack of … or the importance of … [and this is where you add whatever you want to offer, your specialisation.

Example for myself” I didn’t wake up one day to become a PB strategist. I didn’t have the qualification nor the official experience, so I didn’t make sense However, in the second I added the realisation, working with over 300 professionals and saw their struggle to sell themselves – now I connect the dots and make sense why not only I did what I do but also why I’m qualified to do it. So social proof plus personal story in one go.

Finally, the last translation that I want to cover today is the ongoing credibility strategies and tactics. Becoming the trusted authority isn’t a set and done approach. It’s an ongoing commitment as the word evolves, changes impact your industry or profession, and market demands shift. Relying on the glory you once had because of a title you help, an award you received or a method that resulted in outcomes doesn’t cut it.

It comes down to being and staying consistently curious and research your topic you want to be known for in detail. Find ways to make those learnings and insights easier to understand and also share what those changes mean with your decision makers and community in a way that matters to them.

When I’m a social media strategist and I want to be known for cutting-edge social campaigns, simply saying; the insta algorithm has changed or reels have increased by xx% and are the future of social content doesn’t mean anything and no one cares.

However, when I say: ad spend has increased like crazy over the last few months and it won’t go backwards anymore. If you want to build your brand awareness and increase sales using social media, tweak you need to make to your strategy is to introduce short form video, especially reels.

See what I did? I took the insights that I learned as social media strategist and took it a step further: connected the dots and made sense of them but also shared what it actually means for businesses (if they were my audience).

Knowing what you know makes you the hero of your story. And let’s be real: no one wants to buy into that if they don’t see what’s in it for them. You want to be the guide on the side to support your decision maker (who is the actual hero) of your story in their journey. This comes down to 1) understanding the struggles and challenges your ideal decision maker faces 2) being clear the problem you solve in this challenge (eg: talent shortage could come down to lack of leadership skills, lack of awareness by potential talents as well as lack of interesting incentives. There are 3 different skill sets who could solve those different challenges, eg: recruitment marketing campaigns vs leadership coaches vs learning & development instructors and 3) connecting the dots why you’re the only one who is qualified to do so.

So to wrap things up, the one skill that makes sure you cut through with your communication in this noisy world, that increase your influence and impact and sets experts apart from authorities is to be the translator:

The translator of 

-       your credentials into results and outcomes (remember: benefits over features)

-       your background and connect the dots why it matters for the future direction/goal

-       your knowledge about current events and changes and what they mean to your ideal decision maker

Now if you realise that this might be you and you’ve reached the ceiling in your professional journey and progression and want to learn how to become the Trusted Authority in your industry – I want to invite you to our next intake to the Trusted Authority Roadmap.